Best Free Things to Do on the Limestone Coast
Ten brilliant experiences that cost precisely nothing
The Limestone Coast is generous to the budget traveller. Its signature sights are overwhelmingly natural — crater lakes, sinkholes, beaches, lookouts like Centenary Tower's surrounds — and most cost nothing at all to visit.
This list sticks strictly to experiences with no entry fee, concentrated around Mount Gambier but reaching up the coast to Kingston SE. String a few together and you have a full day's itinerary without opening your wallet once.
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1
Mount GambierBlue Lake
Walk or drive the rim of Australia's most famous crater lake, which turns an unreal cobalt blue every summer.
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2
Mount GambierUmpherston Sinkhole
The Sunken Garden: a collapsed cave bedded out with terraced gardens, with possums emerging at dusk.
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3
Mount GambierCave Garden (Thugi)
A sinkhole in the middle of the city, with viewing platforms, rose gardens and night lighting.
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4
Mount GambierMount Gambier Railway Lands
The old rail yards reborn as gardens, wetlands and playgrounds, linked to a flat rail trail across the city.
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5
BeachportPool of Siloam
Beachport's hyper-saline lake, several times saltier than the sea — float without trying.
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6
RobeWoakwine Cutting
A canyon through a range, dug by one farmer and his offsider in the 1950s. The lookout and machinery are free to visit.
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7
Kingston SELarry the Lobster (The Big Lobster)
Kingston SE's 17-metre fibreglass crustacean, one of Australia's great Big Things and an essential photo stop.
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8
NaracoorteNaracoorte Swimming Lake
A spring-fed public swimming lake in parkland on the edge of Naracoorte — a beloved free summer institution.
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9
Kingston SEThe Granites
Granite boulders on an endless Coorong beach north of Kingston SE, glowing pink at sunset.
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10
MillicentLake McIntyre
A former quarry turned wildlife reserve at Millicent, with bird hides and an accessible loop path.
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Many of these are at their best early or late in the day — the Blue Lake's colour, in particular, performs for the summer months and the high sun.
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Image credits
- Umpherston Sinkhole, Mount Gambier, November 2018.jpg by User:Satellizer , CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons