Dartmoor

Just 30km from the border, the south-west Victorian town of Dartmoor has grown from a coaching stopover on the run to Mount Gambier in South Australia.

And fittingly, the town's history is on display in the Coachhouse District Museum, an old stone building dating back to 1870.

Just out of town on Wanin Road, you can take time out for a bit of reflection in the fernery of the Waterfall Gardens.

The fish-stocked Glenelg River, which provides swimming facilities for the locals, runs through the township.

To the south-east lies Heywood which claims to be the first inland Victoria town to be settled and, if you are patient enough, you'll almost certainly find something dating back to those early days in the mountain of bric-a-brac collected by the owner of the Bower Bird Museum.

Portland, site of Victoria's first permanent settlement based on a whaling station established by William Dutton in 1831, sits on the coast 20km south of Heywood.

Just on the Victorian side of the border, the Princess Margaret Rose Caves present an extraordinary journey back to the prehistoric past when long extinct giant kangaroos, marsupial lions and tigers and huge echidna perished among the limestone stalactites and stalagmites.