Monday 24th February - Warrnambool
The temperature didn't get above 20 degrees today with last night being 14.0 and only 19.7 during the day. It was overcast all day today with a cool breeze. We went for a drive down the coast to Port Fairy today. It's a very pretty town and under 30km from where we are. It's here that the Moyne River enters the Southern Ocean and there is a small fishing fleet based here. The bay was used as a base for whaling and seal hunting in the early 19th century and the bay was named by the crew of "the Fairy' in 1828. In 1835 a whaling station was established and the first store opened here in 1839. In 1843, James Atkinson purchased land, drained the swamps and then sub-divided and leased the land. He named the town 'Belfast' after his hometown in Ireland. In 1887 the town was renamed Port Fairy after an Act of Parliament. Recently, Port Fairy has been voted as one of the world's most liveable cities. On the way back we stopped off at Tower Hill. There is now a wildlife reserve with koalas, emus, kangaroos and many other species of waterbirds roaming freely. This reserve sits inside an extinct volcano, formed some 30,000 years ago. In 1892 Tower Hill was declared Victoria's first national park.