Elliston's Great Ocean View & Coodlie Park Farmstay: In the Eyre Peninsula Region on the West Coast of South Australia
The charms of the rugged West Coast of Eyre Peninsula are obvious to anyone who spends time exploring the many spectacular points of interest from Coffin Bay to Streaky.
As you head up the Flinders Highway you should drop into Locks Well with its stairway leading down to one of the great salmon fishing spots on the West Coast. Here the waves roll in from the Great Australian Bight and their relentless pounding has created one of the most spectacular stretches of coastline in the State.
For Craig Haslam, the one time proprietor of the Port Kenny pub and now a head local tourism officer at Elliston, this part of our coastline has been a well kept secret for far too long.
“We're always hearing about Victoria's Great Ocean Road. Well we've got a cliff top drive that we're just starting to expand and develop. Ours is only twelve kilometres so we've now called it Ellison's Great Ocean View. And it just takes in the best coastal attractions on the Eyre Peninsula in a very short area.”
When you take in the Elliston jetty you realise the locals had big plans for this town. Within a few short years of settlement there was plenty of wheat, wool and barley to get to market. Loading it was one thing, getting supplies in and out of Waterloo Bay with its dangerous line of reefs known as the Bar was quite another. Many a cutter found the voyage through these waters extremely perilous and sailors in dire need owed their lives to the crew manning the rocket launcher.
“What they actually did was launch a rocket with a rope attached to it. It would go to the ship and people could be ferried in because there was so much trouble coming in across the bar.”
Craig showed us a boat that was certainly left high and dry but it has nothing to do with maritime disasters last century more a case of new art for a new millennium. This is part of what remains from Elliston's - Sculpture on the Cliffs - part of the recent Encounter 2002 celebrations.
“There's another reason to come and have a look at the views as well as the different sculptures. And the thought behind why that sculpture is here and the artist's idea of having it here.
It is local artist John Turpie's artistic statement made in part from timbers from the original Elliston Jetty. It says all of us are boat people who've made our way to a new shore and a new home. His other piece is nearby, The Salmon Pole, takes pride of place at Salmon Point, a popular fishing spot. It's a reminder of an outdoor exhibition which the local tourist association hopes will become a regular event.
And as you take in the spectacular vistas on Elliston's Great Ocean View make sure you keep an eye out for some fossilised sculptures at ground level.
"Basically they were a weevil cocoon. The original Leptopius Duponti was a weevil which used to feed on the Acacia trees and scrubby foliage hundreds of thousands of years ago. They leave their eggs on the leaves and when the eggs hatched they’d go down to the root of the tree underground and they'd feed off the root stock of the tree and they would gradually form this cocoon.”
They're to be found a fair way up the coast along with these other amazing geological oddities known as Murphy's Haystacks - giant slabs of windworn granite. They're located near Craig's own little rustic paradise at Coodlie Park, his own little piece of the West Coast.
“It's available for people to come and get away and actually have their own beach for the day. I really love the West Coast - I’m passionate about the pristine, natural scenes that are unspoilt. They rival anything in Australia.”
Coodlie Park is located about 45 kilometres from Elliston. A night's accommodation with breakfast costs $95 per couple. For details regarding Elliston's Great Ocean View call into the Community Information Centre in Memorial drive in the heart of town. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards.sa.com.au
