Port Fairy

Self Contained Bed and Breakfast with 2 Types of accommodation to choose from. The family oriented Loft Sleeping up to 6 people OR the more intimate Studio sleeping up to 4. Excellent accommodation at a budget price.

Port Fairy is well serviced with hotels, motels and other types of accommodation. There are a considerable number of self catering and holiday type accommodation such as bed and breakfasts (also known as bnb and b&b), apartments, holiday houses, cottages, cabins, guesthouses as well as tourist or caravan parks, and backpackers or hostels.

Self catering accommodation – Apartments, holiday houses, cottages, cabins, b&b’s and guesthouses in Port Fairy are:

• Adeline Cottage
• B-Beside the Sea
• Belfast Cottages
• Belfast Cove Caravan Park
• Best Western Ashmont Motor Inn & Apartments
• Blue Vista
• Caledonian Inn
• Central Motel
• Chequers Town House
• Cherry Plum Cottage
• Clonmara Bed & Breakfast
• Cottage Watson
• Cottages of the Port
• Douglas on River
• Eastern Beach Holiday Units
• Eastern Sands
• Garden Pavilions
• Gobles Mill House Bed & Breakfast
• Hearn's Beachside Villas
• Horizons Beachfront Apartment
• Merrijig inn
• Moyne Wharf Apartments
• Old Squattlesea Mere
• Orchard Cottages
• Oscars Waterfront Boutique Hotel
• Port Fairy Motor Inn
• Quamby Homestead
• Riverhouse
• Riverside Cottages
• Riverview on the Moyne
• Romantic Retreat
• S.S.Casino
• Seacombe House
• Star of the west hotel
• The Coastal Barn
• The Penthouse
• The Victoria Apartments
• The Victoria Hotel

Tourist, Caravan or Holiday Parks in Port Fairy are:

• Belfast Cove Caravan Park
• Big4 Port Fairy Anchorage Holiday Park
• Southcombe by the Sea Caravan Park
• Gum Tree Caravan Park
• Port Fairy Gardens Caravan Park

The Motels in Port Fairy are: 

• Ashmont Motor Inn (Best Western)
• Seacombe House Motor Inn (Comfort Inn)
• Central Motel
• Anchorage Holiday Park & Motel
• Carleton Inn
• Port Fairy Motor Inn

The Hotels in Port Fairy are:

• Oscars Waterfront Boutique Hotel
• Star of the West
• The Victoria Hotel

The Backpackers or Hostels in Port Fairy are:

• Port Fairy YHA
• Southcombe Lodge
• Caledonian Inn

Port Fairy Information:

Port Fairy is a little gem. Port Fairy is a delightful historic port with wide streets lined by 19th century cottages, great Norfolk pines, old stone churches, old hotels and inns. Many fine examples of the state's architecture remain intact, and more than 50 buildings are classified by the National Trust. There are museums, historic walks, pleasant stretches of coastline, a fascinating harbour, charming 19th century cottages and the feel of a bygone age. Everything is within walking distance. The population is approx. 3,000.

In the earliest years of the nineteenth century whalers and sealers worked along this stretch of rugged coastline. Seals were used for their leather and oil and whales were vital parts of the corset, perfume and soap industries.

As early as 1810 Captain James Wishart, a sealer working the southern coast, anchored at Port Fairy. By the mid-1820s the 'harbour' was known as Port Fairy, probably after Wishart's cutter 'The Fairy'. Early sealers were John and Charles Mills. As the seals in the area were killed off the Mills brothers moved over to whaling and they were active in the area until whaling ceased in 1843. The whalers built the distinctive bluestone cottages which are still dotted throughout the town. The houses of both John and Charles Mills still stand in the town. By 1839 John Cox had opened a store on the site which is now the corner of Cox and Gipps Streets. The town began to grow in the early 1840s. In 1843 a Sydney solicitor James Atkinson purchased 5120 acres (2072 hectares) of land at Port Fairy for £1 per acre. He converted the sealing community into a modern port by draining the swamps around the town, subdividing and selling/leasing the land and building the harbour on the Moyne River and renamed the town Belfast, after the Irish city which he called home. The result was that Belfast became the largest privately-owned town in Australia. It wasn't until 1887 that the town was renamed Port Fairy as a result of a special act of parliament.

Today Port Fairy prospers on a combination of tourism and fishing. It still boasts one of Victoria's largest fishing fleets. The seas provide good catches of shark (it is a deep sea angler's delight), crayfish and abalone.

Things to See and Do:  

Tourist Information
The Port Fairy Visitor Information Centre in Bank Street has extensive information about the town. Of particular interest are the brochures which outline suitable historic walks around the town. There are over 50 historic buildings in Port Fairy.

Port Fairy History Centre
Located in Gipps Street the History Centre has a good display of memorabilia and photographs which capture a sense of what the town was like in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is located in the old Court House which dates from 1859. It is open Wednesdays and weekends 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and daily during school holidays.

Port Fairy Wharves
The walk along the wharves is delightful and can take you up into the town (if you head north) or towards Griffiths Island if you head south. The wharves are used by  both casual anglers, cruising yachts and commercial fishermen who bring their catch in from the Southern Ocean.

Griffiths Island
If you continue south on Gipps Street you will reach a point where you can walk across a footbridge to Griffiths Island. This is a delightful way to spend a few hours. There is a track around the island which includes the Mutton Bird Viewing point and the lighthouse on the island's eastern extremity. The island is home to a large colony of muttonbirds (short-tailed shearwaters). The birds arrive within three days of the 22 September each year, settle in last year's burrow, mate in early November, the eggs are laid around 25 November and take around a month to hatch which means that the young start to appear in mid-January. In mid-April the birds head off on their annual migration around the Pacific. They travel an estimated 15,000 km in two months. Viewing the birds from the platform on Griffiths Island is best at dusk between September and April.

Historic Buildings:
ANZ Bank - Originally known as The Colonial Bank this simple and gracious building opened its doors to the public in 1856. It is a classical Georgian design with a Georgian fanlight complementing the doorway, arched windows and iron railings around the outside. Constructed of dark bluestone and panelled inside with hardwood.
 

Seacombe House - Located on the corner of Sackville and Cox Streets, Seacombe House was completed in 1847 by Captain John Sanders. It was originally known as Stag Hotel and in the 1850s became the centre of the town's social life with an upstairs ballroom being used for dinners and dances. It continued as a hotel until 1873 and then became a guest house and later a boy's school.

Mott's Cottage - No one knows for certain when this historic cottage was built but it was some time in the 1830s or 1840s. The only piece of that original cottage which is left is the timber and stone rubble section. The second storey was added in the 1860s and the back section in the 1880s. Located in Sackville Street, the cottage has been restored as an example of a typical Port Fairy working man's cottage. It is located at 3 Sackville Street.

Emoh - Located at 8 Cox Street this is a fine example of an elaborate merchant's home. It was built around 1847 by William Rutledge who, at the time, was known as the 'King of Port Fairy'. At its peak this was one of the town's most famous residences. It was converted into a Youth Hostel.

The Merrijig Inn - A real insight into the early history of the town is the Merrijig Inn, designed to cater for the considerable thirsts of the whalers and sealers who first settled Port Fairy. Over the road is an old iron cannon which was brought to Port Fairy in the 1890s when it was feared that the Russians were going to invade Victoria.

Moyne Mill - Located in Gipps Street near the wharf, the Old Moyne Mill dates from the 1860s. It was built by Dr Alexander Russell and originally it had five storeys.
John Mills Cottage - It is located at 40 Gipps Street and is a fine example of a cottage dating from the early 1840s. From this house Mills started his importing business which saw him bringing shoes, rum and building materials to the district.

Star of the West Hotel - Located on the corner of Sackville and Bank Streets, the Star of the West Hotel was completed in 1856 by John Taylor. An impressive and solid basalt building, The Star's main claim to fame was that it was used as the town's Cobb & Co destination and consequently was the centre of the town for many years.
St Patrick's Church - Built by the strong Irish community which settled at Port Fairy. It was completed in 1858 at a cost of £6500 to the plans of the notable local architect, Nathaniel Billing. The church, which is located on the Princes Highway, was built of basalt and Hobart stone in a typical Gothic Revival Style.
St John's Church of England - The tower of St John's can be seen from most points around the town. This Gothic Revival Church was originally planned to be the main Anglican cathedral in Western Victoria. It was built from 1853-57 of basalt. The carvings were done by local stonemason, Walter McGill, and the architect was Nathaniel Billing.

Battery Hill and Fort - This is worth a visit simply because it offers a different perspective on the township.The guns possibly date from the 1860s and are more evidence of the concern about a Russian invasion which swept along this stretch of the coastline. The current guns were installed in 1885 but they have been rarely fired. On one occasion the vibration from the firing was so great that it broke some windows in the
Woodbine - This was the home of Charles Mills who was one of the original settlers at Port Fairy. The two-storey, five room house with stables was constructed out of limestone rubble in 1845-46 and is an excellent example of Georgian rural architecture. It is one of the oldest farm houses in Victoria.

Shipwreck Walk
In 1988 the local council developed a walk which was named the 'Shipwreck Walk' and which starts at the local Surf Club (travel north on Gipps Street, cross the Moyne River and turn into Hughes Avenue). The walk is 2.1 km and runs from the Surf Club to the mouth of the Moyne River. The shipwrecks along this short stretch of coastline include (from north to south) the Barque Socrates which was battered and finally destroyed by huge seas in 1843; the Barque Lydia which was wrecked off the coast in 1847; the Schooner Thistle which broke her anchor chain and was wrecked on the coast in 1837 and the Brig. Essington which sank while moored at Port Fairy in 1852.

Botanical Gardens
The Port Fairy Botanical Gardens, in Fairy St, were established when the police paddocks were put aside for that purpose in 1858. The ground was swampy and reclamation work was carried out. Baron von Mueller, the original curator of the Melbourne Botanical Gardens acted as an advisor regarding the initial plantings. In 1871 the Gardens were enlarged and 100 Norfolk pines planted.

Lady Julia Percy Island
Lady Julia Percy Island, 22 kilometres south-west of Port Fairy, is Australia’s only off-shore volcano. Formed some seven million years ago by violent underwater eruptions related to the final separation of Australia from Antarctica, it is much older than other volcanoes in the region. As a nature reserve, entry to the island is prohibited, however boat tours around the island can be organised from the Port Fairy wharf on calm, clear days. The sealing industry operated at Lady Julia Percy Island during the 1800s. Gangs of sealers lived on the island often for months at a time, dropped off by supply ships, which later returned for the sealers and their haul of seal skins and blubber. The island is one of four Australian fur seal breeding colonies in Victoria and is possibly the largest colony in Australia.