PORT VICTORIA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

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A small town on the west coast of Yorke Peninsula, it was for many years the main port for sailing ships carrying grain to Europe from the area. It now looks towards tourism for its main income. The town calls itself 'the last of the windjammer ports'.
Location: 190 km west of Adelaide via the Princes Highway; 172 km south of Port Pirie; 21 km south west of Maitland.
Origin of name: named after the schooner Victoria which took the surveyor James H. Hughes along the coast.
Brief history: the town became one of the key South Australian 'windjammer ports' in the 19th century. Wheat from the hinterland was brought to the town and loaded on the windjammers which ran from Gulf St Vincent across to South America then up the Atlantic to Europe. The last gain carrying windjammer sailed from Port Victoria in 1949.
Natural features: Wardang Island (one of South Australia's premier dive locations. The island is an Aboriginal reserve, sacred to the Narungga peoples); Goose Island Conservation Park.
Built features: holiday resort of Balgowan.
Heritage features: historic jetty (1888); Underwater heritage trail; Maritime Museum; Wardang Island shipwrecks of Aagot (1907), Monarch (1909), Songvaar (1912), SS Australian (1912), SS Investigator (1918), Notre Dame D'Arvor (1920), Macintyre (1927), Moorara (1975).