An unspoilt holiday and fishing village near the tip of Eyre Peninsula, on the western side.

Where is it?: Eyre Peninsula. 703 km west of Adelaide; 47 km west of Port Lincoln.

Coffin Bay is a typical Australian holiday resort (of the unspoilt variety) full of holiday units and relatively cheap accommodation and designed for people who want to spend a holiday fishing, sailing, skindiving, bushwalking or enjoying themselves on the beach. In recent times the calm waters of the bay have become enormously popular so that the population of the area, especially in school holiday time, is likely to increase from the small regular population of around 300-400 to over 3000. The surrounding area is spectacularly beautiful and some of the out-of-the-way places like Gallipoli Beach, Farm Beach and the Coffin Bay Peninsula are genuinely fascinating.

Coffin Bay is widely regarded as the best place in Australia to grow oysters. Cuffed by white-sand beaches and dense bush, the bay's sequestered waters are unsullied by rivers or drains, while the cold Southern Ocean provides a nutrient-rich tonic for hungry molluscs. Coffin Bay produces tens of thousands of oysters every week, being 60 per cent of the South Australian total.

The Old Hotel at Wangary, on the Flinders Highway near Coffin Bay, is one of the very few pubs in Australia actually to boast to the passer-by 'No Beds-No Beer'. This is not something new. The pub hasn't had a liquor licence since 1933. Instead it operates as a general store and is proud of its pasties and cakes.

Mt Dutton Bay

Mt Dutton Bay Woolshed and Jetty: The road from Wangary to Farm Beach passes a turnoff to Dutton Bay where an old woolshed and restored jetty stand as reminders of an era when this entire stretch of coastline, from Dutton Bay to Elliston, was privately leased to Price Maurice who built the woolshed in 1875 utilising local stone and wooden trusses from Oregon in the United States. It is estimated that over 20 000 sheep were shorn each year at the woolshed's peak of activity with the fleeces shipped from the jetty to overseas markets. It only ceased to function as a woolshed in the 1970s, later being used as a storage shed for broom grass (used in making brooms).

Coffin Bay National Park
The township of Coffin Bay is near the entrance to Coffin Bay National Park, which features a long peninsula with a sheltered bay, coastal dunes, swamps and a spectacular coastline of islands, reefs, limestone cliffs and white surf beaches. The Conservation Parks and National Parks in the area offer a rich variety of flora and fauna as well as a wide range of interesting bushwalks. There are breeding grounds for sea birds such as the reef heron, fairy penguins, cormorants, sooty oystercatchers, and crested and caspian terns. The flora includes the moonah tea-tree, cutting grass, the beautiful drooping she-oak and, in spring and summer, the parks are alive with the colours of the wildflowers which grow in profusion.

Farm Beach
Only 10 km from Wangary is Farm Beach, a tiny settlement which is really nothing more than a caravan park and launching point for dozens of small fishing boats. It is, however, a must for anyone who wants to see a truly fascinating and bizarre 'tractor museum'. On the weekends, and during holidays, the beach and foreshore are crowded with fishermen who use old tractors to get their boats over the mountains of seaweed which are washed up onto the beach. The result is a parking area where, at any one time, there may be up to 50 tractors, all of them ancient and rusty.

Gallipoli Beach

At the south end of Farm Beach, just near the main launching point, there is a rough dirt road which leads to the beach where the invasion scenes in the movie Gallipoli was filmed. Unfortunately all of the trenches, sandbags and the dugouts have to be removed. This eccentric local council decision has meant that something which could have become a major tourist attraction in the area has been returned to its natural state. The only thing left to see is a bay which approximates to the famous shoreline where the ANZACs came ashore at Gallipoli. The section of the coastline is now named Gallipoli Beach.

Point Avoid
Point Avoid and Yangie Bay: a trip out to Point Avoid and Yangie Bay is recommended. The views of the rugged and lonely beaches on the western shoreline of the park and the dramatic view across Coffin Bay which is offered at Yangie Bay lookout point are truly breathtaking. The size of the huge sand dunes in the area (some are over 100 metres high) bears grim witness to the seas, driven by the Roaring Forties and uninterrupted on their journey across the Great Australian Bight, which batter this section of the Australian coast.

Fishing at Coffin Bay: Over the years the whole Coffin Bay area has gained a reputation as a haven for fishermen. Consequently everyone from rock fishermen, to surf fishermen, people keen to fish from boats, and jetty fishermen (there are special fishing jetties near Coffin Bay township at Crinolin Point and Schnapper Point) are all attracted to the area. Fish caught in the area include whiting, salmon, trevally, garfish, tommy ruffs, snapper and flathead. The Enjoy Coffin Bay brochure available around town provides details about the kind of fishing available around the bay.

About Coffin Bay

Natural features: Mount Dutton Bay Conservation Park; Point Sir Isaac; Rocky Island (North) Conservation Park (20 km north of Point Sir Isaac); Point Avoid; Yangie Bay; Avoid Bay Islands Conservation Park; Golden Island; Whidbey Isles (Rocky, Perforated and Greenly Islands); Coffin Bay Peninsula; Kellidie Bay Conservation Park.

Heritage features: Mt. Dutton Bay Woolshed (1875) and Jetty; Old Hotel, Wangary (1871); historic ruins of the old Post Office, Coach House and Bakery.

Origin of name: the bay was named by Matthew Flinders in March 1802 after his friend, naval officer Sir Isaac Coffin, who was to become a Vice Admiral of the British Navy. Coffin was the Royal Navy's Resident Commissioner at Sheerness, England, who supervised the fitting out of the sloop HMS Investigator. Flinders was not the first European to visit this lonely and isolated coastline. A decade earlier the French explorer Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, had sighted the coast but, like Flinders, he had been loath to come too close because of the rugged coastline and the difficult and dangerous seas.

Brief history: in the 1840s, a settlement called Oyster Town sprang up which harvested local oysters for the Adelaide market. The town disappeared when the oysters were over harvested and ran out. Oyster farming brought the town back to life in the 20th century as did fishing and lobster catching.