Out and about in Mount Gambier.

A few days in Mount Gambier and I have just realised that many of the tourist things that we did were all about holes in the ground.

The area has extinct volcanoes and sink holes with caves filled with water. The 3 examples mentioned in this post are just a sample of these holes in the ground.

The Blue Lake: The Big Hole

This iconic tourist attraction is the result of volcanic action to form a crater that was later filled with water. At the time we visited the lake did not have the bright blue that is seen in the postcards (and also on Google Earth).

Click the panorama photo to enlarge.

For more information on the formation of the crater lake and how it is filled with water click these photos to enlarge.

The Engelbrecht Cave:

This cave is open for guided tours that start at the Cafe at the entrance. Although I did not take the tour it was intriguing to take a quick look. This cave was used as a place for people to dump their rubbish for many years. A community service group coordinated the clean-up and planting of the gardens to make this into a tourist attraction.

The Cave Garden

The township of Mount Gambier formed around a sinkhole in the 1840s. That sinkhole provided fresh water for the cattle and horses, and later a hut built there was used as the police barracks. As the community grew tracks were built down into the sinkhole to allow stock to drink from the water supply in the cave.

The Cave Garden is now a major focus of the aptly named Main Corner. It has a renowned Rose Garden which when in flower would be spectacular. We arrived soon after they had their annual pruning.

Each evening a short movie telling the a story of the Dreaming of the local Boandik people is projected onto the walls of the sinkhole. It tells of  the eruption of the volcanoes and the subsequent filling of the craters with water. This is well worth a visit to get some background information on the significance of the sinkhole and cave.

To check out some more Tourism Information and Attractions in and around Mount Gambier Read the rest of this entry »