Centenary of Port VictoriaPrint Page

The monument commemorates the centenary of Port Victoria, and the European sailing ships which called at the port.

The township, when it was proclaimed on 31st August 1876, was officially given the name of Wauraltee but it was never called anything but Port Victoria. One of the reasons for this was because a small unofficial town, which had sprung up between Port Victoria and Mount Rat, had already received that sobriquet. On the 19th September 1940, the name Port Victoria eventually became official by Government proclamation.

After the jetty was build in 1878 sailing vessels called at the port to be loaded with grain. To save wharfage fees they usually anchored about 1.6 kilometres (1 mile) out and ketches which carried between 800 and 1000 bags of grain, lightered the cargo to the windjammers. Some ships carried 60,000 bags and it took six to eight weeks to load them. They then set out for overseas, usually by way of Cape Horn.
Wide Sails and Wheat Stacks: A History of Port Victoria, Rhoda Heinrich.

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