Eyre Peninsula
As most know we have been house sitting, on the Eyre Peninsula at a small place called Cowell. We were very lucky getting our first house sitting job, since joining Aussie House sitters, and it just seemed to fall into our laps, when these lovely people contacted us asking us if we would like to house sit their lovely 100 year old property, along with 2 dogs, 5 chooks, with the bonus of 4 camels on the 8,000 acres property.
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| Old Middlecamp Homestead |
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| 'Jess' |
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| One Of The Four Camels Living In Retirement At Middlecamp |
The Eyre Peninsula is a jewel in the crown of South Australian Tourism, however we have found that tourism in this area of South Australia, is way behind so many other areas of Australia. The roads are dreadful and make it very hard taking the bus anywhere, and travel is slow, not that we are in a hurry to get anywhere much these days. Total lack of sign posting makes it difficult for us to find the type of things we like to visit.
Have got on my soap box this morning and written to SA Tourism and had our say – nothing will get fixed, unless people let them know, so will be interesting to see what the have to say in response.
The Eyre Peninsula, is serviced by three major centres, Port Lincoln, Whyalla, and Port Augusta. We didn’t have much time to stop in Port Augusta, and as we had both been there a number of times before, we needed to head onto Cowell. We stayed overnight in one beautiful free camp – Point Lowly. Everything there we could possible want, and a photographers dream at sunrise.
Just behind the camp site is the huge Santos refinery, which processes, both oil and gas, from the Moomba gas fields much further north.
It was a wonderful overnight camp, and so many others there and some of the way to the rally in Kalgoolie, as we are. Will certainly be marking this one on our map for stays in the future.
Onto Cowell and our first house sitting job and meeting with the owners, Jo and Ian Sampson and their lovely dogs, Jess and Ruby. We have had a ball looking after this beautiful property, and have soaked in its history, with the original homestead ruins still standing along with the old shearing shed.
The shearing shed on the main property is leased out, but offered some great photo opportunities.
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| Old Shearing Shed |
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| The Days Work Is Done |
Up the back of the property are 4 camels, the remains of an old local fellow who used the camels for camel rides at local events, but now they are retired and live out their live here on the property.
The wild life is amazing with so many native quarrion around, along with Port Lincoln Parrots, honeyeaters, and the like. Incredible rock formations line the valleys on the property and you can almost imagine dinosaurs roaming around in days gone by.
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| Port Lincoln Parrot |
Cowell is home to what use to be Jade mining, but it has now been reduced to just selling souvenirs (at fairly expensive prices) and it is interesting to see black jade, in comparison to the normal green jade.
Jade was discovered here in 1856 and the ‘nephrite jade’ is recognised as one of the oldest and largest deposits in the world.
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| Big Lump Of Jade |
The whole of the Peninsula is home to some of the best fishing in Australia, and blue fin tuna and the likes are commercially farmed in many areas, including Arno Bay, where there is quite and aquaculture industry. Oysters are plentiful and are to be tasted to be believed.
Along the road to Cleve is a memorial to May Gibbs, famous for her Gumnut Babies. Believed to be the area in which gave her the inspiration to write her famous stories and drawings, was where she is believed to have spent her early child hood years.
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| May Gibbs Memorial |
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| Old Crossville School |
Cleve is mainly an agricultural town, with a wide variety of crops, including, wheat, barley, canola and pea crops. It was established in the 1850’s when the McKechnie brothers established Wangaraleednie (meaning ‘hill of the west wind’) – why don’t I find that heard to believe!!!!
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| Welcome To Cleve Sign |
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| Yeldulknie Weir Pumphouse |
In the abundant array of tourism brochures, we saw the Wharminda Soaks listed as an area of interest.
I quote “Approximately 125 kms long, this interesting drive showcases extensive panoramic views of agricultural landscapes and the Wharminda Soaks over the blue range that rises to 170 metres above sea level”. Have yet to find out how these soaks came about, other than to be fortunate enough to find a little sign that states that travelling stockmen used the soaks as a watering hole. The various Soaks in Tasmania, are interesting for their geological formation, and how they actually came about – but we drew a blank here???
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| The Information Board About The Soaks??? |
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| Barry Soaking It All Up! |
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| The Soaks Picnic Area |
Arno Bay
All along the coastline are pristine white beaches, and Arno Bay is no exception, With a population of just 270, I was once a major port, with grin being shipped out and super phosphate being shipped in. Now home to a huge kingfish and aquaculture industry.
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| Fishing Fleet At Arno Bay |
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| Old Fence Line On A Tidal Bay At Arno Bay |
Port Neil
A stop over for lunch at Port Neil at the one and only local pub, this little town is in peak season a hive of activity. Hard to believe on the day we were there with the weather just atrocious.
The perfect holiday destination, from all reports.
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| Port Neil Jetty |
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| Carrow Wells |
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| The Old Well At Carrow Wells |
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| Windmill at Carrow Wells |
Carrow Wells was really worth seeing. Seems strange to see a windmill so close to the beach. A waterhole used by the aboriginals in days past, and then the new settlers discovered them and they came for miles around, to carry water back to their farms - some the journey taking days at a time.
Hard to believe, that none of the local galleries and craft shops, were not open on a weekend – we otherwise might have been that little bit poorer.
Home to The Australian Eucalypt Collection, I would have loved to have seen their selection of jewellery and giftware.
Port Gibbon
Off the main highway we diverted off down a dirt road to Port Gibbon – not hard to miss the sign!!!
This is where we have been taking the dogs for a swim, but is also home to the Milford Crouch, a ketch which sank here in 1959. A friend, whose father was one of the ones that lost his life, had asked us to visit the plaque and give it a polish, but guess who forgot the polishing gear???
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| Plaque - Commemorating the Sinking Of The Ketch |
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| The Red Cliffs Of Port Gibbon |
Continuing along the back road towards Cowell, we found one of the most amazing sites we have seen on this part of the trip.
Towards the end of the second world war, these Bomb Shelters were built, along with two towers. Then peace was declared, and the shelters no longer needed and the towers were sold off at the princely sum of $10. A small sign, gives a little information about the site, but such a shame SA Tourism hasn’t done more with it, or the Department of defence who now owns them.
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| Old Bomb Shelters |
The day had been freezing with frequent showers passing overhead and when I took this photo a rainbow could only just be seen in the background.
Well tomorrow our home owners return and our time here at Cowell has come to an end, and we have really enjoyed it. House sitting is to be recommended, and we just hope that this wonderful place has not spoiled us for any future ones.
And so we will begin our trek across the Nullabor, and hope this wind does not follow us, as it is just the worst driving in this bus with strong wind – can be quite frightening at times!!!
We aim to be in Kalgoolie on or around the 7th October ready for the rally, and looking forward to catching up with David McGeoch.
Lots of other Highway Wanderers already making the trek across and looking forward to meeting them all when we get there.
Cheers for now everyone. Hope you enjoy the read.
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