By Bruce Elder

August 5, 2023

Gown’s enchantment lies in its unbelievable assortment of well-preserved
historic buildings and its gorgeous coastal surroundings.

Gown is considered one of Australia’s most charming and unspoilt vacation locations.

Situated on Guichen Bay on South Australia’s southern coast, it combines a dramatic rocky, windswept shoreline with a number of engaging and secluded seashores together with the gorgeous 11km-long stretch suitably referred to as Lengthy Seashore.

Gown is notable for its refined city centre, which not solely has a exceptional richness of historic buildings but in addition provides refined eating alternatives.

The actual attraction and character of Gown can greatest be skilled by strolling the unique streets, which have been little altered since they had been constructed within the 1860s. It’s a particular city with a novel character that has been effectively shielded from overdevelopment.

Location

The city of Gown is 336km south of Adelaide by way of the Princes Freeway via Murray Bridge and alongside The Coorong.

Origin of Title

Gown was named after SA governor Frederick Holt Gown who sailed into Guichen Bay in 1846 aboard the federal government cutter Lapwing, and selected the positioning for the city.

Vistor Info

Gown Customer Info Centre
Mundy Terrace

Helpful Web sites

gown.com.au

southaustralia.com


Picture: Our Woman Star (Credit score: John White Photographs/Alamy Inventory Picture)

1.Gown Customs Home

Gown Customs Home is on the Royal Circus, a roundabout encircling a sand hill that was a focus for the unique city. Erected in 1863 because the workplace of the Harbour Grasp and Receiver of Wrecks, the customs home was constructed of limestone with brick quoins, on a five-sided block with a panoramic view of Guichen Bay.

Now owned by the Nationwide Belief, it’s Gown’s Nautical Museum and incorporates a lot info and plenty of artefacts concerning the Port of Gown.

Gown’s Customs Home. Picture credit score: Lonely Planet/Getty Pictures

2.Chinese language Memorial

On the Guichen Bay shore beneath the Royal Circus is an easy monument to the Chinese language: “Throughout the years 1856–1858 16,500 Chinese language landed close to this spot and walked 200 miles to the Victorian Goldfields in the hunt for gold.”

3.Monument to Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin

Within the centre of the Royal Circus is a plinth supporting busts of Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin. It celebrates the 1802 survey of the SA coast by one of many nice English navigators of the 18th and nineteenth centuries, Captain Matthew Flinders, and the French naval expedition, led by Captain Nicolas Baudin.

The signal there information: “Capt. Matthew Flinders, R.N. 1774–1814; Sub Lieutenant Nicolas Baudin 1754–1803. Flinders & Baudin each engaged in scientific and survey work, had an sudden assembly at Encounter Bay in 1802. The islands seen to the north are named Baudin Rocks. Guichen Bay was additionally named after the French Admiral De Guichen.”

4.Our Woman Star of the Sea

Situated in Hagen Road, Our Woman Star of the Sea is legendary for its reference to Saint Mary MacKillop. Between 1867 and 1888 the Sisters of St Joseph, a instructing order based by MacKillop, ran a faculty for parish youngsters in two rooms connected to the church.

Mary MacKillop visited the varsity repeatedly. Some observers have famous that the simplicity of the church displays the poverty of native Catholic worshippers on the time it was constructed, lots of whom had been Irish servants and labourers.

5.Obelisk on Cape Dombey

Standing 12.1m tall and 30.4m above sea degree, the Obelisk at Cape Dombey, east of the city, is presently fenced off as a result of erosion has made the limestone cliffs right here harmful.

The previous signal explains the Obelisk was “in-built 1855 by native builder George Shivas at a value of £230, the limestone was carted to the positioning by a 32-bullock wagon workforce… In 1862 the Obelisk was painted in alternate purple and white horizontal bands and it might now be seen from a distance of 20 kilometres on a transparent day.”

Historical past

Earlier than the arrival of Europeans, the realm round Gown was dwelling to the Boandik Aboriginal individuals.

In 1802 Guichen Bay was named after Admiral De Guichen (left) by French explorer Nicolas Baudin.

Governor Gown selected the positioning for the city
and later in 1846 it was surveyed by Thomas Burr.

By the 1850s Gown was the second-busiest SA port. 

In 1855 massive numbers of Irish and Scottish immigrants reached the port. 

In 1856 the city turned a touchdown level for Chinese language goldminers attempting to keep away from taxes imposed at Victorian ports. They walked to the goldfields.

Between 1856 and 1866 greater than £1 million of wool was shipped from the port.

The barque Koenig Wilhelm II was shipwrecked in Guichen Bay throughout a gale in 1857; a cannon situated on the Royal Circus is believed to have come from it.

Within the Twenties and Thirties the city turned a preferred vacation vacation spot.

By the late Thirties Gown had developed into an vital lobster-fishing port.

In 1968 the primary Gown Easter Traditional surf carnival was held.


Picture credit score: Wikimedia

Associated: An entire information to Aussie cities

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