Sorrento Attractions

The holiday resort of Sorrento has preserved something of the atmosphere of the late 19th C, when steamers from Melbourne brought summer visitors to the elegant hotels, some of which have been preserved (e.g. the Continental Hotel). There was a first white attempt at settlement near Sorrento in 1803, when David Collins landed in Sullivan Bay with over 300 settlers and convicts in order to forestall any attempt by the French to take possession of the territory. Only a year later the project was abandoned and Collins moved across the Bass Strait to Tasmania. On the cliffs above Sullivan Bay are the graves of some of the early settlers and a monument to Collins.