Europeans founded the town of Robe in 1846, ten years after the Province of South Australia was established, as a seaport, administrative centre and
township.
Robe was named after the fourth
Governor of South Australia,
Major Frederick Robe, who chose the site as a port in 1845. The town was proclaimed as a port in 1847. It became South Australia's second-busiest international port, after
Port Adelaide, in the 1850s. Robe's trade was drawn from a large hinterland that extended into western Victoria, and many roadside inns were built to cater for the bullock teamsters bringing down the wool, including the Bush Inn still standing on the outskirts of Robe. Exports included horses, sheep skins and wool. The
Customs House has been listed on the
South Australian Heritage Register since 1980.[9] A stone obelisk was built on Cape Dombey in 1852 to help ships navigate safely into the bay. Even so, there have been a number of shipwrecks along the coast in the area. An automatic
lighthouse was built on higher ground in 1973.
During the Victorian
gold rushes about 1857, the
Victorian government introduced a landing
tax of £10 per person to deter Chinese immigrants – more than the cost of their voyage. To bypass the tax, more than 16,000
Chinese people landed at Robe to walk overland for 320 kilometres (200 miles) to the
goldfields, mainly at
Ballarat and
Bendigo.
Robe's importance decreased with the building of
railways in the 19th century to
Kingston and
Beachport, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) respectively to its north and south. It continues as a service centre for the surrounding rural areas and home to a fishing fleet: especially important in the local economy is the
rocklobster fishery.
Heritage listings
Robe has many heritage-listed places, including the following:
^"Dwelling ('Karatta House')". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^"Dwelling ('Lakeside')". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^"'Lakeside' Stables and Coach House". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^"Richmond Park Homestead". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^"Former Bush Inn". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^"Dwelling ('Dingley Dell')". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^"Dwelling ('Bellevue Homestead')". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^"Former Robe Gaol (Ruin)". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^"Robe Institute". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^"Dwelling (former Criterion Hotel)". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 28 August 2016.