Robe

History

Robe is situated on the ancestral lands of the Buandig and Ngarrindjeri peoples. Europeans founded the town of Robe on 19 March 1846, ten years after the Province of South Australia was established, as a seaport, administrative centre, and township. Robe was named after the fourth Governor of South Australia, Major Frederick Robe, During the Victorian gold rushes after the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851, the government of the colony of Victoria introduced a landing tax of £10 per person to deter Chinese immigrants more than the cost of their voyage. To bypass the tax, more than 16,000 Chinese people landed at Robe to walk overland for to the goldfields, mainly at Ballarat and Bendigo. The walk became known as the "Robe Walk". * Phaeton – 2 February 1857 * Sultana – 27 April 1857 * Alma 15 December 1861 * Livingstone – 16 December 1861 * SS Admella – 6 August 1859 * Koning Willem II – 30 June 1857, on Long Beach around east of Robe A stone obelisk was built on Cape Dombey in 1852 to help ships navigate safely into the bay, and an automatic lighthouse was built on higher ground in 1973. Robe's importance decreased with the building of railways in the 19th century to Kingston and Beachport, about respectively to its north and south.

Most-observed species

• Black Swan

  Cygnus atratus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  2,730
• Silver Gull

  Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae (Stephens, 1826) · Aves
  700
• Masked Lapwing

  Vanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  524
• Chestnut Teal

  Anas castanea (Eyton, 1838) · Aves
  500
• Superb Fairywren

  Malurus cyaneus (Ellis, 1782) · Aves
  437
• Red Wattlebird

  Anthochaera carunculata (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  421
• Welcome Swallow

  Hirundo neoxena Gould, 1842 · Aves
  415
• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  411

Most recent

• M 2.8 — 2006-04-19
  50 km SW of Millicent, Australia