Mount Gambier

The town of Mount Gambier is set on a long extinct volcano; the area boasts a network of volcanic craters above sea level and limestone caves underground. Mount Gambier is the hub for the largest softwood plantations in the country, but there is cattle and dairy farming as well as a thriving wine industry nearby, too. The most striking feature in town is the Blue Lake in the crater of an extinct volcano. The lake is at its most spectacular from November to March each year, as it is then when the otherwise dull grey winter colour changes to a vibrant turquoise blue. Scientists are still searching for a reasonable explanation and intriguingly, nobody exactly understands why this fascinating process takes place every year.