(Lower) Yorke Peninsula, South Australia

Boot-shaped, the Yorke Peninsula is home to barley stacks and "Cousin Jacks" and is a major grain growing area in South Australia.  The Wallaroo-Kadina-Moonta triangle that made up the copper town of "Little Cornwall" gives the peninsula its special slice of heritage. 
The countryside is flat and the towns are small and a lot of the area had been populated by Cornish miners who had moved outside of Moonta and the copper mining they had first immigrated to. There are many shipwrecks to be visited in the area and the area is frequented by skin divers to seek out the hidden ship wrecks.  We stayed at the lower end of Yorke Peninsula on this occasion.

Historic buildings in Edithburgh, SA

Some of the lovely historic buildings to view in Edithburgh.  The Troubridge Hotel served its first customers within a year of the town being established in 1981.

Historic buildings and a modern boat ramp - Edithburgh, Sth Australia A scenic road follows the coast south, looking over offshore reefs ideal for skin diving and fishing. the Caravan Park at Edithburgh is situated on the beach.

Point Turton is one of the newer areas to be settled on the Yorke Peninsula with new housing sales and developments in the area and this is where we stayed for this visit to the lower Yorke Peninsula.  The current Point Turton was declared a town in 1984 with a population of 125.  The Caravan Park is sited in the former flux (dolomite) quarry used in steel production.
I suggest you also visit Marion Bay and some of the National Parks in the area.

Point Turton Caravan Park. Point Turton, 247km from Adelaide - the park we stayed in for the weekend.  Squid can be fished from the jetty. Breakwater at Pt Turton Birds waiting on the breakwater for sport/game fishers to bring them a free feed.
Dry Docking a local fishing craft Local fishing boat being brought into "dry dock". Roy (& Jack) on Pt Turton jetty Roy and Jack (the Wonder Dog) on Point Turton Jetty. The caravan park is in the background.

A short drive from Point Turton is Corny Point, named by Matthew Flinders in 1802.  The French Navigator Nicholas Buadin called it Pointe des Soupirs (Point of Sighs).
The Corny Point settlement grew up around the beach where farmers transferred their bagged grain from drays to barges to be ferried to waiting ketches. 

Corny Point Lighthouse 1882 The kerosene light on the Corny Point Lighthouse was first lit 1 March 1882 and attended by a light keeper until the 1920's - the keeper's cottage has long since been removed - when it was converted to automatic acetylene.  In 1978 the light was converted to electricity operation.  The range of the light is 35 km.
There is an easy walk down to the shoreline to see some of the wonderful rock formations.  We saw a number of small birds flying from the grasses but they were too fast to capture on video or the digital camera.
Corny Point Reef - Corny Point Lighthouse Rocks - Corny Point
Lighthouse from the beach. Part of the reef from Lighthouse. We saw many small birds in this area.
CornyPoint4.jpg (24412 bytes) CornyPoint5.jpg (44131 bytes) CornyPoint6.jpg (28760 bytes)
Rocks around Corny Point. Moonscape of rocks. Coloured rocks at Corny Point.

We shall revisit the Yorke Peninsula and take in some of the other towns on the (Upper) Peninsula.

Index