The Yorke Peninsula SA

It was a bit hard to find out exactly where the Yorke Peninsular boundary is but just south of Moonta is a good place to start. The peninsula is shaped a bit like a boot and while much smaller in size to the Eyre, it’s proximity to Adelaide makes it a popular destination after South Australia’s major draw card, the Barossa Valley.

35km south of Moonta is the major central town of Maitland. It was a Sunday morning when I arrived and virtually nothing was opened apart from the service station. Undeterred I had a wander up and down the Main Street.

Next stop was Port Victoria Before heading back inland to Minlaton I found a statue of Harry Butler who was a local legend. Born of farming stock in 1889 he dreamed of flying. He served in WW1 in the Royal Flying corps and in 1919 he became the first to fly across the Gulf to Yorke Peninsula, carrying an 18kg mailbag, and thus becoming the first air mail flight to the Peninsula.

From Minlaton I headed across to Hardwick Bay and through Warooka and out to Corny Point and then to Marion Bay and Stenhouse bay before cutting back up to Warooka where I stayed overnight. Beautiful coastlines and some lovely bays and small settlements. To live in these parts it is almost a prerequisite to own a boat of some description.

Yorketown was originally named Yorke but that was changed due a suburb of Adelaide being named York. After Yorketown I headed back to the coast at Edithburgh and followed the coastline north. Some lovely spots on the eastern side of the Yorke, including Coobowie, Wool Bsy, Stansbury, Port Vincent, Port Julia and Pine Point.

I had an overnight stop at Ardrossan which was another lovely town before having a look at Tiddy Widdy Beach, Price and Clinton before finishing my tour of the Yorke Peninsula at Port Wakefield.