Port Lincoln plays a dual role as a major commercial centre for South Australia's Eyre Peninsula and a popular destination for visitors.

Where is it?: Eyre Peninsula. Located on the eastern shores of Eyre Peninsula, port Lincoln is 806 km by road (246 km by air) west of Adelaide.




Not just a pretty town overlooking Boston Bay, Port Lincoln sees itself as both the Seafood Capital of Australia and an ideal base from which to explore the coast and hinterland of the Lower Eyre Peninsula. It currently boasts Australia's largest commercial fishing fleet and fish farming has become so important that Port Lincoln now has kingfish farms, mussel farms, oyster farms, experimental lobster farms and abalone farms. It should never be underestimated that the anglers (predominantly of Italian ancestry) of Port Lincoln are very, very wealthy men. The money which can be made from tuna fishing verges on the fantastic.

Port Lincoln is an increasingly popular tourist destination, thanks to the scenic beauty and coastal locality. Ready access to both Spencer Gulf and the Great Australian Bight make Port Lincoln a blue water playground for yachting, scuba diving, shark cage diving and game fishing. It is the perfect base from which the explore the many natural attractions of southern Eyre Peninsula.

Port Lincoln has proximity to 60,000 hectares of National Parks; home to a myriad of flora and fauna - 250 species of birds have been recorded in the area. To the town's south is Lincoln National Park and a tourist drive on private property named Whalers Way. Both give access to what I believe to be some of the most stunning coastal scenery in the country. Though this coastline looks nothing like say, Victoria's Shipwreck Coast, it is equally as breaktaking, and well worth the long drive to this fairly isolated corner of the continent.

Port Lincoln's aquatic links are celebrated in a series of annual festivals: Tunarama (spread out over four days around the Australia Day long weekend in January), the Lincoln Quin's Blue Water Classic Yacht Race in February, the Lincoln Week Regatta in March, the Mediterraneo Festival in April, and the Port Lincoln Game Fishing Club Tournament.

Mill Cottage Museum: Port Lincoln has a number of interesting buildings which offer an insight into the early history in the town. The National Trust's Mill Cottage Museum at 20 Flinders Highway, located in Flinders Park (on the Flinders Highway just a short distance from the junction with the Lincoln Highway). The original limestone cottage was built in 1866 by the Bishop family who lived there until the house was handed over to the National Trust in 1971. It has an interesting collection of local memorabilia including furniture which was brought from England in 1839.

Settlers' Cottage Museum: Also in Flinders Park is the Settlers' Cottage Museum which stores a collection of historical artifacts and memorabilia from the southern Eyre Peninsula.

Rose-wall Memorial Shell Museum: Port Lincoln boasts an excellent collection of shells and marine creatures, representng a lifetime's private collecting and international trading. It is located in the Eyre Peninsula Old Folks Home at 26 Flinders Highway and can be viewed for a very small fee.

Axel Stenross Maritime Museum: Situated at 97 Lincoln Highway, the museum includes maritime artifacts, carved wooden dinghies, old tools used in manual boat construction, a working slipway, as wel as photographs and newspaper articles relating to local maritime history. Entry fee.

Koppio Smithy Museum: Located 40 km north of Port Lincoln, at Koppio, this display of local history incorporates pioneer homes, an old school, stationary engines, farming equipment, vintage cars and trucks, horse-drawn vehicles, and a barbed wire display. Entry fees apply.

Whaler's Way

Whalers Way

Whaler's Way: One of the most dramatic sections of coastline on the Australian mainland occurs on the promontory 32km to the south west of the town of Port Lincoln, South Australia, at the foot of the Eyre Peninsula. Whaler's Way, a series of unsealed tracks which pass through private property along its 14km length, give access to the area and its well sign-posted coastal features.

A unique feature of the area is a series of natural crevasses, giant fissures in the rocky coastline which have created deep bays and chasms in the rock into which the sea surges back and forth. These crevasses are of varying depths, lengths and widths.

Tumby Bay

Tumby Bay

Tumby Bay: 45 km north of Port Lincoln, Tumby Bay has predominantly been agriculturally driven, but like many towns on the Eyre Peninsula, it has become an increasingly popular holiday destination during the summer months. One of the major drawcards to the area is its fishing, with a wide array of fish species available, including King George Whiting and Snapper. The safe, calm waters and the white sand of the bay lend themselves to a variety of watersports including swimming, snorkelling, scuba diving and water skiing for those with access to a boat.

Boston Island

Boston Island

5 km offshore, between Port Lincoln and Cape Donington, is Boston Island. First sighted by Matthew Flinders in 1802 the island was settled as early as 1840 when an old slab cottage, which is still standing, was built. Today Boston Island Tours leave the town jetty, opposite the post office on Tasman Terrace. Boston Island creates a sheltered area within Boston Bay which is ideal for fishing, as well as sailing. Further north-east is the Sir Joseph Banks Group of Islands and to the south-east is Thorny Passage, both ideal for offshore anglers.

Lincoln National Park

Lincoln National Park
Port Lincoln also offers access to the beautiful Lincoln National Park, a huge area of 17 226 ha on the southern most tip of the Eyre Peninsula which was dedicated in 1941. It is located 25 km south of Port Lincoln. A walk to the Flinders Monument vantage point on Stamford Hill, commands magnificent views over the rugged coast, surrounding bays, off-shore islands, and across the water to Port Lincoln.'

Many geographical features about the peninsula bear names given to them by Matthew Flinders in 1802 when, in the Investigator, he explored and charted the southern coastline of Australia. Cape Catastrophe, Memory Cove and eight of the nearby islands bear names of special significance as here eight crewmen of the Investigator died when their cutter went down in heavy seas while they were closely inspecting the coast. The islands, all located off the southern and eastern coasts of the park, are named Thistle, Taylor, Grindle, Little, Lewis, Hopkin, Smith and Williams - sad reminders of the disaster.

Although much of the park is accessible by conventional vehicle there are a number of 4WD roads including a superb drive out to Memory Cove which passes through land once cleared in a forlorn and unsuccessful attempt to farm the peninsula. This road also passes the limestone cliffs on the southern edge of the park. This is a wilderness area and entry is by key and permit from the Visitor Information Centre. Entry is restricted to 15 vehicles per day and there are 5 campsites which must be booked at the Visitor Centre.

Memory Cove, Lincoln National Park

Memory Cove, which was named by Flinders as a reminder of the tragic accident which took the lives of his eight crewmen, has a replica of a copper plate which Flinders left on a post. The original plate, which is now housed in the Adelaide Public Library, had the following inscription: 'Memory Cove. H.M.S. Investigator, M. Flinders Comr. anchored here on 22nd February 1802. Mr John Thistle, the Master, Mr William Taylor, Midn and six of the crew were most unfortunately drowned near this place from being upset in a boat. The wreck of the boat was found, but their bodies were not recovered. Nautici Cavete!' The Latin at the end means 'Sailor Beware!'

About Port Lincoln

With a population of 14,000, Port Lincoln is perhaps the nation's biggest combined agricultural and fishing centre. Its primary industries include the production of lambs, wool and beef, Cereal crops including wheat, oats, barley, canola, lupins etc. Tuna, prawns, lobster, abalone and scale fish are the major fishing and aquaculture industries.

The oceans surrounding the city are renown for fishing, the mixture of gulf waters and open ocean of the Great Australian Bight means there is a diversity of aquatic species. As a result, Port Lincoln is a base for a variety of Fishing Industry activities; Oysters and Scallops, Scale Fishing, Southern Rock Lobster, Spencer Gulf Prawn fishery, Abalone and Southern Bluefin Tuna. Not surprisingly, Port Lincoln is also one of South Australia's most popular locations for visitors to drop a line.

Best time to visit: Due to the insulating effect of the surrounding ocean waters, Port Lincoln experiences a delightful Mediterranean climate, which is on average a degree or two warmer than Adelaide in winter and 3 - 5 degrees cooler than Adelaide during the hot summer months. Port Lincoln's average rainfall is 488mm, which falls mainly during the winter months. Warm summers, mild winters and balmy weather during autumn and spring, make Port Lincoln an all year destination for touring, fishing, sailing and other recreational pursuits.

History: Port Lincoln (the geographical feature) was visited by Matthew Flinders under his commission by the British Admiralty to chart Australia's unexplored coastline. The converted collier Investigator dropped anchor in Boston Bay in February 1802 and Flinders named the spot Port Lincoln after his native Lincolnshire in England. Several days earlier Flinders had lost eight seamen near Memory Cove, including his sailing master, Captain John Thistle, whilst searching for water.

The Parnkalla people occupied the area prior to white settlement. The first European visitor was Matthew Flinders who discovered the harbour in February 1802 and, in a rare act of self-indulgence, possibly precipitated by the death of eight of his sailors, he named it 'in honour of my native province'. Flinders had been born at Donington in Lincolnshire on 16 March 1774. He named the bay, island and point after his home town of Boston and Cape Donington was named after his birthplace.

The port quickly became an important resting point for sealers from Kangaroo Island and whalers from Port Jackson who fished and hunted in the Southern Ocean. These new, if somewhat temporary, residents were enthusiastic about the place and so, when the establishment of the colony of South Australia was suggested, Port Lincoln was proposed as a suitable place for the colony's capital.

The task of finding a suitable site was left to the surveyor William Light who the Colonial Office, with a characteristic lack of understanding, expected to inspect nearly 2500 km of coastline in two months. He had already chosen the site of Adelaide when he made a brief visit to Port Lincoln and declared that the harbour entrance was unsafe and there was an absence of fresh water. Light's rejection of the site did not stop settlement. In 1839 the Port Lincoln Special Survey Association was formed and as a result of their labours the township was laid out on the southwesterly shores of Boston Bay. The surveyor, Benjamin Pratt Winter, is remembered in Winter Hill which offers a superb lookout across the city. The first settlers arrived in March 1839 and a plaque nw denotes the site of their landing.

On 20 March 1839 Robert Tod explored the area to the north of Port Lincoln and discovered a river which was named the Tod in his honour. In the next twenty years the town grew quickly. The Lincoln Hotel, which was the oldest on the Eyre Peninsula, being built in 1840, sadly burnt down in 2000. St Thomas' Anglican Church was built between 1849-50, the local Courthouse dates from 1862 and the Mill Cottage, now the National Trust Museum, was completed in 1866.

The importance of the town continued to grow as more farmers moved onto the Eyre Peninsula. The construction of a jetty in 1875 and the completion of the rail links to the large sections of the Eyre Peninsula between 1907 and 1926 ensured the town's continued survival and guaranteed its growth. It was during this time that Port Lincoln's harbour was often a sea of masts and sails as the windjammers waited to loaded with wheat before setting sail for the markets of Europe.

Port Lincoln was seriously considered as a site for South Australia's Capital, but was subsequently rejected by Colonel Light in 1836 in favour of Adelaide. Lack of fresh water supplies was a major determining factor.