Port Victoria

Port Victoria proudly calls itself the last of the windjammer ports, recalling an era when towering square-rigged sailing ships loaded Yorke Peninsula grain bound for Europe via Cape Horn. The final commercial windjammers, the Pamir and Passat, sailed from here in 1949. Today the town is a relaxed coastal getaway with a long jetty, sheltered beaches and clear gulf water. Offshore lies Wardang Island, ringed by eight shipwrecks that form the Wardang Island Maritime Heritage Trail, a magnet for divers and fishers. The Port Victoria Maritime Museum, housed in an 1878 cargo store by the jetty, tells the town's seafaring story. With safe swimming, good fishing and a strong sense of history, Port Victoria makes a rewarding stop on the peninsula's quieter western coast.