It was a little overcast this morning but still warm so we set off to tourist information to pick up the walk leaflets then headed for the coast. The first walk followed the footpath around the headland starting with the lookout over the Southern Ocean and round to Factory bay which was originally the site of a canning factory that used to can snipe and rabbits, later it was used as a rubbish dump until people became aware of the environmental impact, the bay became known as glass bay because of the polished glass that could be found here. On the headland there is a lighthouse which was built in 1974 but we couldn’t see the light at all so we were not convinced that it worked. The views were quite spectacular as Robe is actually on a headland so in places you can see the sea in all directions. Our walk eventually brought us around to the Old Gaol Ruins, the gaol was built in 1860, 15 years after the settlement at Robe, until then everyone had to be sent to Adelaide for trial and if required imprisonment, it didn’t matter what crime they had committed there just wasn’t anywhere to deal with them in Robe. It was decided that this was too costly so the gaol was built, it was only open for 20 years as there were a number of escape attempts including one where the prisoners used a window latch to break through the gaol walls, this cell was later reinforced with a boiler plate door from one of the many shipwrecks in the area. The walk continued along the beach front and around the the Marina. Originally this wasn’t open to the sea so fishermen used to leave their boats outside during the fishing season then in the off season they would drag them over the sand dunes to the safety of the marina. In 1964 a 2 metre channel was cut in the wall to provide fishing boats with a safe haven all year round. The walk continued along the foreshore until we finally reached visitor information again. It was almost lunch time by this stage so we decided to walk through town to see what we could find, we didn’t want much as we will eat this evening, we decided we should probably try a pie as they are constantly advertised on the TV and almost seem to be the national dish, so Chris had a cheese and bacon which was actually a mince one with cheese and bacon on top and I had a chicken one both of which were nice but nothing particularly different to the ones we get at home. We also tried one of the home made ice creams from the shop down the road and they were really nice! After that we headed back to visitor information and did the ‘Heritage walk’, this is basically a walk around Robes older buildings, most of which have a blue plaque outside and tell the story of the inhabitants of the town from the mid-19th century. There are a surprising number of buildings from the early settlement, from the 1830s the rich grazing lands of South East Australia ware sought for raising cattle and sheep. ‘Wool growers’ needed a sea port for their produce, Robe was chosen as the safest anchorage on the coastline. The exports from the region included hides & tallow as well as exporting horses to India as army mounts. The area was prosperous until the 1870s when the railways opened up other areas of South East Australia. This port was also a entry point for the 17,000 Chinese who landed at Robe between 1857 – 1863 who walked from here to the Victoria gold fields 200 miles away! We finished this walk and decided we might as well do the scenic drive as there are a couple of points that are too far out for us to walk to. The main one was the Beacon Hill Lookout Tower, this was originally a wooden tower but was re-built in 1996 out of stone, it was originally used as a navigational aid by fishermen but now provides amazing views over the whole of Robe and the surrounding areas by this time we were ready for a rest so we headed back to the room, met the owner and had a quick chat then finally got back in the room for a relax.
