Ruins to Kingston SE

We set out to see Kingston SE (the SE stands for South East, as the South Australian’s have two Kingstons!) which is only 50 km’s from Robe. We took the very scenic route chasing some geocaches which made for a great day out. The first stop was up an unsealed road where we found the gorgeous little Lawries Hill Church, built in 1855. It was restored in 1988 after becoming derelict. It sits all alone in a sloping grass paddock.

The next detour was to Wrights Bay, then back to the highway where we stopped at the ruins of a homestead that has had a couple of different existences – as a stage coach station / post office and as a bark mill. Apparently they stripped bark from wattle trees which was dried, ground up and used for tanning.

If it wasn’t for another well placed geocache we never would have found the derelict Cape Jaffa School which was among scrub a little way back from the road.

At Cape Jaffa we went along a sandy 4WD track and found ourselves at the ruins of the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse Keepers Cottage. Stopped there for morning tea – which of course included ripping open a pack of the iconic jaffa lollies! Fascinating history here – the lighthouse was offshore a few kilometres and keepers took turns in going out to man it. Much of their time was spent painting it as it was made of steel. The lighthouse was dismantled and now sits in Kingston SE.

After this fascinating detour we found ourselves off to Kingston where we went and saw the lighthouse.  It was then time to go introduce ourselves to a famous local – Larry. Larry is a slightly oversized fibreglass lobster!

We had lunch in Kinston SE, found a few more caches, walked along the pier and noticed the beaches were covered in tons of seaweed before heading back to Robe.