Heritage & History
Saints, shipwrecks & colonial ports
The best heritage & history in Penola
This is the country of Australia's first saint, Mary MacKillop, of grand colonial ports like Robe that once landed thousands of Chinese gold-seekers, and of lighthouses standing watch over a notorious shipwreck coast.
Few parts of South Australia wear their history as openly as the Limestone Coast. In Penola, the Mary MacKillop Penola Centre marks the spot where Australia's first saint co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph in 1866, while the Petticoat Lane precinct preserves the town's oldest cottages.
The coast tells a seafaring story of its own. Robe grew rich as a 19th-century port — its Customs House and clifftop Obelisk recall the days when thousands of Chinese miners landed here to walk to the Victorian goldfields. Lighthouses at Cape Banks and Cape Jaffa, and the deep human past recorded in the Naracoorte Caves, stretch the timeline back hundreds of thousands of years.
Most heritage sites cluster within walking distance in the historic town centres, making them easy to explore on foot. Interpretive centres and guided tours bring the stories to life, and many pair naturally with the region's wineries and coastal drives.
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5 places
John Riddoch Interpretive Centre
$Penola's visitor and interpretive centre, telling the linked stories of the town, the Riddoch family and Coonawarra wine.
Mary MacKillop Penola Centre
$Australia's first saint
The museum and heritage precinct telling the story of St Mary MacKillop, who founded her first school for all children in Penola in 1866.
Petticoat Lane Heritage Walk
$Penola's oldest street, a lane of restored timber and stone cottages telling the story of the town's founding families.
St Joseph's Schoolhouse, Penola
The restored 1860s schoolhouse in Penola where Mary MacKillop began the work of the Sisters of St Joseph.
Yallum Park
Victorian grandeur, perfectly preserved
John Riddoch's 1880 mansion near Penola, famed for the largest collection of William Morris wallpapers in Australia and monthly guided tours.