The
Aboriginal Australians living in the area when
Europeans arrived were the
Bindjali people, although this meaning has also been ascribed to
Coonawarra by the same source. A different source reports that the Bindjali expression,
pena oorla means "wooden house", which referred to the first pub in the district, the Royal Oak. The first Europeans to the area were the Austin brothers, who arrived in 1840 and established a run of . The first
settlers were Scottish-born
Alexander Cameron and his wife Margaret in January 1844 after obtaining an occupation licence. In April 1850, Cameron obtained 80 acres (0.3 km2) of freehold land (his station was on a
pastoral lease) and established the private town of "Panoola", later known as Penola. By 1850, he had built the Royal Oak Hotel and was doing much business supplying liquor to the many travellers passing through to the
Victoria goldfields. Penola Post Office opened around 1852. Religious services in the town were first conducted in a converted shop, This was replaced on the same site by a new one designed by
Adelaide architect
Herbert Jory in
Romanesque Revival style and opened in 1924.
John Riddoch purchased Yallum in 1861. Riddoch grew up in poverty in the highlands of Scotland and in 1851 emigrated to try his luck on the Victoria goldfields. Within a few years he was a successful shopkeeper and wine merchant on the
Geelong goldfields. He acquired 35,000 acres (142 km2) on which he ran 50,000 head of sheep. It was Riddoch who planted the first grape vines and helped to diversify the pastoral economy of the area with an agricultural industry. In 1890, he established the Penola Fruit Growing Colony which was renamed Coonawarra in 1897.
Mary MacKillop Mary MacKillop was a
Roman Catholic nun, who was beatified on 19 January 1995 at Randwick Racecourse, Sydney, in a Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II; and became the first Australian to be named as a
saint in 2010. In 1866 MacKillop and
Julian Tenison Woods established a
Catholic school, St Joseph's School, and developed the Woods/MacKillop Catholic education system in Australia, They also established in Penola a congregation of religious sisters, the
Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Also known as the "Josephites" or "Brown Joeys", they continue to work with the poor and needy communities throughout the world today.
Railways Penola was on the
Mount Gambier to Wolseley railway line, which opened in 1887, until its closure to freight on 12 April 1995 and then to
Limestone Coast Railway tourist passengers on 1 July 2006. ==Heritage listings==