Boat Shed Restaurant (The) at Wallaroo: Amber enjoys a meal in the Yorke Peninsula region of South Australia

There's no escaping the giant grain silos that tower over the harbour and jetty of the historic town of Wallaroo. They're a modern landmark of a town which has always relied on its harbour.

A couple of hour's drive from Adelaide on the western side of Yorke Peninsula, Wallaroo is the apex of the so-called Copper Triangle of Wallaroo, Kadina and Moonta.

Wallaroo has always relied on its deep-sea port. In the 1860s the area's copper boom was in full swing and the port was booming as the smelters worked overtime and the clipper ships cued out in the bay waiting to take the copper ingots to the markets of the world. The copper boom came to an end when the Moonta Mine closed in 1923 and now the Wallaroo jetty sees millions of tonnes of Yorke Peninsula grain go out and giant supplies of superphosphate come in.

In the shadow of the Wallaroo silos is a quaint little building with a strong link to Wallaroo's history. Polly Johnston took over the Boat Shed Restaurant a few years ago and gave it a facelift - including a new name

. Polly Johnston, The Boat Shed Restaurant: "This is the original boat shed but it never had a boat in it. It was like the workman's quarters and I named it the boat shed because I thought it was so close to the sea…"

Like the local cat, this place has had a number of lives - harbour masters office, railway porters' rooms and even tearooms before becoming a fresh fish shop … then restaurant.

Polly Johnston, The Boat Shed Restaurant: "It started off as the workers rooms. They came in here before they went out on the wharf. They'd come here in the mornings and they'd be chosen for a job to work on the boats - they went around and said yes, yes, you, you and you and off they went and at lunch time and morning tea time they came here for smoko."

That was in the days when as many as 900 men were working on the wharves. Nowadays you don't have to sign up for a day's work to enjoy the view…

For Polly, a Mallee beef farmer, a seafood restaurant by the ocean is all about diversification - hedging your bets against the vagaries of the farming game.

Polly Johnston, The Boat Shed Restaurant: "I have a farm not far from Loxton and I thought I could value add to my cattle - up there we have the best cattle in the state and we get a dollar sixty to two dollar a kilo and I thought I'll buy a restaurant and value add… and I bought… a fish restaurant."

Not surprisingly there is beef on the menu as well as local fresh seafood and in the kitchen, even the wood-fired oven has a link with the mallee.

Polly Johnston, The Boat Shed Restaurant: "We have a wood fired oven so I bring mallee stumps down from the farm and I take the oil back and that goes in the tractors so your sitting in the tractor going round and round in the mallee and you can smell fish and chips."

It seems there is another historic link with early Wallaroo - a resident ghost.

Polly: "He's very friendly, ultra friendly. He just turns up and goes again. He's been seen looking out the window upstairs, he's been seen sitting on the staircase, he's been seen in the cellar."

There are a couple of theories about him - some say he's a sea captain who fell off the jetty and drowned, others say he's the lover of a local girl who died in a fire…

Polly: "The people from the railways have also told me that he was a porter and he was shunting trains and he got squished between the trains so he's definitely a railway ghost…"

Whichever ghost he is one thing's for sure - he would enjoy Polly's specialty - a seafood platter of crabs, whiting, garfish, prawns, scallops, oysters and lot more.

And what a spread it is - no doubt the original fishmonger who used to sell fresh fish from the old stone building would be proud. The Boat Shed Restaurant is at the end of Jetty Road at Wallaroo. Lunch is from 12 noon and dinner from 6pm. If you have any further questions please email info at postcards-sa.com.au

The Boat Shed Restaurant
Jetty Rd
Wallaroo
Ph 8823 3455

Published 15th March 2009