Heritage & History
Saints, shipwrecks & colonial ports
The best heritage & history in Port MacDonnell
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.
Browse heritage & history by area
3 places
Admella Discovery Trail
A coastal heritage trail commemorating the 1859 wreck of the SS Admella, one of Australia's worst maritime disasters.
Cape Northumberland
South Australia's southernmost point, a windswept cape near Port MacDonnell with a lighthouse, blowholes and a little penguin colony.
Dingley Dell Conservation Park
The restored cottage home of bush poet Adam Lindsay Gordon, set in a small coastal conservation park.