Penola, South Australia


Penola is a town in the Australian state of South Australia located about southeast of the state capital of Adelaide in the wine growing area known as the Coonawarra. At the, Penola had a population of 1,317.
It is known as the central location in the life of Mary MacKillop, the first Australian to gain Roman Catholic sainthood, who alongside Julian Tenison Woods in 1866 established the first free Catholic school using the Woods/MacKillop Catholic education system in Australia, St. Joseph's School. Woods and MacKillop also established in Penola a congregation of religious sisters, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Otherwise known as the 'Josephites' or 'Brown Joeys', they continue to work with the poor and needy communities throughout the world today.
Penola was on the Mount Gambier to Wolseley railway line which opened in 1887 until its closure to freight on 12 April 1995 and then to Limestone Coast Railway tourist passengers on 1 July 2006.

History

The first Europeans to the area were the Austin brothers who arrived in 1840 and established a run of 109 square miles. The first settlers were Scottish-born Alexander Cameron and his wife Margaret in January 1844 after obtaining an occupation licence. In April 1850, Cameron obtained 80 acres of freehold land and established the private town of Panoola, later known as Penola.
By 1850, he had built the Royal Oak Hotel and was doing much business supplying liquor to the many travelers passing through to the Victoria goldfields.
Penola Post Office opened around 1852.
John Riddoch purchased Yallum in 1861. Riddoch grew up in poverty in the highlands of Scotland and in 1851 emigrated to try his luck on the Victoria goldfields. Within a few years he was a successful shopkeeper and wine merchant on the Geelong goldfields. He acquired 35,000 acres on which he ran 50,000 head of sheep.
It was Riddoch who planted the first grape vines and helped to diversify the pastoral economy of the area with an agricultural industry. In 1890, he established the Penola Fruit Growing Colony which was renamed Coonawarra in 1897.
In 2010, a strong tornado ripped through the township destroying at least four buildings and damaging many more.

Heritage listings

Penola has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

Tourism

The Mary MacKillop Interpretive Centre is located in Penola. It is in close proximity to the two State Heritage sites of Petticoat Lane and the original stone schoolhouse developed by Mary MacKillop in conjunction with Father Julian Tenison Woods in the 1800s.

Governance

Penola is located within the federal division of Barker, the state electoral district of MacKillop, and the local government area of the Wattle Range Council.

Sport

The town has an Australian Rules football team competing in the Kowree-Naracoorte-Tatiara Football League.

Media

The primary local newspaper of the district is The Pennant, published weekly since July 1946, while The Border Watch and rival The Naracoorte Herald, also publish local and regional news.

Notable people

Penola has been home to some notable and interesting people. Among them Saint Mary MacKillop, poets John Shaw Neilson and Adam Lindsay Gordon, Father J.T. Woods, Scottish-Australian bush poet Will H. Ogilvie, Sara Douglass, Michael Graham and John Riddoch.
It was The Border Watch that published Ogilvie's first poem in Australia on 22 April 1893, when he was at nearby Maaoupe Station.
The Antarctic explorer John Riddoch Rymill was born in Penola, named his ship Penola and later successfully farmed the Old Penola Estate.