Living in a hallway: Eyre Peninsula Part 3

24th May - 25th May

We left Lock this morning heading for Coffin Bay (Oyster Capital of SA). We stopped for morning tea at Cummins a lovely little town which used to be the railroad hub for produce (mainly grain) heading to Port Lincoln. If you're heading this way highly recommend the bakery and the butcher. We didn't explore the town as much as we had liked as it was really windy.

Arrived in Coffin Bay just after lunch and set up camp in the caravan park. Lots of wildlife roaming around the caravan park and town, mainly emu's and Kangaroos. We did part of the Oyster Walk around the bay and through the fishing shack area even though most of them have been upgraded to "Grand Designs". We got back to camp just as it started to rain. The first time we have had rain on the trip. When cooking our tea we were invaded by huge moths, which we have since learned are called rain moths or bardee's. The larger ones were nearly the size of a sparrow.

Coffin Bay

Today we visited Port Lincoln it was a bigger town than we had expected. It's mainly a fishing area and a large grain port. There was ship in being loaded with Grain. The marina where all the fishing fleet anchor is an unusual mix of commercial fishing boats and homes with moorings and fancy mini oligarch yachts. It reminded us a little bit of the homes on the Gold Coast with the canals and private moorings.

The town centre of Port Lincoln has a few old buildings may of which are on the sea front, we walked along the Jetty and through the parklands down to the railway museum. The harvested grain from the early 1900's to around the 1990's was transported from surrounding towns via train. Now it comes in by road train. So the railway is no longer in use. The museum was well worth the visit.

Port Lincoln

That's a scary Crows nest

Port Lincoln fishing fleet

Port Lincoln fancy homes

Port Lincoln Silos

Port Lincoln Railway Museum

26th May - 27th May

We left Coffin Bay this morning and our first stop was the Koppio Smithy Museum its in the middle of nowhere and was established in 1968. It has two original buildings which are the blacksmith’s shop and cottage which were built by Thomas Brennand in 1905. They had some large collections of tractors, stationary engines, barbed wire, farm equipment, vehicles, horse-drawn vehicles, printing presses, and equipment. One family the Jericho family donated all of their memorabilia to the museum which includes photos, letters, greeting cards all sorts of things for those interested in the life of people who lived in these remote communities. Two of the buildings were set up as period homes set up just as they were in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It's been well laid out there is something there for everybody.

Koppio Smithy Museum

We did plan to have a quick stop at Tumby Bay on our way to Cleve, while we were walking around town Linda stopped to read a sign outside an old home which is also a B&B. The owner and his mates spotted us and kidnapped us to see the Blacksmith Museum where were spent the afternoon. The Museum is an old workshop with all the belt-driven equipment still in place. The local group has restored it all to working order. After seeing all the equipment demonstrated old mate opened the secret back door and took us into the stationary engine area. Where once again just about everything was in working order. We are now camped up in the CWA Caravan Park in Tumby directly opposite the beach. We never made it to Cleve.

Tumby Bay Street Art

Silo Art Tumby Bay

Tumby Bay Jetty

Excel Blacksmiths Museum Tumby Bay

We spent a second day in Tumby and walked all the way to Tumby Island, and had a good look around at the back streets of the town. Many of the houses were really big, it must have been an affluent place back in the 1920s and 30s. In the evening we dropped in at the Tumby Hotel and were conned into buying tickets for the meat raffle, we had to stay until it was drawn at 7:00pm. Managed to win a consolation prize of a free drink. We had a great time chatting with the locals in the bar.

Pelicans at Tumby Bay Island

Tumby Bay Island

Tumby Bay

28th May

We Left Tumby Bay this morning and headed for Cowell another lovely coastal town that is having some major refurbishments on the waterfront. From Cowell we headed to Cleve where we had planned to stay but the weather was closing in so we headed for drier territory. Tonight we are staying at Iron Knob again. As it's a Saturday we headed to the bowls club for a drink and catch up with the locals.

Franklin Hotel Cowell

Humpy Holden Cleve

Graves Iron Knob Cemetery

Iron Knob Cemetery

Iron Knob

Iron Knob with the town in the background

Iron Knob Cemetary and Princess Mine

Iron Knob Mine

29th May - 30th May

We did a couple hours more traveling today, the weather has changed so we have moved a little bit further south. Tonight we are staying Orroroo. On the way, we stopped off in Quorn, another sleepy little town and home of the Pitchi Richi railway which we saw on the way there steaming towards Port Augusta. After lunch, we headed to Orroroo with a short stop at Wilmington. Being a Sunday nothing is open so it's very quiet and there is not much to see. While we walking around town we heard some bleating and a little lamb came running out of a backyard and followed us around "he was very cute". It took us about 10 mins to get him to go back home. I think he thought he was a dog.

There is lots of treasure hidden in sheds around Orroroo.

We decided to stay an extra night in Orroroo because it was just too windy to move. We did a scenic loop of the area in the rain and visited the painted silo's Wirrabara and stopped for a coffee and an egg and bacon roll very nice. Then it was off to Peterborough and a visit to the Steamtown railway museum. It was too windy and wet to have look around the town of Peterborough so we headed back to Orroroo. During the night the wind picked up again and it was very cold.

Quorn

Quorn Station

First Class Lounge Car (Steamtown Peterborough)

Round House (Steamtown Peterborough)

Rail Inspection Car (Steamtown Peterborough)

Silo Art Wirrabara

31st May - 1st June

The weather is still terrible, it deteriorated overnight. We saw a few birds flying backward. We decided to move on to Burra with a stop at Peterborough and the Print Museum which was well worth the visit. The print shop had been left as was in 2001 and the Council took it on with the local historical society. All the printing machines are in working order and they found over 25,000 job dockets that have a printed sample of what the job was. These are being recorded electronically and preserved by the historical society. As part of the tour, you get to see the archiving of the job dockets.

Model Railway Peterborough Newsagency

Printing Museum Peterborough

We are now set up in the show grounds at Burra. A place we intend to return to when we have more time and the weather is warmer.

Bridge Burra

Old Building Burra

Paxton Square Cottages Burra

Kooringa Telegraph Office Burra (Now an Art Gallery), St Josephs Catholic Church in the Background

Pearce's Buildings Burra

The day dawned calm and sunny so we decided to stay another night. It's still very cold but pleasant enough without the wind and rain. We purchased the Burra Passport Key which gives you access to 11 historic buildings and sites in the town. It took all day to walk around visiting all the sites.