The Nullarbor Plain - 6 to 10 November 2009

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Ceduna is the gateway to the Nullarbor Plain, named from the Latin Nullus Arbor - no trees.

Leaving Ceduna we detoured from the Eyre Highway to Point Sinclair for lunch, passing by Lake Macdonald - a pink salt lake.

After negotiating a steep sandy track to the beach we found Point Sinclair,  very attractive with the usual jetty, this time for exporting wheat, gypsum and salt, and as a consequence of a shark tragedy in 1975, a shark fence for swimmers. If you look closely you can see our caravan at the end of the pier. Here was a school group from Ceduna learning to snorkel.

They also had surf boards, for nearby Cactus Beach is said to be a "world famous" surfing beach. The surf wasn't large while we were there but had good waves at regular intervals with even breaks [three] and no dumpers.

The camping is on privately owned land, each site is separated from the others by bush. Caravans fit. BYO drinking water and food but bore water toilets and showers are available.

We camped at Point Fowler named by Matthew Flinders in honour of his first lieutenant, Robert Fowler.

The site was later used by Edward Eyre as a base camp for his overland journey to Albany and is also known as Port Eyre.

There is a lovely jetty and beautiful sand hills and some classic stone houses, a legacy of when the Port was an active centre for the whole region.

The Nullabor is to the north of the Great Australian Bight and the road, before turning inland after Eucla features stunning headlands and coastline.



We crossed the South Australia/Western Australia border shortly before Eucla, where we had a compulsory inspection for fruit, vegetables and honey, all forbidden entry to Western Australia.

We camped at the Roadhouse at Eucla, which had a remarkably sophisticated restaurant and outdoor garden, like an Italian or south of France resort.

Of course for those seeking culture there was also the Big Whale.



After Eucla the Eyre Highway moves away from the coast and from Caiguna to Balladonia has the longest stretch of straight highway in the world - 90 miles long.







It is a lonely road with the only outposts being the occasional roadhouse selling food and fuel, like this one at Mandarabilla or the one at Balladonia, featuring pieces of Skylab which crashed to earth nearby, earning a $400 littering fine from the local council.

Our crossing of the Nullabor Plain ended when we reached Norseman, a gold mining town and a part of the Western Goldfields.

The Eyre Peninsula 31 October to 5 November 2009

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Our first stop on the Eyre Peninsula was Port Lincoln named by MatthewFlinders after his home shire of Lincolnshire. This Port is three and a half times the size of Sydney Harbour and is the second deepest naturally occurring harbour in the world after Rio de Janeiro. Flinders thought it should be a capital city because of the harbour but there was limited fresh water so Adelaide was chosen by Colonel Light.

Matthew Flinders a brilliant navigator and cartographer, is well known and respected by Australians. There are memorials and statues to him in many seaside towns. On his first voyage on the Norfolk in 1798 he discovered Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania which saved several days on the journey to and from England. It was named after the ship's surgeon George Bass.

In January 1801, in command of the Investigator he returned to chart the coastline of Australia, linking the early Dutch maps of the area while charting much that was new and naming many of the features. He was the first to circumnavigate Australia. His maps were so accurate they were used up until WW2.

He was the first to use Australia as a name for the continent. Terra Australis was a hypothetical land to the South first theorized by Aristotle. Australia was called either New Holland or Terra Australis. Flinders book "Terra Australis" was published the day before he died and in it he noted his preference for the name Australia. This popularized the name and Governor Macquarie used it in dispatches and pushed for its acceptance. The name Australia was declared officially by the Admiralty in 1824.

Port Lincoln is now the home of a large fishing fleet and the centre for grain export for much of the Eyre Peninsula.

Southern Blue Fin Tuna are caught in the Southern ocean, towed in purse seine nets at about 1 km/hr [a three month voyage, in order to protect the live tuna from stress on the voyage] and then fattened up in Tuna Farms [shown here] before export to Japan. Each fish is worth about $1,000 in the pen, $6,000 at point of sale. Kingfish are also fattened up and exported. Seafood available in season include Boston Bay mussels, Lincoln Wild King Prawns, Pacific Oysters, wild and farmed Abalone,

Southern Rock lobster commonly known as Crayfish Yellow tail Kingfish, Suzuki Mulloway,Snapper and King George Whiting. Locally the King George Whiting is the most popular.


We saw dolphins, sea lions and visited a tuna farm and although all the tuna have been exported now we did have some wonderful Sashimi.

Port Lincoln is a beautiful place, and we walked the Parnkalla walking trail which followed the bay, drank coffee at Del Giorno's on the seafront and admired the statue of Makybe Diva the only three times winner of the Melbourne Cup [2003, 2004 and 2005] this being the home town of her owner Tony Santic. Stuck for a name, Santic gave the task to five women employees in his fishing business, who eventually used the first two letters oftheir given names [Maureen Dellar, Kylie Bascomb, Belinda Grocke, Dianne Tonkin and Vanessa Parthenis] to name the horse.

We visited the Lincoln National Park and dipped ourtoes in the water, having now completed our journey South.

This Emu and her chicks was enjoying the sunshine near the shore.

Our next stop was Coffin Bay. Coffin Bay was named by Matthew Flinders after his friend Sir Isaac Coffin. [John always thought it was linked to what he imagined was a high death rate from eating oysters!] Coffin Bay is famed for its oysters and you can have as many fresh oysters as Trish can eat from the local shops and restaurants. We did the Oyster Walk, which although nothing to do with oysters is beautiful as it follows the coast for about 8 kilometers.

There is a nice restaurant overlooking the Oyster beds called ...... The Oyster Bed.

We drove from Coffin Bay to camp at Elliston. We had lunch overlooking the sea. Oysters to go are Trish's idea of perfect lunch.





Elliston is the centre of the Abalone Industry. Trish bought some Abalone to cook from the Australian Bight Abalone.

There is a lovely beach with an old fashioned jetty. Every port on Eyre Peninsula has similar jetties, a legacy of an era when the ocean was the main highway for grain export. Elliston has a very narrow entrance, difficult in a high wind.

The jetties are retained now as fishing spots for the locals and tourists.

Elliston has commissioned a series of sculptures for its Headland Drive, a novel and fun idea on a beautiful coast road.


We also visited Locks Well a deserted beach south of Elliston and a great spot for catching Salmon.

From Elliston we drove to Venus Bay. On the way we purchased bread from Colton on the honor system. It was lovely bread cooked in a German wood fired oven.

We had lunch at Talia caves overlooking a fabulous but dangerous beach for swimming with strong rip tides.

Tricia did a walk along the beach.

Venus Bay is another lovely fishing town and we camped right by the water.

We did the headland walk.









We then visited the 4WD beach. A beach isn't a beach in SA unless you can drive on it.

We set off on November 3 for Streaky Bay, stopping first at Murphy's Haystacks a series of Inselbergs on what was farmer Murphy's property. They were named when a visiting Irish agricultural expert, advocating harrowing, passed by in a coach and praised Murphy's harrowing techniques for producing such outstanding "haystacks". The Irish joke continues!

We had lunch at Point Labatt, a sea lion colony on a rocky outcrop. We stopped and watched them.

Most of the sea lions were sleeping apart from two youngsters who were playing in one of the shallow pools. They became so energetic that they lept into the air in pursuit of each other. Eventually they called their mothers who took them out into the ocean for a longer swim.

Our next camp was Streaky Bay, another oyster town, with the mandatory jetty. There is a nice cafe there called Mocean, a great spot to sit and read the paper.


From Streaky Bay we drove to Smokey Bay, a major oyster town again with a jetty, for lunch.

Then on to Ceduna a pretty town at the end of the Eyre Peninsula, with gardens and of course the jetty!!

Oysters are farmed here at Denial Bay. As one video expounded they are a great crop for this area as they are drought proof.