Portland, Port Fairy and Warrnambool

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Neither of us had expected all that much of Portland but it’s a really nice town! It used to be a whaling and sealing base from the early nineteenth century, a fact that the old whale boiling pot in one of the parks is testimony to… It was also one of Victoria’s earliest European settlements, and rows of plaques adorning stone walls bear the details of settlers’ arrivals along with messages from their descendents.



Today, Portland’s main industry is aluminium export. The industrial wharf isn’t exactly pretty but there are still lots of beautiful colonial-era buildings dotted around town. One of these is Bay View House, constructed in 1850 in an alternative Georgian style. Mary MacKillop – Australia’s first saint who lived in Portland from 1862 to 1866 and founded the country’s first religious order – established her first school at Bay View House. It is now part of the Christian Community College and I envy the lucky academics whose offices are in that wing.



Dean had fun fishing down at the wharf and I enjoyed browsing the many shops in the town centre. We thought it strange that many shops displayed signs in their windows, advertising that you could pay with debit and credit cards (as Dean put it “what sort of age do they live in?”) but then we learnt that the district’s Telstra exchange had recently burnt down, so the poor residents and businesses hadn’t had phone connections, internet or card processing facilities for some time.



We both had a déjà-vu moment when we arrived at our next destination, Port Fairy. We had visited it before but hadn’t really matched the name with the place. Port Fairy is just gorgeous. Like Portland, it was settled by whalers and sealers and it still has a substantial fishing fleet. It’s a compact little town that you can easily walk around and my guess is that today’s main industry is tourism. There are cafés, many galleries and all kinds of accommodation on offer. We headed down to the wharf where, just like last time, Dean bought fish & chips from the famous Wisharts at the Warf. I visited a (hot!) glass blowing studio and a few galleries. The excellent Whale Bone Gallery displays and sells art by local artists only and I quickly came to the conclusion that the area has some very talented artists.



Our next stop was Warrnambool and, as with Portland, it was a ‘pleasant surprise’ experience for both of us. It also used to be a whaling and sealing station but today it’s the major regional commercial centre of the southwest of Victoria. It is surrounded by attractive bays and beaches and we enjoyed a walk down by the breakwater where the elements are crazy wild and overwhelming. A spot any visitor should check out is Flagstaff Hill where you’ll find the quaint Maritime Village, complete with old stone cottages, a sailboat, guides wearing period costumes and… the Union Jack!?

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