(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.
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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. |
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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.
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Point Turton, 247km from Adelaide - the park we stayed
in for the weekend. Squid can be fished from the jetty. |
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Birds waiting on the breakwater for
sport/game fishers to bring them a free feed. |
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Local fishing boat being brought into "dry
dock". |
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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.
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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. |
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Lighthouse from the beach. |
Part of the reef from
Lighthouse. |
We saw many small birds in
this area. |
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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
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