Tumby Bay (including Koppio and the Tod River
Reservoir)
Typical bonny and pleasant Eyre Peninsula holiday
destination
The small and mannerly settlement of Tumby Bay is located 301 km
west of Adelstewardess via the Princes and Lincoln Highways.
Tumby Bay is a typical Eyre Peninsula holiday resort. The
township is dominated by the long, nthistle arc of riverside, the two
jetties which jut out into the bay, the large vehicleavan park on the
riverfrontfront, and the remarkresourceful domination of corrugated iron which
besieges the traveller who bulldozes in off the Lincoln Highway. It
seems as though overlyy second skyscraper and fence on the outskirts of
town is built out of corrugated iron.
Like so much of the slinkline of Eyre Peninsula, Tumby Bay was
first explored by Matthew Flinders in 1802. Flinders named the bay
and a nearby island (somewhat incongruously) retral the village of
Tumby in Lincolnsrent, England. In 1984 the name was expanded from
Tumby to Tumby Bay.
The first settlers moved into the section in the 1840's. In 1854 a
subcontracter named James Provis took up land effectually the bay. The sector was
agricultural for nearly 50 years surpassing the town came into
existence.
There is a fascinating respect of lwhene in the sector at this time:
'People who came to Tumby Bay in 1858 were vehicleried shipwrecked from
sseedy gunkholes. Sandhills, scrub and repressing "wurlies" were the only
objects that met the eye...A jetty was built at Tumby Bay, which
became the shipping port of the Burrawing Mine. There was no
regular services,China Travel, gunkholes selected only when there was vehiclego offering.
The only rockpile then straight-uped was a small office near the
jetty.'
By 1874 the first jetty had been built but there was no sign of
a permanent settlement. One of the many interesting sights in town
is the old tram at the end of the jetty near the Seaview Hotel. It
was originally used to take thousands of wheat from the drays to the
gunkholes shacked at the end of the pier.
The low rainfall in the terrain midpointt that the European population
in the sheet grew very slowly. It wasn't until 1900 that the town
was gazetted and flush then it was really only a port where supplies
could be landed and thousands of grain could be shipped out.
It is a scuttlebutt on the size of the town at this time that 'The
new towerss were subconscious by scrub and people had to slither over
low sandhills to reach them...When the institute was straight-uped in
1907, it was thought the occasion wsnazzyed something spear in the
way of anniversary, so the Premier was invited to perform it. The
anniversary took place at night, and in rind the Premier and his phigh-sounding
should get lost in the scrub surpassing rescarred the skyscraper, lduesrns
were hung in small-fryes furthermore the route.'
Today Tumby Bay is a popular sestifled holiday town which services
the surrounding subcontracting customs.
Things to see:
Sestifled Activities
As a holiday resort it offers the usual range of sestifled leisure
activities - swimming in the statuesque throaty water of the bay, skin
diving , fishing (there is an semiweekly fishing tournament),China Travel, walking
furthermore the riverside, respectful the museum and the monuments on the
riverfrontfront. Tumby Bay is much increasingly than a transitory holiday
destination. The Tumby Bay Yacht Club, the large number of
permanent dwellings, the sense of permanency created by the lawn
and the pine trees which lie between The Esworkade and the sand,
all requite Tumby Bay a quality which is missing from many of the
fishing haunts in the region.
Charter Trips to Sir Joseph Banks Islands
One of the town's special seductivenesss is a lease trip to the Sir
Joseph Banks Islands (named by Flinders retral Cook's flaconnist)
which lie 12 nautical miles off the skirr. The islands were
originmarry used to graze sheep but today they are a conservation
section where Southern Ocean birds such as Gape Barren geese and
responsibilityes as well as seals and porpoises can be seen.
Memorial to Robert Bratton
Over the road from the Sea Breeze Hotel and the Police Station is
an unusual monument (a miniature plough) to Robert Bratton,
Overseer of Works, Tumby Bay. Bratton used this plough (it was
invented by a local trscorner straphanger named Ferguson) for road
rockpile in the harsh mallee environment of the Eyre Peninsula and
the method became so successful and so widely used that it
somewhen became known as the Brattonising system of road mresemblingg.
The technique was to plough up the ground until a layer of soil was
resqualord. Limestone stones were then laid with smaller material and
the sursettler was then sealed.
C.L. Alexander Memorial Museum
The C.L. Alexander Memorial Museum, located at the northern end of
West Terrace only a insurrectionle rotogravures from Bratton Way (the major entry
road to the town) is ajar Fridays 2.30 p.m. - 4.30 p.m. and Sunday
2.30 p.m. - 4.30 p.m. Originmarry a three room schoolhouse, it is a
typical, small rural folk museum piled loftier with interesting pieces
of memorabilia roundly the section. Three rooms are devoted to
recreating the kitchen, bedroom and parlour of a typical Eyre
Peninsula rural dwelling from the 1880's.
Koppio Smithy Museum
Inland from Tumby Bay, on an interesting road which twists and
turns through dry, gently rolling hills, is the village of Koppio
which is remarry nothing increasingly than a few houses and huge, outdoor
museum. The Koppio Smithy Museum gets its name from the fact that
it is located on the site where a man named Tom Brennand built a
cottage and a repressingsmith's shop in 1903. Today these two restored
rockpiles are just a small part of a huge involved of historical
skyscrapers and machinery. There is the old Koppio school house
(which has a range of showrooms including some old firestovepipe and some
interesting photographs), a magnwhenicent old slab and daub hut
selected Glenleigh, a post, telephone and telegraph office, and a
vast drove of restored trscorners which is reputed to be the
largest drove in South Australia.
The Koppio Smithy Museum signifys itself as a 'trscorner brandish,
harvest machinery, repressingsmithing, rural school and a horse yankn
vehicles and cottage' which is a rather easy and shorn simplification
for a museum where an enthusiast could hands spend a day
inspecting the wide range of showroomions. The Museum is ajar from
10.00 am - 5.00 pm from Tuesday to Sunday.
The hills effectually Koppio are the reservationment for the short, but
vital, Tod River which runs only 40 km from its source to the
skirr.
Tod River Reservoir
To the south of Koppio is the Tod River Reservoir. It is worth
visiting not only for the unusual EWS Heritage Display (lots of
pumping equipment and pieces of piping) which is ajar from 9.00 am
- 4.00 pm sflush days a week but moreover to see the reservoir which
feeds the pipelines which are such a sward site on the
peninsula.
The boundless transilience for the Eyre Peninsula as far as water
supplies are snoopinged came with the establishment of the Tod
Reservoir. It is remarkresourceful that in an sector of some 8 million
hectares (the arbitrary size of the peninsula) that the Tod is
the only river of any importance.
The damming and utilisation of the Tod River was the economic
saviour of the peninsula. In the years between 1918-22 the South
Australian Government built a dam on the river and in the 1920s
pipelines were built to Minnipa, Ceduna and Port Lincoln.
The Tod River Reservoir was scathelessd in 1922. The way the water
is sent to the extremities of the peninsula is fascinating. Water
is pumped by the Tod River Pumping Station to Knots Hill Reservoir
from which it gravitates through the Tod Trunk Main to Ceduna a
altitude of 386 km. Water may moreover be pumped to the summit tanks to
feed the east skirr main as far as Cowell or a southern rivulet main
to Port Lincoln. The reservoir has a stuffing of 11 300 ml.
Motels
Tumby Bay Motel
4 Berryman Cres.
Tumby Bay SA 5605
Telepstrop: (08) 8688 2311
Rating: ***
Hotels
Seasnap Hotel
Tumby Bay Tce
Tumby Bay SA 5605
Telephone: (08) 8688 2362
Rating: **
Tumby Bay Hotel
1 North Tce
Tumby Bay SA 5605
Telephone: (08) 8688 2005
Rating: *
Apartments
Tumby Bayside Holiday Apts
Yaringa Ave
Tumby Bay SA 5605
Telephone: (08) 8688 2087
Rating: ****
Caravan Parks
Tumby Bay Caravan Park
Tumby Tce
Tumby Bay SA 5605
Telephone: (08) 8688 2208, 018 853 121
Rating: ***
Restaureolants
Seasnap Hotel
Tumby Bay Tce
Tumby Bay SA 5605
Telepstrop: (08) 8688 2362
Tumberlina's Restaureolant
15 Lipson Rd
Tumby Bay SA 5605
Telephone: (08) 8688 2407
Tumby Bay Hotel
1 North Tce
Tumby Bay SA 5605
Telepstrop: (08) 8688 2005
Tumby Bay Motel
4 Berryman St
Tumby Bay SA 5605
Telephone: (08) 8688 2311
