Penola is located approximately 390kms South of Adelaide and 424kms West of Melbourne, Penola is in the East of the Wattle Range Council area. It is 50kms from Millicent and 80kms from Beachport. The local industries are agriculture, viticulture, horticulture, forestry, natural gas, tourism.

Scottish born Alexander Cameron, a pastoral pioneer who squatted in the area in 1845, formally founded Penola as a private township in 1850. He invited Mary MacKillop to Penola as governess to his children. She co-founded the religious order, The Sisters of St Joseph, with local priest and scientist Julian Tenison Woods. To view a brochure on the Mary MacKillop Interpretive Centre please click here.

Cameron also invited Christopher Sharam to Penola, as his bootmaker. Sharam built his slab cottage in Petticoat Lane in 1850. Another prominent figure in Penola's history was Scottish born John Riddoch, who settled in the area in 1861. His crowning achievement was the establishment, in 1890, of the Penola Fruit Colony, which became known as Coonawarra in 1897.