NanOpasTravels: Mt Gambier

Mount Gambier is a city in the southeastern corner of South Australia. It’s known for its limestone, volcanic landscape and crater lakes.

Our first stop was to the tourist information centre which we found was now called Lady Nelson Visitors Centre as out the front of the centre is a replica ship of the Lady Nelson which was a 60 ton sailing vessel built in the year 1799. This was the first ship to sail along the coastline of South Australia.

We decided to visit the much heard about from other travellers and on TV travel shows is the Umpherston Sunken Gardens. It didn't disappoint as it was rather lovely what they had done with the sinkhole.

The Umpherston Sinkhole is named after James Umpherston, who established the garden in 1884. Umpherston purchased a farm in 1864 which contained a large sinkhole.

Thousands of years ago, the sinkhole had been a cave that had formed because parts of the Mount Gambier limestone had been dissolved. When the top of the cave chamber eventually collapsed, a large open pit (called a sinkhole) was formed. The district has hundreds of such caves and sinkholes; there are even some in the city centre. A smaller one is beside a busy road.

Being retired, Umpherson wanted to create for the people of Mount Gambier “a pleasant resort in the heat of summer”. So he set to work clearing the existing vegetation off his property and from within the sinkhole. He carved a path in the side of the rock and erected a set of wooden steps so people could comfortably enter his sunken garden, which he planted with all sorts of ferns, shrubs and flowers.

It was frequently visited by the people of Mt Gambier & district. The sinkhole originally had a lake within, and Umpherston even organised boat rides for interested people. After James Umpherston death in 1900, the garden fell into disrepair. In 1949, the South Australian Woods and Forests Department purchased the property and established sawmills nearby (actually right next door). As the water table dropped as a result of agricultural activity, the lake disappeared.

By 1976, the garden was nothing more than a ruin and a rubbish dump. It was decided that it must be restored. Slowly, they removed the rubbish and cleared the weeds. Umpherston’s terraces were still there, so they restored them planted hydrangeas, other species.