Penola Travel Guide
Penola accommodation, Penola activities and attractions, Penola maps, transportation to and around Penola - the ALL NEW Jasons Penola Destination Travel Guide is your complete visitor guide for Penola.
Penola is the oldest town in
South Australia's south-east. It lies in the heart of one of South Australia's most productive wine growing regions, the
Coonawarra. The famous terra rosa soils to the north of town have produced excellent red wines for the past century.
Penola is also famous as the central location in the life of Sister Mary MacKillop, a Josephite nun who became
Australia's first saint. In 1867 she established Australia's first school to cater for any child regardless of income or social class in Penola. It was also in the 1860s that the area was first settled - John Riddoch purchased Yallum and Yarram Park, later forming the Coonawarra Fruit Colony from which the Coonawarra vineyards grew. The history of Penola is preserved in its fine examples of slab and hewn timber cottages. Several Australian poets are also associated with Penola: Adam Lindsay Gordon, who worked in the area as a mounted policeman from 1853-54, John Shaw Neilson, born in the town in 1872, and Will Ogilvie - all left poetry inspired by the landscape and lifestyle.
Geographic Location
388km from
Adelaide
Population
1250
Climate
Cool temperate
Summer: 11.5 – 26.5°C
Winter: 4.5 – 14°C
Rainfall: 710 mm/year (wettest months June to August)