Port Lincoln is a really good town and there are so many things to do from there. It sits on a beautiful bay with islands and promontories providing beautiful backdrops to the town. For us, Wanna out in the National Park was a key highlight. The seafood was also excellent. How could you go wrong?
We stayed at Port Lincoln on 27, 28, 29 October 2018
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting There
Coffin Bay > Port Lincoln ~ 46kms
History
The Eyre Peninsula has been home to Aboriginal people for over 40 thousand years, with the Barngarla people occupying eastern Eyre, including the Port Lincoln area. The original Barngarla name for Port Lincoln was Galinyala.
Matthew Flinders was the first European to discover Port Lincoln under his commission by the British Admiralty to chart Australia’s unexplored coastline. In February 1802, Flinders sailed the Investigator into the harbour, which he later named Port Lincoln after his native county of Lincolnshire. As happened in so many places, a couple of months later on 19 April, French explorer Nicolas Baudin entered the same port and named it Port Champagny.
Sealers had visited the area around 1828 and the mainly French whailing ships were fishing the local bays and island regions by the 1820s and up to the 1840s. In 1836 Sir John Hindmarsh, the first Governor of South Australia, gave instructions to Colonel William Light of finding a capital for the ‘New British Provence of South Australia’.
Light struggled to find a satisfactory location, then was ordered to consider Port Lincoln as the capital. But he was unconvinced as the town would be exposed to many wild gales, there were too many uncharted islands and reefs, and little agricultural land.
Port Lincoln however, proved popular with pioneers and developers, with the first settlers arriving on 19 March 1839 aboard the ships Abeona, Porter and Dorset. In October 1839 Governor George Gawler proclaimed the whole area from Cape Catastrophe to the head of the Spencer Gulf as one district, which he named the District of Port Lincoln. But it was not until 1921 that the municipality of Port Lincoln was proclaimed.
Port Lincoln is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region. The city is reputed to have the most millionaires per capita in Australia. The town also claims to be the “Seafood Capital of Australia”.
Day 1 – Sat 27 Oct – to Port Lincoln
As the journey was so short, we left Coffin Bay latish at 9:15. It was an overcast morning, after light rain fell in the early morning
We drove through extensive farm lands, and we saw many places where the hay had been cut and baled. Lots of agriculture out this way. And a little old church.
We passed by big swamp lands and lakes. Big Swamp was a large lake and further on was Little Swamp.
Getting closer to Point Lincoln we progressively saw more mountains and hills in the distance. Nearing the town we saw snippets of the beautiful bay and the town nestled around it.
The van park is sloped down to the bay and the sites are cut into the slope, staggered front to back so that generally most have a view to the bay. The facilities area also very good. We had an excellent drive through site.
We went into town and had a good look around. It is a really nice place with some lovely old buildings.
The Bay is a nice backdrop to the town and it has a pertty good jetty. We seem to have a thing about jetty’s. At the end of the bay the view is rather spoilt by the port facilities.
We went into the Tourist Office and worked out a plan for the next couple of days. We decided to go into the National Park the next day. This involves paying the $8 day-pass and leaving a $50 deposit on the key to the locked 4WD track
In the afternoon Lillian and Jon arrived from Streaky Bay. We joined them for nibblies and wine.
Day 2 – Sat 28 Oct – Port Lincoln NP
It was a bit of a cloudy day early, with the clouds gradually disappearing. But a strong wind kept us quite cold through the day. Did not expect it to be this cold in late October – come prepared.
We drove to the NP – it’s not far out of town, then onto the bitumen road that runs most of the way across the norther coast of the Park. We turned right onto Wanna Rd, which is an OK dirt road – been on better, been on worse.
At the gate for the 4WD track to the south of the peninsular, the road deteriorated markedly. It is a shocker, full of potholes and hard limestone rock surfaces. The 19km takes about an hour – a very unpleasant hour at that.
After an age we stopped at the Curta Rocks Lookout, which make a nice break from the drive, of which we have only completed about a third. It is a good lookout although it is not right on the cliff top so the views are back a bit of a distance. But good views across to the islands.
On the continuing pounding drive to West Point we saw a few emus. Then came to a large cleared area.
West Point is quite spectacular with cliffs in either directions and lovely rock pools below. There are also some little beaches along the base of the cliff line.
Further along is the Williams Is Lookout – the Islands are not so far off-shore.
Further around is Cape Catastrophe, which also had great views more wonderful cliffs and rock pools.
Then we drove around to Memory Cove, a really beautiful place/ it is a perfectly formed beach with striking headlands on both sides, beautiful white sands and turquoise waters. Loved this beautiful beach. We did find some plastic down there in our 15 min scan, but not so much.
From Memory Cove we drove the excruciating 19km back to the locked gate. More emus. We asked ourself the question: were the places we got worth the awful road? Our answer on that day was no. In summer where we could have had a swim, then we would have answered yes. Love to see the emus.
Then it was the drive to Wanna.
Wanna is an absolute delight!. A stunning series of rock outcrops or islands just off the high cliffs we were standing on. Wonderful place.
I walked along the cliff tops to the west, where the cliffs take amazing shapes and structures. It was sobering to see that name of the cliff edges are seriously undercut and could, as the warning signs tells us, collapse at any time. Wanna is a stunning place.
We drove back out to the northern coast, feeling good to be back on bitumen. On the way we saw more emus and their chicks.
We stopped at Horse Rock and it really is a pretty spot – beautiful coloured water. We found so many razor fish shells on the beach. Razor fish are more like a scallop – we wondered how so many shells were at this one place.
Further along is Horse Rock East, a lovely beach.
Stamford Hill also has a lovely beach stretching way off to the east on one side, and to a small headland to the other, enclosing a shallow pool. At low tide there would not be much water left at this beach.
We did not take the dirt road to Cape Donington – there and back would have been about 50kms. On the way back out, we stopped at Pillie Lake – the salt lake.
That evening, Lillian and Jon came to us for nibblies.
Day 3 – Sun 29 Oct – Port Lincoln town
Another cool day. We did not plan on doing much today as we are also preparing for a 4 day drive back to Sydney starting the next day. We had things to sort out (like checking on water availability).
Firstly, we drove up into the area to the north of the town where the richer people live – We were told that Port Lincoln has the most millionaires per head in Australia. We say one or two expensive looking houses but not many. But it is a nice area in which to live, especially to have some land so close to the city.
From there we went to Winter Hill Lookout where there are great views in all directions.
We drove past the marina to Billy Lights Point, another lovely waterway. There is a very large boat ramp there, in fact the town seems to have so many boat ramps, large and modern.
We drove through the Lincoln Cove marina, surprised at the canal developments existing and planned. But also some very ordinary developments – many single story places all identical. Is there nothing worse than that?
We went out to where the fresh seafood is sold to the public. There are a few large places out there but the prices are awesome. So we went back into town to Capital Seafood, which we found better, not only in price but also in more manageable sized packets.
That evening we went out to dinner with Lillian and Jon as we probably won’t see them again for a while. They are staying in SA for a little while. We went to a nearby restaurant which was not so good. As well, they charge $12 corkage per wine bottle opened from our BYO which is way over the top.
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