A vibrant, thriving coastal city nestled on the Fleurieu Peninsula
The coastal town of Victor Harbor is the largest population centre on the Fleurieu Peninsula and serves as the major district centre for the Southern Fleurieu.
Victor Harbor enjoys a high standard of living and has a lot to offer residents and visitors alike.
Our relaxed lifestyle, strong sense of community, stunning natural environment and township character are highly valued.
Victor Harbor is an excellent place to live, work, invest and do business. It is vibrant and growing, and there are many things to look forward to.
For thousands of years, the Ngarrindjeri and Ramindjeri people hunted and gathered in the region they called âWirramullaâ. The fertile lands supported huge animal populations while the waters were sheltered and rich with life. Among the local dreamtime stories, Nulcoowarra or Kaiki (the Ngarrindjeri name for Granite Island) has tremendous spiritual significance, as does the southern right whale, told in the Kondoli dreaming. The first non-Indigenous settlers approved of the region for the same reasons â rich lands, sheltered waters and whales.
The famous encounter between Captain Matthew Flinders of the British sloop Investigator and Captain Nicholas Baudin of the French ship Le GeographĂŠ occurred in waters off Victor Harbor over 200 years ago. The ships sheltered in the bay, which was later named Encounter Bay by Captain Flinders.
In 1837, Captain Richard Crozier in command of the Cruizer-class H.M.S. Victor anchored just off Granite Island on his way back to Sydney and India. Captain Crozier named the place âVictor Harbourâ (the original spelling of the town name) after his ship.
About the same time as Captain Crozierâs stop over, two whaling stations were established, one at Rosetta Head (popularly known as âThe Bluffâ) and the other near the point opposite Granite Island. Whale oil became South Australiaâs first export. From 1839 the whaling station was managed for a time by Captain John Hart, a later Premier of South Australia. Whaling stations continued trading until around the mid-1860s.
