This tram is a replica of an older cable tram and is run by a volunteer society. It makes about six trips daily along a sea front route.

Cape Bridgewater

Cape Nelson lighthouse

Where is it?: Victoria: Western Districts. Portland is 363 km south west of Melbourne on the Princes Highway.

Things to see and do:

The Portland Cable Tram offers visitors a scenic and informative journey through the foreshore, providing views along the coast and passing attractions such as Botanic Gardens, Portland Powerhouse Car Museum, Maritime Discovery Centre, Whalers Bluff Lighthouse, and the World War 2 Memorial Lookout Tower at Anderson Point.

Lookouts: Anderson Point World War 2 Memorial Lookout Tower

Surrounding area:

Cape Nelson, to the south of Portland, includes a 210 hectare state park bordering rugged cliffs with the Cape Nelson Lighthouse (completed 1884) located on the coast's southern tip. Attractions include a 3-kilometre clifftop walk.

The high coastal cliffs of Cape Bridgewater 921km south west) stretch in a perfect crescent around the rim of a huge, ancient volcano crater, creating the crescent of Bridgewater Bay. The bay has a number of excellent beaches, suited to swimming, surfing, fishing and beachcombing. A walking trail leads to the surreal landscape of the petrified forest which looks like a forest of tree roots turned into rock. The end of the trail looks out over rock platforms and onto a colony of about 650 Australian fur seals. More >>

Great South West Walk is a 250 kilometre walking track forming a giant loop between Portland and Nelson, following the coast along the Discovery Bay Coastal Park and inland along the Glenelg River. More >>

Mt Richmond National Park (45km north west) has excellent displays of pink boronia and wild pea flowers in spring.

Princess Margaret Rose Caves is set in natural bushland surrounds of the Lower Glenelg National Park near Nelson (53km west) and the state's South Australian border.

About Portland

Through the 19th century Portland developed to become an important fishing port providing for the town and later, with the connection of the railway, to the region as far afield as Ballarat and eventually Melbourne. Barracouta, Australian salmon and crayfish (now southern rock lobster) were the main catches with many fishermen working the bay, around the Lawrence Rocks and in the season, Bridgewater Bay. Portland harbour enabled the development of the woolgrowing industry of the Western District, but has eventually it lost its primacy to facilities at Geelong. Even in western Victoria, Portland fell behind Warrnambool as the main commercial centre. In the 20th century Portland's role as a port revived, and its economy was also boosted by the tourism industry and an aluminium smelter.
Alcoa, which operates an aluminium smelter at Portland, is Victoria's largest exporter. The Portland Aluminium smelter, in conjunction with Alcoa's Point Henry smelter, produce about 30% of Australia's total aluminium.
Portland is the home of a varied professional fishing fleet of approximately 60 vessels, harvesting a wide variety of sustainable, commercial species. Easy access to prime locations supports a flourishing amateur angling fraternity, with many locals and tourists regularly enjoying a fresh catch of King George Whiting, Snapper, Kingfish, Flathead, Morwong and in recent times, Bluefin Tuna.
Portland has a vibrant cultural diversity, with many potters, painters, musicians, quilters, lead lighters, wood-turners, photographers, cinematographers, multi-media artists, print-makers, jewellers, sculptors, actors and writers.
Portland is served by the Portland Airport which is served by one commercial airline, Sharp Airlines. Sharp Airlines is a small charter company formed in Hamilton (1990), (ironically, where Reginald Ansett and later Brian Grey Compass Airlines started their respective businesses) and started flying regularly out of Portland to Essendon Airport.

History: The bay was named in 1800 by the British navigator James Grant, who sailed in the Lady Nelson along the Victorian coast. "I also distinguished the Bay by the name of Portland Bay, in honour of His Grace the Duke of Portland," wrote Grant. The bay, the only deep sea port between Adelaide and Melbourne, offers a sheltered anchorage against the often wild weather of Bass Strait.
By the early 1800s, whalers and sealers were working the treacherous waters of Bass Strait and Portland Bay provided good shelter and fresh water which enabled them to establish the first white settlement in the area. Whaling captain William Dutton is known to have been resident in the Portland Bay area when the Henty clan arrived and is said to have provided seed potatoes for the Henty garden.
In 1834 Edward Henty and his family, who had migrated from England to Western Australia in 1829, then moved to Van Diemen's Land, ferried some of their stock across the Strait in search of the fine grazing land of the Western District.
After a voyage of 34 days the Thistle arrived at Portland Bay on November 19, 1834. Edward Henty was only 24 years old and early in December, using a plough he had made himself, he turned the first sod in Victoria. The next voyage of the Thistle brought his brother Francis with additional stock and supplies, and in a short time houses were erected and fences put up. They established a landing place at Portland Bay which eventually became the town of Portland. Their settlement was illegal since Victoria had not yet been opened for settlement. The Hentys also farmed in areas known as "Australia Felix", around Casterton.
By 1838, land auctions had been authorised from Sydney and Charles Tyers surveyed the Portland township in 1839. A Post Office was opened on 4 December 1841, the third to open in the Port Phillip District after Melbourne and Geelong.
The Gunditjmara Aboriginal peoples were the traditional inhabitants of the south west, taking in what is now Portland. They were present when the early commercial sealers like William Dutton arrived and when the Henty family created what would become Victoria’s first permanent European settlement. It has been argued whether Dutton was first, but he was considered to be somewhat itinerant by the establishment of the era and not the discoverer of this deepwater bay and fertile hinterland. Henty sowed the first Victorian wheat crop on cliff top land, known today as ‘The Ploughed Field’. Footnote: Victoria was not proclaimed a colony until 1851.
While the Hentys landed ashore in Portland on November 19, 1834. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman. From settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, and this gained some administrative status prior to separation from New South Wales and declaration as the Colony of Victoria in 1851.
One highly notable incident, the Convincing Ground massacre, occurred in Portland Bay in 1833 or 1834 in a dispute about a Beached whale between whalers and the Kilcarer gundidj clan of the Gunditjmara people. According to aboriginal reports the clan was wiped out with just two survivors from the incident. The number of aborigines reported killed varies from 60 to 200. Gunditjmara still reside in and around the district; they are renowned in scientific circles for their early aquaculture development at nearby Lake Condah. Physical remains such as the weirs and fish traps are to be found in Lake Condah, which is to the south of Hamilton. The Gunditjmara were the only settled Aboriginal people in Australia who lived in small circular stone huts.

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