Waking up to the Black-Eyed Peas being blasted by the local community gym, we were up, packed and on the road before dawn, heading for our mid-morning appointment with some cephalopods.
Reaching up to 60cm in length and 5kg in weight, the Giant Australian Cuttlefish is the largest species of Cuttlefish in the world. And, between May and August each year, they gather in their tens of thousands to breed, then die, in the calm waters just north of Whyalla.
This was our destination from Kimba, and we’d booked the 10am glass bottom boat tour to view the breeding Cuttlefish from Stony Point. It was pea soup foggy on the drive out but cleared to an overcast day with a perfectly flat ocean on arrival in Whyalla. The skipper advised that the previous day they had dumpers rolling onto the shore, so we got lucky with the water conditions. Boarding the little glass-bottomed boat, we spent the next 45 minutes no more than 50 metres from shore, in depths of 1 to 12 metres, as we puttered around and over the Cuttlefish. None of our photos did the experience justice, but it was great watching and hearing the skipper explain how they arrive, find a mate, and die, including the three main ways of their predation:
- 1: Death by Snapper
- 2: Death by Bottlenose Dolphin
- 3: Death by NZ Fur Seal
However, for a brief period in the 90s, one entrepreneurial commercial fisherman decided to catch and sell them. The word soon got out and, very soon, 38 commercial fishermen were catching them, and this almost wiped out the entire breeding colony. Luckily the government stepped in and the whole area is now protected.
Following the boat tour, we drove the last couple of km out to view the Point Lowly Lighthouse, which was built in 1883, with views back over the gulf and the Flinders Ranges as the backdrop.
Then it was off to our campsite at the Weeroona Bay Football Club, on the outskirts of Whyalla. Whilst the camping spot wasn’t much to talk about, Jules and I did avail ourselves of the local footy club 3-course meal the club ladies put on that night, and it was fantastic. $25 for Chicken & Corn Soup entrée, followed by the best tasting Roast Chook, Cauliflower Cheese, and Roast Vege, followed by a little Apple Pie and a dollop of Ice Cream.
We also used our stop at Whyalla to drop catch up on some laundry at the local laundromat, before doing a little drive around Whyalla to gauge the sights and feel/vibe of the town. The consensus being an old, ailing mining/port town which felt pretty rundown.
From Whyalla we then made our way from the Eyre Peninsula into the Yorke Peninsular, passing through Port Augusta and down to Maitland, which is located centrally on the peninsula, camping at the Maitland Showground for a couple of nights. On route, we stopped in for a loo stop and coffee with cake at Port Germein.
Our first sortie from Maitland was North, out to Balgowan, then along the back roads into Moonta (love that name), then Wallaroo (sounds like an Austen Tayshus joke), Kadina (we kept singing a version of the 80’s song “Funky Cold Medina” – substitute with “Kadina”), Bute (which it was), then back to Maitland.
Balgowan was a sleepy little coastal town with not much going on. But Moonta had a lovely, very old, heritage feel to it with what seemed to be a good community vibe. Plenty of people going about their business and some nice galleries and shops on the main street to take in. The township of Moonta was established when Paddy Ryan noticed green stones dug out from a wombat hole. These green stones turned out to be copper and pretty soon the township of Moonta was born around the copper mine, much of which is now heritage-listed and can be viewed. Moonta is also known for its Cornish Pasties as many of the copper miners were Cornish and we had one of the best Cornish Pasties at the bakery.
The next stop was Wallaroo, which just didn’t have the same feel as Moonta, however, we did drop into the Bond Store to sample their gin – nothing took our fancy. From Wallaroo it was off to Kadina, what seemed to be the larger of the three towns, which are all within 10km of each other, for some supplies at the Woolworths.
Rather than drive straight back to Maitland, we detoured out to Bute to view the fantastic silo artwork.
We had intended to explore the southern parts of the Yorke Peninsula from Maitland, but with a nearly 400km round trip, we decided to relocate further south to Warooka, which is in the neck of the southern tip of the peninsula.
A leisurely start to the day, saw us driving down through Port Victoria, then into Minlaton for coffee and lunch at the bakery. Then it was down to Warooka to set up the van before we did a loop drive out around Corny Point, and back along the northern coast of the peninsula foot, through The Pines, Point Souttar and finally Point Turton. The Corny Point Lighthouse and coastline was nice, as was Point Turton.
Today we explored the Southern side of the foot, that is, the bottom of the Yorke Peninsula. Driving out through Yorketown, then Edithburgh, we then followed the Southern Coastal Road along the coast, South to Marion Bay for lunch, before exploring the Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park.
The final day of our Yorke Peninsula trip was driving up the East coast of the peninsula, taking in Stansbury, Port Vincent, Ardrossan and Tiddy Widdy Beach. Leaving the peninsula at Port Wakeford and heading out through Gawler and finally to our destination, Tanunda in the Barossa Valley which is the subject of our next post.
