Next day, March 25, we left Warrnambool for our next stop, Mount Gambier. We stopped at an Irish village called Kuroit. The Irish influence is very pronounced around Warrnambool with names like Killarney, the Belfast Lime Company. Kuroit is a cute little town with some nice buildings and typical Irish humour evident. Their Historical Society had information about their early settlers who came from all over Ireland, including Limerick, but there were no McLoughlins listed. 

 

Kuroit is situated on Tower Hill which is a volcanic crater. The early European settlers cleared the land for farming but it has since been restored using a painting (pre-clearing) by Eugene von Guerard to restore it to its original state.
 
 
Next stop was Portland which was Victoria's first European settlement and was founded as yet another whaling and sealing place. It's now a port, handling wood (logs and chips) and various grains. It's another attractive place with some lovely old buildings. We went for a walk around the port and the waterfront.

 
 
From Portland, we took the scenic route to Mount Gambier via Nelson which is very close to the South Australian border. We saw a black wallaby along the scenic route but didn't stop to take its picture. Nelson has a river but is a very small town. There was some event underway - we couldn't tell what - so we didn't stop.

Mount Gambier is an attractive town. This area is called the Limestone Coast and is full of caves. There is a 50 metre deep sink hole in the middle of town, caused by the collapse of limestone caves. The council have built fences, garden, paths and viewing platforms around it but it's still quite scary looking down into it. There are some lovely limestone buildings in the town. They have quite a deep colour, more like sandstone, but all the literature assures us it's limestone. Just outside town is the Blue Lake which is another volcanic crater and is 75m deep. In summer, turns a deep cobalt blue in colour and is a steel grey colour the rest of the year. It looked gunmetal grey to us - certainly an unusual colour. Scientists are not sure why this happens other than it's something to do with the temperature of the water. The Blue Lake supplies the town's drinking water.