The Eyre Peninsula has a pleasantly off the beaten track feel with low key fishing villages, unspoilt coastline and diverse fresh seafood. There are many opportunities for underwater adventures.
Streaky Bay is one of those places you quite often dash past en route to somewhere else, but if you do stop, you might well find yourself staying much longer than you ever imagined.
It is a simple little place: the usual jetty with a slightly higgledy piggledy assortment of houses, cafes and local pub, so much so that Simon observed that it looked almost Asian.
But time expands to fit the space and you can easily fall into a beach lifestyle with occasional forays for food and water. We found the Shell Roadhouse, a bizarre place run by two Indians who were producing some excellent curries and naan bread hot from the oven. In a backroom was a life size replica of a great white pointer shark which was caught by a local in 1990 after a 5 hour 15 minute battle. It was a 5 m long, 1,520 kg world record and on opening it they found hundreds of eggs: there is a love bite on its left side. Thankfully these sharks are now protected.
On the other side of the road is Streaky Bay Marine Products which sells a good variety of local seafood, including the locally farmed oysters. There is a little fish and chip kiosk outside called Fishfix: it couldn’t get any fresher!
We based ourselves at Perlubie Beach which was so perfect it was hard to leave. If you have a 4×4 you can camp right on the beach; with our 2WD we had to settle for the carpark behind, but days were spent lounging in a hammock under the thoughtfully provided beach shelters watching the slow ins and outs of the ocean in the wide bay. In the evening we would move our chairs to the waters edge and watch the sinking sun with an aperitif.
Little local wanderings kept us entertained: to Murphy’s Haystacks, huge red pillars and boulders of smooth eroded granite, emerging strangely in a relatively small area on a scenic hill amidst undulating farming country. Entry is $2 in the honesty box: if you are lucky you may coincide with some local honey too.
A dirt road detour took us to the geographically spectacular (their words, not mine, but not inappropriate) cave known as the Woolshed. A long open cavern with a honeycombed ceiling led back from the coast’s edge in a rugged area of smooth sandstone and jagged limestone; the Washtub, a little further on, was a vast round hole, the remains of a collapsed cave. It is possible to play Tarzan and descend to the bottom on a roughly cut tree ladder.
A look out at the end of the road revealed Talia Beach’s long expanse of isolated golden sand and an elaborate memorial to a nun who was accidentally drowned (as opposed to pushed, I guess) in 1928.
Other meanderings led round the coast, to a sealion colony look out at Point Labatt and more peaceful campsites: try Tractor Bay, Speed Point or even Baird Bay where it is also possible to organize trips to swim with the sealions and maybe even the local dolphins.
We headed south from Streaky in the end, checking out the lazy little hangout of Venus Bay, with its picture perfect bay and unusual curved jetty. Its caravan park is right on the water and popular with fishermen.
We then tracked down the amusing art of the Elliston Cliff Drive – a pair of giant thongs were suitably Australian or an amusing pastiche of a shark chasing a surfer. There were excellent clifftop views over crystal clear waters and another old jetty down below. The in town bakery was very good, though marred by surly service!
The country is interesting beyond Elliston: the undulating hills are so scattered with rock, they reminded me of Connemara and it is not unusual, though unusual for Australia, to see stone walls.. At Sheringa, there is a very characterful roadhouse, which was once an old coaching station, and a turn off for more scenic camping at Sheringa Beach.
There are quite a few old stone ruins about, harking back to the early settlement of the area in 1847. About 12 km south of Sheringa, the quaint Lake Hamilton Eating House has been partially restored: look for it on the western side of the highway. Built in 1857, it was a stop for coaches and travellers; now it is a good picnic stop with a fresh water tank.
A detour down a good dirt road took us to Coles Point, a gloriously scenic wild camping area overlooking Greenly Beach, with the distinctive slopes of Mt Greenly above. We had a million dollar view with only the lights of the Coffin Bay lighthouse for company: it is a superb sunset spot.
Coffin Bay
Matthew Flinders discovered Coffin Bay in 1802 and named it after a benefactor who had outfitted his boat, HMS Investigator. An idyllic spot with sand dune fringed bays, it was always famous for its oysters. However overfishing had all but wiped out the native Angasi oyster by 1890 and it wasn’t until 1969 that they started farming the Pacific oysters in the bay. This is a modern success story, so much so that oysters are actually shipped in to Coffin Bay for the final three months fattening so that they can be sold with the famous name.
Join a tour to wade out into the bay to where the oysters are growing in their cages and taste one directly from the sea: these ones are less salty than the ocean grown ones as there are fresh springs feeding into the bay.
Just down the road is Coffin Bay National Park, though there is only a limited amount that you can access without 4WD. The campsite at Yangie Bay is quite pretty at the end of the sealed road. The bay is a great place to hire a kayak for the day: open water is 25 nautical miles out so it is easy protected paddling.
If you want to eat oysters, it is much cheaper to do it in Coffin Bay than in Port Lincoln. Try the 1802 Oyster Bar or the casual Beachcomber Cafe: a dozen oysters kilpatrick, our favourite, cooked with bacon and Worcestershire sauce, cost $26.
Port Lincoln
This pristine town makes a great base to explore the bottom of the Peninsula. The esplanade has both a statue of a horse (Makybe Diva who won the Melbourne Cup three times – her owner is a Croatian born local fisherman) and a cat, the pet of Matthew Flinders who sailed past in 1802 and who is also part of the statue.
Vineyards are also taking hold in the area though Peter Teakle Wines is presently better known for its The Line & Label restaurant, only serving produce from their own garden or the peninsula. Their wasabi king prawns are superb, or try the braised beef checks with black truffle and spiced cauliflower. There is a great verandah with lovely vineyards views
The Fresh Fish Place is a little way out of town opposite the racecourse and has an excellent fish cafe though if you choose fish and chips you will be dazzled by a choice of about 8 different types of fish. The mussels are good and they have a great range of seafood to take home, though we couldn’t believe a Southern Rock Lobster was selling for $160 a kilo! Abalone is also very expensive: visit the Cook Islands instead! There is a tour at 11 am on weekdays.
Time for a treat on the accommodation front: the Port Lincoln Hotel is right on the front and has a swimming pool and great ocean views!
The Eastern Side of the Peninsula
It was time to turn northwards, following the eastern side of the peninsula. We passed more characterful fishing villages but sadly one cannot stop at them all: you will just have to discover your favourite!
At little Tumby Bay there is a good example of the grain silo art that is literally cropping up – excuse the pun – everywhere: two exuberant boys in mid back flip off the jetty. If you park and walk to the viewpoint, the piece links up over the six silos in a brilliant 3-D effect. This one was painted by an Argentinian artist called Martin Ron who lived in the village first to better capture its spirit – I think he’s done a great job! It took 5 weeks, 430 litres of paint and covers 2,200 sq m.
If you are a diver, Tumby is also one of only three places where it is possible to dive with the rare Leafy Seadragon: they certainly look amazingly camouflaged and quite cute too.
Back to wild camping: we stayed at Lipson Cove, another lovely beach location with an offshore island covered on cormorants. We spent an agreeable couple of hours trying to photograph a colony of Caspian terns: there were lots of juvenile birds and the adults were on a non-stop mission to supply fish. We marvelled that they ever found their chick amidst the throng.
Quite strange in that our sunsets had suddenly turned into sunrises, now that we were heading up the other side of the peninsula. However, breakfast on the beach was serene, the old jetty stumps providing the perfect table.
Cowell
Mrs Schultz’s Quandong Farm was one of our most bizarre experiences on the peninsula. It was just like popping in to tea with your granny in a suburban house but the welcome was warm enough. Granny Schultz microwaved some scones and served them in her front parlour with home made quandong Jan and whipped cream. At $5 each, it was worth it for the experience, even if we did have to make our own instant coffee! Only the power of facebook/wikicamps could keep this place going.
Cowell is another renowned fishing spot so we headed down to the harbour and stocked up with wild king prawns from the friendly kiosk. It also has one of the oldest and largest nephrite jade deposits in the world, only discovered in 1965 at Mt. Geharty: you can view a selection of jewellery and ornaments at the Cowell Jade Motel on Oyster Drive.
Whyalla
After Mrs Schultz, we toyed with the idea of visiting Peter Elvis Bleeze’s Elvis Museum in Whyalla, but didn’t think we could cope with too much excitement on one day. He has the largest collection of Elvis memorabilia in Australia crammed into every room in his house. For fans – you know who you are – I’m sure it would be an amazing experience.
Whyalla is a fairly low key industrial port but worth a detour to see the dolphins that visit the marina. Amazingly there they were, a group of five swimming lazily round the harbour. At one stage they swam towards the harbour entrance then suddenly a boat appeared creating great excitement with heads right out of the water: these guys are obviously used to being fed. They followed the boat back closely to where it tied up and when food was not forthcoming, one thrashed his tail angrily on the surface. It is possible to hire canoes if you want to get really close.
Another unique phenomenon is the giant cuttlefish breeding season when from May to August they are found en masse at Stony Point and Black Point near Whyalla. Up to 60 cm in length and 5 kg in weight, they have the ability to change their shape, colour and texture so it is a kaleidoscopic experience. You might need a wetsuit as the sea is only 12-15° at that time of year, but anyone is free to enter the water and float in their midst. Wrong time of year for us, but it sounds interesting! More information is available from the Whyalla tourist office.
Salt n’ Pepper Squid
We snacked on yummy cuttlefish relations, salt & pepper squid, served in a cone with chips at the marina, then headed north again. Our time on the Eyre Peninsula was at an end but there was much left undone and unseen. As Elvis himself would have put it can’t help loving you – we’ll be back.
NOTES
Our amblings round the peninsula had roughly covered a reverse route that is promoted as The Seafood Frontier. It is a 1226 Km road trip from Port Augusta to Border Village via Port Lincoln. In ending at the Border Village, it also includes Smokey Bay (more oysters), Ceduna (yet more oysters at their Oysterfest held in October) and the Head of Bight, 300 km west of Ceduna and a whale watching hotspot between June and October. With summer temperatures around the 25° max mark and winter between 16 – 9°, any time is a good time.
More information on Streaky Bay here.
Coffin Bay Oyster Farm Tour. 1 hour tour, $40. There are various additional options such as more wine, more oysters and seafood platters.
Coffin Bay National Park and Port Lincoln National Park: A day’s pass costs $11 and can be bought online here or at the Breakwater Cafe in Coffin Bay or the Tourist Info at Port Lincoln. Both parks have scenic campsites accessible by 2WD.
Shark Cage Diving. Expect to put aside about $500 to do one of these day long trips. A 4 hour trip out to swim with the seals from Port Lincoln is $180. There are three different operators:
More information on Whyalla and the cuttlefish here.
Elvis Presley Museum, Whyalla. Ring Peter on 0413 062 838 to make an appointment for a tour; entry by donation