Another Day in Portland
Another Day in Portland-03/01/2006
Another site we visited is a lovely place we found along the Glenelg River. We had a picnic here too. It is a small village in a quite hilly area overlooking the river. Along the banks of the river there are boathouses/fishing huts. These have been there a long time as some of the foundations were very much in need of replacing, and some of the houses had already done this. There were a few folk fishing in this area when we were there. It was a much laid back day.
We also had the opportunity to tour the Alcoa smelter whilst in Portland too. This was very informative and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We didn’t realise how involved Alcoawas in the town. They have certainly put Portland on the map.
Another place of interest is the Gannett Colony. This is situated at Point Danger, behind Alcoa and on Lawrence Rock. There are thousands of Gannett’s at both these places. There is an information board.
The last day in Portland, we took the tourist tram to see the sites around town. It was a great way to get an overview of the township and what there is to see. One of the stops along this route was at the Model Railways Tourist Museum. (Not sure of the title of this place). It was very interesting and there were models of the original layout of the port in the very early shipping days. This is fascinating. The tram also circum-navigated the town and the conductor pointed out the old buildings and homes that are heritage listed. The turn-around point for the tram was at the old Water Tower, which is now used as a War Museum. We found this informative and the views from the top of the tower, with its 360° windows, overlooking both the town and harbour, were fantastic. We did take a few photos from here, some of them panoramic.
After leaving the tram, we walked through the botanical gardens. (we were a little late for the rose garden and too early for the dahlia display). There is an historic caretaker’s house in the gardens that is over 100 years old. We quickly looked at the council offices, library, and courthouse. The courthouse is the original building and is still in use today. On our travels we came upon a willy-wagtail who was obviously nesting, as he was very concerned about our presence.
Portland is a very busy harbour. There were ships coming and going the whole time we were there. We even got to see on oil rig being towed out of there. And there is an old whaling pot on the foreshore as a reminder of the old whaling days.
We had a lovely holiday in Portland and will one day return.
