After our Tasmania trip and before heading back up north, we had a look around Yorke Peninsula in March 2025.
Despite starting our trip on a long weekend finding a camp site wasn’t as hard as we expected. Port Julia bush camp is a nice spot and the camp hosts a very welcoming friendly couple. We tried to catch some Blue Manna crabs (here they call them Blue Swimmer crabs) with a rake we borrowed from the camp host. In Western Australia we crab with scoops rather than rakes, so it was not only trying to find the crabs but also learning how to handle the rake.
Stansbury was our next stop. We liked it that much that we checked in at the caravan park in the morning (think that was a first 😉). The caravan park sits on a land tip and you get a shallow bay with a walkway where all the birds hang out and a deeper bay that is more exposed to the wind, that’s where the crabs are. Again, we tried our luck after sunset with a torch, this time with our own rake. We got one very big one but as we didn’t catch any others, we let him go.
Stansbury Coffee Shop and Water Tower have incredible murals. Yorke features a mural trail around the whole peninsula. We didn’t follow it, just came across a few every now and then.
Before leaving town, we visited the butcher and got one of our best steaks ever. We couldn’t resist and visited the seafood store too and treated ourselves to oysters, seafood mix and a crayfish!!! Well, I think we have more than enough food for the next few days, yummy!
Edithburgh is famous for snorkelling under the jetty. Since everyone was crabbing and fishing with bait, we were too worried about sharks to go for a snorkel.
The jetty has an interesting history of construction. The original wooden jetty of 45m was built in 1873. In 1875 it was extended to 82m with iron rails. In 1883 it was extended again to 112m and in 1901 it reached its final length of 175m.
In 1973 the jetty was closed to shipping and is since used as a recreational jetty. Locals and tourists alike try for squid, fish and crabs from the jetty. Read more about the jetty’s history in the photos below.
Edithburgh was home to the Castle Salt Company in 1898 – the refinery employed about 300 people and had 200 landowners supplying salt harvested from 101 lakes in the district.
We made our way along the south coast – missing out on Yorketown, but the coast way was beautiful. We enjoyed the Troubridge Lookout with a spectacular view of the rugged coastline.
We stopped at the Clan Ranald Memorial, another shipwreck. This one is special, because it helped in the process of painting the PLIMSOLL line on ships – the line that indicates the maximum depth the vessel can safely submerge when loaded. Yes, Clan Ranald was heavily overloaded. Read more about it in the photos below.
Along the way we came past a sign saying ‘Kangaroo Island Lookout’ and we drove down to the coast to have a look. Its a stunning lookout anyway, even if the weather doesn’t permit view of the island.
We stopped in Marion Bay to get fuel before we continued to Dhilba Guuranda – Innes National Park at the very bottom of the Yorke Peninsula. Marion Bay is home to another shipwreck ‘Willyama’ which sunk in 1907 with all the coal still on board. The coal was retrieved over the following 3 years.
We checked in at the first camp after the visitor centre – Stenhouse Bay. We spent the afternoon exploring some of the point of interest.
At the lighthouse is an information board about the wrecks around Althrope Island and the stretch along this coast is called ‘shipwreck trail’. If you’ve read my blog about the Great Ocean Road, you might remember the wrecks I mentioned in that area. Way too many ships and lives have been lost in the early days of Australian settlement. They have improved the safety measures on ships and navigation worldwide though.
Ethel Wreck Beach … Yes, another wreck. Well, actually two. They are special because the wrecks lie dry on low tide, and you can walk amongst the debris of the once magnificent barque Ethel. Read the full story in the photos below.
The next day we walked amongst the ruins of Stenhouse Bay and Inneston. Both were mining towns with a thriving community. In the 1890s they started mining gypsum in Inneston. From 1916 plaster was produced also. Both products were exported from Stenhouse Bay. One of the old transport trains you can still inspect at Stenhouse Bay. With the Great Depression in 1930 all production stopped.
We continued along the coast and stopped here and there until we hit a dead end at Browns Beach. Its literally only a couple kilometres that are missing, hence why I didn’t pick it up on the map. We had to drive all the way back to Marion Bay to get north.
We camped at Point Souttar further north and enjoyed breakfast at Hardwicke Bay where we watched the Pelicans fishing in a pool the tide had left behind.
We visited Minlaton, home of Captain Harry Butler’s Bristol ‘Red Devil’. Harry Butler was born near Minlaton and served in the first World War in England’s Flying Corps. After the war he returned home where he made a name for himself as a stunt pilot. He was also the first to deliver airmail over water in the southern hemisphere.
In Port Victoria there is a Volcano Trail you can do with information boards along the way. I didn’t get very far as it was an exceptionally hot day. On the parking lot I found a rose pepper tree and collected a bunch to dry. Now am using it I wish I had collected more; it is spicy but has a sweet taste to it, similar to the Tasmanian Bush Pepper.
Port Victoria is also home to the Windjammer Museum. Unfortunately, it was closed when we were there.
We came through Tumby Bay on the way to Tickera. Tickera is famous for crabbing, there is literally nothing else to do. After breakfast at the beach we tried our luck again and finally go a feed! Unfortunately there is no photo proof of it.
From there we drove to Wallaroo as I wanted to see the Silo mural lightshow. Unfortunately, the camp was fully booked. We drove back south to The Gap bush camp. A beautiful spot for fishing, kayaking, exploring the beach, snorkelling and watching the sunset.
The next day Yorke Peninsula had a power outage, and we were out of luck for breakfast. All the shops were closed, and the grocery stores only sold products that don’t need to be in the fridge. Quite amazing how everything shuts down with a power outage.
Explored in December 2024 (Eyre) and March 2025 (Yorke), written April 2025