February 2014 - Port Elliot to Ceduna

From Port Elliot our travels took us around the outskirts of Adelaide through all the good little German towns of the Clare Valley. Strathalbyn, Hahndorf, Lobethal and Gawler before getting onto Port Wakefield Road and down to the area known as the Copper Coast where we stayed a few nights at Wallaroo.

Wallaroo had a large copper mine and smelter back in the late 1800’s but copper prices fell and the mine and smelter closed down in 1923. Today Wallaroo rides on the back of the grain storage and export shipping facility as the Yorke Peninsular is the biggest grain growing area in South Australia.

Moonta Mines is only 17 kilometres from Wallaroo and this mine was once the most successful copper mines in the world with over 170,000 tonnes of copper mined between 1861 and 1923. This mine extracted 100% of the copper from the ore mined here because of the techniques employed by the mine manager, who was the first in Australia to build a Cementation Works which is a process used to further extract copper from previously treated ore. 

The historic train tour around the old mine site took us past the remains of the settling tanks and channels connecting the settling tanks back to the Cementation Works.
This area had a very high Cornish population during the mining period as similar mining practices were used to mine tin in Cornwell. The Cornish Pasty was a stable food for the miners at lunch time and is still a big seller in the bakeries in this area.

The mine manager was a Cornish man named Mr Lipson Hancock who succeeded his father who was known as “The Captain”. The Captain was a very religious man who had a church built in the town in 1865. The church was a modeled after a church in Trudo which was just across the river from his home town in Cornwell. The church still stands today and used every Sunday for service. It has a seating capacity of 1,250 people, 750 seated down the bottom and a further 500 seated in the 2 balconies along each side. Unfortunately the congregation size today is only 15 persons or on a busy Sunday it can get up to 20. 

In 1888 a magnificent pipe organ was installed which has 200 pipes at a cost of 142 pounds and a further 58 pounds to transport and install it. The organ fell into disrepair some years ago and the National Trust contributed $43,000 and the congregation fund raised a further $7,000 towards the $50,000 cost to have it repairs and fitted with an electric bellows.

At the top of the Spencer Gulf is Port Augusta which is flanked to the east by the Flinders Rangers. It is the main intersection for the Eyre Highway going west to Perth and the Sturt Highway going north through Alice Springs to Darwin.

The same can be said for the National Rail network and 100+ carriage trains seem to roll through the marshaling yards here constantly, day and night. No sooner than an east bound train pull into the yards and a north or west bound train sneaks out quietly behind it. No matter the mode of transport, it’s good to see freight moving across the country.

Port Augusta is also home to South Australia’s biggest power generation plant which historically provides 35% of its power needs. Coal to fire this plant comes by train from Leigh Creek, 280 kilometres to the north. The train hauls 200 carriages of coal at a time and makes 3 to 5 journeys per week to feed the plant.

The Flinders Ranges skirt the eastern edge of the town and make a spectacular backdrop to the top of the Spencer Gulf. 

Port Augusta Shire Council set up the Wadlata Outback Centre as a Bicentennial project back in 2000. This centre explains the history of the local aboriginal people and how the land beyond the Flinders Ranges has changed over the thousands of years. The theater with a giant screen shows the courageous pioneers who followed in the footsteps of the early explorers to take up land for farming and grazing. They sure did it the hard way. There are also areas to sit and view videos of people and places around the outback of South Australia which not only prepare you for what to expect on your travels, but also make you want to go there. 

Judy also got to sit at the controls of a simulated 150 tonne dump truck as it loaded and drove around the Leigh Creek Coal Mine. 

The kangaroo burger with salad in their Outback Restaurant made an excellent lunch and a fitting end to our visit.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service is an essential part of the medical services provided in the outback areas of Australia. They respond to emergencies involving residents in these areas as well as people travelling through. There are now 21 RFDS bases around Australia and we intend to visit them all as we are passing through. They all have a different story to tell and the staff are always happy to have a chat and take a donation if you feel so inclined.

The Port Augusta base operate 3 planes worth $6 million each and cover the area from Alice Springs to Adelaide. They are proud to tell the story of how they flew a 12 year old boy from Adelaide to Melbourne in the middle of the night as a donor kidney for the boy had just become available and he needed to get to Melbourne within 2 hours. I am always amazed at how well these planes are set up to cope with all sorts of emergency.

We traveled down the west side of the Spencer Gulf on our way to Port Lincoln and stopped off overnight at Whyalla, which is also known as “steel city”. The town reminded me of Port Headland and Port Kembla, with red iron ore dust staining everything that it settles on a dark red colour.

Fortunately, this is a remnant from the past, as the rail unloading facility is now enclosed, and ship loading is now done 2 to 3 kilometres out to sea from barges that are loaded in a dust controlled environment.
The first attempts to mine iron ore in the area began in the 1890’s and BHP took over the mining in 1900 with mines at Iron Knob and Iron Monarch. In August 1901, the first locomotive hauled ore from Iron Knob to Hummock Hill (Whyalla) on a newly constructed railway line.

In 1941, the first blast furnace was built which was the start of the steel mill at Whyalla, and the first foundry iron was produced in the state of South Australia. A power house was built at the same time to supply power to Whyalla and Iron Knob, with coke being shipped in from Newcastle to heat the blast furnace. Heat from the blast furnace was then used to make steam to drive the turbines of the power house.
Water was also shipped in from Newcastle until the pipeline from Morgan on the Murray River 379 kilometres away was completed. A duplicate pipeline was started in 1962 to meet the growing demand and Whyalla still gets 66,000 megalitres of water from the Murray River by that same pipeline from Morgan today.
Whyalla now produces 1.2 million tonnes of raw steel each year with about 65% of that being transferred by rail to OneSteel’s Market mills in billet form for further processing. The remaining 35% is then converted to finished products in the Whyalla Rolling Mills. These products service the construction and rail transport industries.

Whyalla was also a major ship building yard between 1940 and 1978 where a total of 66 ships were built, the first being the Australian designed anti submarine and mine sweeping vessel, HMAS Whyalla. This ship is a major part of the Whyalla Visitor Information now days

The majority of steel produced in Australia during WW2 was made from iron ore mined at Iron Knob.

In 1941 Australia defence capacity depended on a single conveyor belt on Whyalla’s number 1 iron ore loading jetty, so an anti aircraft battery with 4 guns was built to protect it from air and sea attack.Port Lincoln is on the bottom end of the Spencer Gulf and it is known as Australia’s seafood capital.

There is a large fishing fleet that call Lincoln Cove Marina home. Prawns, lobster, salmon, calamari, scallops, oysters, whiting, garfish and tuna are all very plentiful in this area. Back in the 1950’s Safcol established a tuna cannery in Port Lincoln and in 1974 Lincoln Tuna Processing cannery opened. By 1982, over 20,000 tonnes tuna were landed. All this caused the fishery to be over exploited and the quotas introduced in 1984 caused the viability of the whole industry to be questioned. In the early 1990’s live fish were brought into Port Lincoln in the wells of boats and introduced into netted rings where the tuna were fattened and sold to Japan. A system was then developed for towing large farms of tuna into the bay and tuna farming exploded into the multimillion dollar industry it is today.

Port Lincoln is a lovely place, but being on the southern end of the Spencer Gulf the southerly wind blows in straight of the Antarctica.

Heading north again along the Eyre Peninsular we stopped a couple of days at a pretty little town of Elliston which sits on Waterloo Bay.

The jetty out into the bay is 1,389 feet long and has been heritage listed as it is one of the few “screw-pylon” structured jetties still in use today. The jetty was constructed by using a horse drawn winch to screw its steel pylons directly into the sea floor.

There is a 12 kilometre cliff top drive around the town with some spectacular cliffs that have been eroded by wind, rain and the sea over many years.

There is an event held here every second year called “Sculpture on the Cliffs” and some of the unusual sculptures can still be found along the cliff tops.

Well and truly had enough of the wind, we moved further north to Streaky Bay and found the best beach side caravan park we have ever stayed in.

This bay is protected from the southerly winds by the main land which keeps the bay lovely and calm so we pumped the Zodiac up and went to try our luck at fishing. First day saw the tide come in at 3.00 pm so we could launch the boat from the beach behind the caravan. (The boat ramp is 6 kilometres from the caravan park which is way too far for us to tow the boat on our little portable trailer)

Beautiful clear shallow water, I could see the bottom so found a clear patch amongst the weeds and BINGO 3 nice big blue swimmer crabs for tea.

Streaky Bay shot into the headlines when a 5 metre long, 1,520 kg shark was caught in April 1990 by a young local fisherman after a 5 and a quarter hour struggle.

The mature female shark was caught 22 kilometres off shore from Streaky Bay and then it took 3 hours to tow it back into the bay where it was weighed on the wheat silos scales. The most surprising thing about this catch was that it was caught on a fishing rod and reel with just a 24 kg line. The shark was estimated to be 16 to 18 years old, and was used by researchers to obtain data. As little was known about mature white pointers reproductive system,one of its ovaries was examined and it was found to contain thousands of eggs. There is a life size replica of the world's largest white pointer shark caught on a rod and reel on display at the visitor information centre.

Forty five kilometres south of Streaky Bay stands an unusual outcrop of granite rocks known as Murphys Haystacks. These” haystacks” are described technically as Inselbergs, (a hill that looks like a rocky island rising sharply from the sea) They were named by an Irish agricultural expert who advocated that for farmers to produce good hay, they should harrow their land for best results. He was travelling by coach and noticed the rock formations in the distance and announced to the driver and other passengers that the farmer had harrowed his land to produce so much hay and fodder. As the land was owned by Murphy, the name Murphys Haystacks stuck.

Another 45 kilometres further south is the Point Labatt Conservation Park which is home to a Sealion Colony. This is a wilderness area with only a viewing platform 100 metres above the beach with shear cliffs and no way down. This is fantastic, as without access to the beach, the Sealion colony won’t be exploited by tourism operators or people going into their area. We saw about 30 sealions in 4 distinct separate groups as they lay sunning themselves on the beach while the “kids” swam around the shallow pools in the rocks.
Females from this colony always return to here to breed once every 18 months, most times in the same area of beach. One calf is then born in mid winter and the next is born mid summer. Males wander far and wide, sometimes to colonies hundreds of kilometres away. The pups weigh around 7 kg at birth and depend entirely on their mothers milk for the first 12 months.

Sealions are a part of the seal family but they differentiate from true seals in as much as they have ear flaps and hind flippers that can be turned forward for walking on land, whereas true seals are more streamlined and have to shuffle along on land without the rear flippers. Sealions look very awkward walking on land and only seem to move about 2 metres before stopping to rest.

We saw some people cleaning some very large shells that looked a bit like a muscle so asked some questions and they told us they were Razor Fish.

Now this is something we had not come across before so we asked a few more questions. Turns out these fish grow mostly submerged in the sand, just below the low tide level. They are called razor fish because their shells that stick out of the sand are razor sharp so it is advisable not to wear thongs when going looking for them. Next low tide I donned sneakers and wandered out into the water and before long started stepping on what felt like rocks, but investigation found they were actually razor fish. Using leather gloves as advised, they were reasonably easy to pull out of the sand and before long I had a dozen or more. I cut them open at the fish cleaning station in the caravan park and some of the people around said that they only use them for bait, while others said that they were good to eat. There is a white piece of flesh inside them a bit like a scallop, while all the rest is offal. Judy coated them in fish seasoning and we fried them in butter on the BBQ. We were a bit apprehensive about eating them at first because of all the different reports that we had heard, but once we tried them we found that they were really good. More like fish than scallops. We will keep an eye out for more next time we are near the waters edge.

Fishing with Judy never fails to surprise me. We went out in the boat to catch a few blue swimmer crabs for tea with the drop nets. I couldn't believe it when she pulled the second net in and there was a very nice 38 cm flat head. Next net had 2 big blue swimmers. (I am lucky to catch them one at a time) We had a lovely seafood platter for tea with flatty fillets, blue swimmers and razor fish hearts, lovely.

Ceduna is the last major centre in South Australia before heading off across the Nullarbor towards Perth, it is also home to a major shipping facility called Thevenard Port.

The port loads 85 ships with 1.8 million tonnes of gypsum, 5 ships with 130,000 tonnes of salt, 12 ships with 140,000 tonnes of grain, 30 ships with 600,000 tonnes of mineral sand and unloads 90 trawlers with 1,800 tonnes of fish each year, so it is quite a busy regional shipping terminal. I note that the mineral sands is mined, processed and exported by Iluka and my old “friends” Kalari are here doing the road transport.

Right off the end of the main shopping district is a lovely old jetty that reaches out into the bay far enough to make it an excellent fishing location. A few hours one afternoon rewarded us with some Tommy Rough (Australian Herring). Not being keen on the herring, I soon found out that the blue swimmers go mad for them in the nets and we soon netted 8 very nice blue swimmers.

Denial Bay is 14 kilometres west of Ceduna and is now a popular fishing spot as well as a home to a commercial oyster farming operation.

This area was first settled back in 1889 when Mr McKenzie purchased 16,280 ha of land and was instrumental developing the area and established businesses such as post office, saddler and blacksmiths. They also built “McKenzie Landing” out in the bay which was used to transfer goods and people to waiting ships. At low tide horses would take the people and goods out to the landing where they would wait until the tide came in. The ship would then send a row boat at high tide with goods and people to come ashore when they would pick up the outgoing goods and deliver the incoming goods. The incoming goods and people would then wait on the landing for low tide so the horses could pick them up and take them to shore. Now as there is about 6 hours give or take half an hour between high and low tide, I could see that there would have been some very uncomfortable times waiting out there like a shag on a rock, especially mid summer or mid winter.

I bet they were glad when the jetty was built in. 

The McKenzie Ruins still stand today which show what a tough life the old pioneers must have led.

Smokey Bay is another little fishing village 40 kilometres east of Ceduna.

This village has a permanent population of about 200 people and a floating population of holiday makers of about the same amount. Most of the permanent population is involved in commercial oyster farming. Smokey Bay supplies about 50% of the local, interstate and international oyster market.

These little town really treasure their jetties.

This one was first built in 1910 after a petition containing 22 names was sent to the authorities to have a jetty built to support the areas thriving agricultural industry. The jetty was used right up until the 1950’s when advances in road transport made it more economical to transport the grain to the Thevenard silos. The jetty deteriorated and sat derelict for 45 years before the local progress association started fundraising and lobbied the council to have the jetty restored.

The jetty reopened in 2012 after a restoration cost totaling $640,000, not bad for a jetty that cost 7,297 pounds, fifteen shillings and one penny to build originally.

Our trip around the Spencer Gulf and onto the Eyre Peninsular has been very interesting and rewarding, and we are glad that we didn't just take the shorter journey straight across from Port Augusta to Ceduna.

After a week in Ceduna preparing for our journey further west, we eagerly anticipated our trip across the Nullarbor Plain.