Mount Gambier

Mount Gambier, city, southeastern South Australia. It is situated about 280 miles (450 km) southeast of Adelaide, with which it is connected by road and air. It lies at the foot of Mount Gambier (623 feet [190 metres]), an extinct volcano with four crater lakes that was sighted in 1800 by Lieutenant James Grant of the Royal Navy, who named it after Admiral James (later Lord) Gambier. Stephen Henty surveyed the area in 1839, climbed the mountain, and established a livestock station in 1841. A private settlement called Gambier Town was founded in 1854 there by Hastings Cuningham, one of the pioneers in the export of frozen mutton to England. It was proclaimed a municipality in 1876 and a city in 1954. In 1900 the foundation was laid for a tower on the summit of Mount Gambier to commemorate 100 years since Grant’s sighting of the peak; the tower opened in 1904. Mount Gambier is the centre of a mixed-farming area (cereals, potatoes, onions, livestock) and processes dairy foods, meats, and flour; woolens, cellulose, particleboard, veneer, and concrete pipes are manufactured. Local plantations of pine trees supply a timber industry. Coralline limestone, dolomite, and diatomite are mined in the vicinity. Pop. (2006) 23,493; (2011) 25,247.