Mt Gambier: Blue Lake City with Keith Conlon
It has been called the city round a cave. It's better known as the Blue Lake City, and it took its name from the highest point of a volcanic crater - Mt. Gambier.
The peak was spotted from a small British survey vessel in 1800. As Lieutenant. James Grant chartered it on board the Lady Nelson, the mount became the first mark on the English chart in what is now South Australia.
The Lady Nelson Visitor Information Centre on the main highway east now give the South East regions 300,000 or so tourists each year and good way of getting their bearings.
Most callers know about the Blue Lake, but the staff there point people to the regions best vantage point. Top of the mount - which is impressive from across the vast second crater with its Valley Lake - sits the Centenary Tower. The steep walk pays off. A panoramic 360 view stretches from rich patchwork farm country close by, to inky green pine forests beyond the city. Another extinct volcano, Mt. Schank, sits southwards towards Pt. MacDonnell and the ocean.
Towards the Blue Lake's own great hollow, precipitous sides of the Valley Lake crates soften, and that invited in the first Europeans. It acted as a cradle for the pastoral industry.. the first shepherd's hut was built on the lake bank.
The vast forestry industry of the South East was also born within its craggy walls when an experimental plantation of exotic hardwoods and pines was planted last century. The Leg of Mutton Lake bowl offers spectacular Autumn walks for today's visitors.
The Blue Lake, however, is deservedly the main attraction. From any vantage point round the three and a half kilometre circumference, the crater and the colour of the water are stunningly attractiveas long as you come between November and March, that is.
Electric blue, turquoise, or is it royal blue? The Blue Lake is its own magic, mysterious blue. It is said it is caused by calcite crystals coming our of solution in warmer water; they absorb all but that blue light, which is enhanced by a summer blue sky.
The craters were created when lava and heat from deep in the earth's crust mingled with water in the underlying limestone of the area. Only 4,500 years or so ago there were some giant pyrotechnic shows! That heat and water combination is reflected in one of the many aboriginal dreaming stories of the Booandik People. It tells of a giant's cooking ovens being doused by rising waters.
Once the volcanic activity subsided, the deep holes were plugged with falling debris, and the holes in the limestone became windows on the great dignifies beneath the region. The Blue Lake surface is some 20 metres below the commercial centre of the town.
The 'City Round a Cave' still has a park - and that cave - at its centre. The Cave Garden leads down to that same ground water level in the limestone. It nurtured the first settlers - shepherds, then pastoral stations and visiting constabulary.
The first hotel in the area gained its license in 1847, just before the town was surveyed. The landmark Jen's Hotel stands on the spot, just above the Cave Garden.
A handsome marble fountain in the park was donated by pastoralist Captain Robert Gardiner in 1884. Exactly a century later, the town invited his great-grandson to open the new Civic Centre and theatre named in his honour. He was Mt. Gambier's most famous son, the dancer, choreographer and actor acclaimed in Europe and North America, Sir Robert Helpmann.
The city boasts a fine set of nineteenth century commercial and public buildings, none better than its old town hall and two institute building. Heritage walking tour booklets add to their interest and charm.
It's a region with natural features and added attractions to keep you pleasantly touring for days. And you'll definitely want to go back, one more time and take in that indescribable colour of the Blue Lake.
