Eyre Peninsula (East Coast)

We continued on to Port Lincoln which is on a huge bay that is three times the size of Sydney harbour.Our caravan park overlooked the bay so we had a good view The town is famous for the tuna and many people have become very wealthy from tuna fishing as is evident from the huge houses that overlook the bay. There is also a very sophisticated prawn industry and crayfish are caught as well. It has also a huge wheat terminal where the wheat is brought from all over the Eyre and is exported from here.

We visited a fascinating museum dedicated to boats as there was a Finnish man who decided to settle here in the early days and he built many many boats. When he died the locals decided to perpetuate his memory by turning his workshop and slipway into a museum and keen boat enthusiasts spend time looking after the museum. Of course Brian was in his element. There were lots of models of old sailing ships as well as some real ones.

Port Lincoln is perched on the side of a hill and a lookout gives you a 360 view and gives you an idea of the size of the bay and views of the surrounding farmlands. It was very windy.

The next day we visited the fishing boat harbour which was fascinating. The prawn trawlers were unloading their catch. The operation is so sophisticated now that when
the prawns are caught they are cooked, boxed and snap frozen on the boat so we saw the “catch” all boxed coming out of the trawlers on a conveyer belt and being loaded onto a refrigerated truck to be sent all over Australia – these are your Christmas prawns folks!!

A similar process happens with the tuna where they are snap frozen whole, most of it going to the overseas market. It is the only place where they are frozen on the same day they are caught.

It was very windy and cold as we continued up the east coast of the Eyre through Tumby Bay which has some lovely old buildings and of course a jetty.

We were going to stay in a free camp called Lipson Cove which was beautiful and very isolated but it was really windy and there were no trees for shelter so we pressed on to Port Gibbon which was a tiny place with a few fishing shacks and a free camp. There are some big sandstone cliffs lining the beach. We walked to the end of the cliffs and saw that the galahs were nesting in some of the hollows. There are no large trees to provide a nesting spot for them. An old jetty provided shade for people on the beach.

From here we went to Whyalla which has a steelworks and ship building industry.
We were heading for a free camp just out of Whyalla so were just passing through. We had lunch on the foreshore. It was finally sunny and the water was very blue. There is a large warship outside the info centre which you could go on a tour through but the timing wasn’t right for us.

We went out to Lowly Point where there is a lighthouse, a small harbour and in the distance a facility for loading gas onto the ships. This is a where the free camp was. It was a beautiful day although still windy. At least it keeps the flies away. The area near the lighthouse is where giant cuttlefish come to breed and it is protected and no fishing is allowed nearby. A little further up the bay are some fish farms and the boat comes into the little harbour to load up with the fish food.

The next day we went to Fitzgerald Bay which is not far away and is a beautiful bay in the Spencer Gulf. You can see the Southern Flinders Ranges across the bay. The water was very blue so it was pretty. On our way out of here we got a puncture. To change the tyre is quite a chore as we have to take everything out of the back of the car.

Mobile again we headed for Port Augusta to get the tyre fixed and do some shopping.
We had now made it right around as we headed up the Centre from Port Augusta in May.

What amazing scenery we have seen and interesting places we have seen.