Father Woods Park

The bush priest remembered

Beside the Riddoch Highway about 21 kilometres north of Penola, in the heart of the Coonawarra vine country, Father Woods Park honours Father Julian Tenison Woods - the priest, scientist and explorer who served this enormous South East parish from 1857 to 1867, and who in 1866 co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph at Penola with Mary MacKillop, now Australia's first saint.

Across the road stands the great river red gum known as the Father Woods Tree, where the travelling priest is said to have rested, prepared sermons and conducted mass while staying at the original Limestone Ridge Station nearby. In 2010, chainsaw sculptor Kevin Gilders transformed a series of pine trunks in the park into seven sculptures depicting Woods as bush priest, scientist, educator and founder.

It is a peaceful, shaded picnic stop between cellar doors, and a natural companion to the MacKillop story told at the Mary MacKillop Penola Centre twenty minutes down the road.