South Australia · Coastal

Robe

A Lobster Town on the Limestone Coast

On the lands of the Boandik people.

sunny Best in October to April

schedule 1 to 2 days

location_on Limestone Coast, South Australia

directions_car 340 km south-east of Adelaide

flight Mount Gambier Airport (MGB)

directions Directions

Best for Couples Foodies Wellness

schedule 1 min read / Updated Apr 2026

A historic fishing port on the Limestone Coast, halfway between Adelaide and Mount Gambier. Robe is famous for its rock lobster fishing fleet, the iconic Obelisk on Cape Dombey, and a long-standing colony of California gold rush refugees.

Robe was founded in 1846 as a port for the wool trade. In the 1850s, when the Victorian gold rush began, the colonial government in Melbourne imposed a ten pound poll tax on every Chinese immigrant arriving in Victoria. Around 16,000 Chinese miners avoided the tax by sailing to Robe in South Australia and walking the 400 kilometres overland to the Victorian goldfields. The town's population briefly exploded.

Today Robe is a small town of around 1,400 people, but the population swells in summer. The Robe rock lobster fishery is one of the most valuable in Australia and the local catch is the unofficial reason most people make the trip down. Several restaurants in town serve fresh local lobster in the season (October to April).

The Obelisk on Cape Dombey is the iconic photographic landmark. It was built in 1855 as a navigation aid and storage for life-saving rocket equipment, and has been gradually undermined by the cliff erosion since. The current viewing platform is well back from the edge.