Penola, South Australia

The Aboriginal Australians living in the area when Europeans arrived were the Bindjali people,[10] although this meaning has also been ascribed to Coonawarra by the same source. A different source reports that the Bindjali expression, pena oorla means "wooden house", which referred to the first pub in the district, the Royal Oak.[11]

The first Europeans to the area were the Austin brothers, who arrived in 1840 and established a run of 109 square miles (280 km²). 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 (0.3 km²) of freehold land (his station was on a pastoral lease) 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 travellers passing through to the Victoria goldfields.

Penola Post Office opened around 1852.[12]

Religious services in the town were first conducted in a converted shop,[13] before St Joseph's (Catholic) Church was built in 1859.[14] This was replaced on the same site by a new one designed by Adelaide architect Herbert Jory in Romanesque Revival style[15] and opened in 1924.[13][16]

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 (142 km²) 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.

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

• 31 Arthur Street: St Andrew's Presbyterian Church[23]
• 23 Arthur Street: Penola Public Library and Mechanics Institute[24]
• Bowden Street: Ulva Cottage[25]
• Church Street: National Bank Building[26]
• 28 Church Street: Bank of South Australia Building[27]
• 31 Church Street: Heyward's Royal Oak Hotel[28]
• 31 Church Street: Penola Post Office and Dwelling[29]
• 118 Church Street: Bushman's Inn[30]
• Clarke Street: Penola railway station[31]
• off Penola Road: John Shaw Neilson's Cottage[32]
• Portland Street: Woods MacKillop Schoolhouse[33]
• 58 Riddoch Street: Penola Butter and Cheese Factory[34]
• 136 Wilson Street (Petticoat Lane): Sharam's First Cottage[35]
• 136 Wilson Street (Petticoat Lane): Sharam's Second Cottage[36]

In 2010, a strong tornado ripped through the township destroying at least four buildings and damaging many more.[37]

Stained glass window at Mary MacKillop shrine, Penola South Australia

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.

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.[7][1][6]

The town has an Australian Rules football team competing in the Kowree-Naracoorte-Tatiara Football League.[39]

The primary local newspaper of the district is The Pennant,[40] published weekly since July 1946, while The Border Watch (also part of the Scott Group of Companies) and rival The Naracoorte Herald, also publish local and regional news.[41]

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 (1869–1963), Sara Douglass, Michael Graham (footballer) 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.[42]

The Antarctic explorer John Riddoch Rymill was born in Penola, named his ship Penola and later successfully farmed the Old Penola Estate.[43]

• Hanna, Cliff. Corartwalla: A History of Penola, the Land and Its People (Magill Publications, 2001); 382pp ISBN 0-9579652-0-6

• South Australian History
• Wattle Range Council