Our Latest Travels - Port Lincoln

When we rode the sidecar around the Eyre Peninsula in 2010 our experience of Port Lincoln was ride in, buy petrol, ride out.  My impression at that time was that it was a nondescript service town.  We knew there would be much more to it than that, so this trip we would spend a bit more time exploring.

The first thing you notice as you drive into the town is the large grain storage facility.  This makes perfect sense, after having seen the amount of grain production as we have driven around.

We drove up to White Hill Lookout and you can really see the scale of the port facility.

Apparently, Port Lincoln was considered as a site for the capital city of South Australia, but was ultimately dismissed, due to the treacherous entry to the harbour and the insecurity of fresh water, thus Adelaide was selected.

It turns out that Port Lincoln is also home to the largest fishing fleet in the Southern Hemisphere, with a modern marina on the edge of town.  Most of the fishing boats are for prawn trawling and will be at sea later in the year.  Blue fin tuna is farmed off the coast for the Japanese market. 

We enjoyed a bit of a wander around town.  There are some lovely old buildings, as can be expected.

We found a second hand book store and I love this quote on the wall.

As it is a city that services a large area there was quite a decent shopping centre, including two patchwork shops.  I was very strong and didn’t go into either of them.  I guess the town can support them both, as it is quite a distance to the nearest Spotlight.

The foreshore was sadly not looking its best when we were there, as it is currently undergoing a major refurbishment.  The jetty was in the process of being restored, looking like it was being having planks replaced as well as new railings.

There was already a new playground up and running, which was being well used and looked like a lot of fun.

The path along the waters edge was still to be redone.  Given twelve months, I think this will be a delightful area.

There were a couple of sculptures there too.  The first was of “Makybe Diva”, the famous Melbourne Cup winning racehorse.

The second was “The Tuna Poler”.  It looks like they used to hang off the side of the boats.  Blow that for a joke.

There is a row of shops and cafes on the other side of the road and tucked in amongst them we found this little arch.

I had previously learned that Matthew Flinders had charted the area in 1802, but that also answered my questions of where the name came from and when the area was settled - 1839.

There was also a newer sculpture of Matthew Flinders and his cat “Trimm” who accompanied him on his voyages.  There is a statue of Trimm in Sydney, as well as a book by Bryce Courtenay “Matthew Flinders’ Cat”.  Mick had to give Trimm a pat.

On the Saturday morning Mick went on a fishing charter.  Unfortunately, the fish were just not biting.  The weather was lovely and he still enjoyed his time. 

He did bring home two red mullet and a whiting.  Enough for a little taste for tea.

A pacific gull was keeping an eye on Mick while he cleaned the fish.  We don’t get these gulls over on the east.  

He also tried to catch a fish off the jetty at the caravan park, with no luck.

So what did I do while Mick was on the high seas?  By perfect coincidence, Chooky was hosting a Zoom sewing morning.  As it was a nice day, I took my iPad and stitching down to a picnic table by the water and joined in.  It was the perfect way to spend the morning.

We were surprised to see that there was a van nearly identical to ours parked next to us in the caravan park.  (Ours is the rear one.)

We enjoyed some lovely sunrises, (when we were up early enough to see them.)

While we were in Port Lincoln, we experienced a super blue moon and it was a stunning sight, overlooking the van.

There were a couple of day trips while based here, so they will be next.

We really enjoyed our time in Port Lincoln.  Yes, there was much more than just a nondescript town where you fuel up on your way somewhere else.