An agricultural and resort town on the shores of Spencer Gulf.

Where is it?: Eyre Peninsula. 49 km north of Port Lincoln; 301 km west of Adelaide via the Princes and Lincoln Highways.

Tumby Bay is a typical Eyre Peninsula holiday resort. The township is dominated by the long, narrow arc of beach, the two jetties which jut out into the bay, and the large caravan park on the beachfront. 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.

Heritage features: CL Alexander Memorial Museum; Koppio Smithy Museum (Koppio); Tod Reservoir Museum; Todd River Reservoir (1922)

C.L. Alexander Memorial Museum: This museum is located at the northern end of West Terrace only a couple blocks from Bratton Way. Originally a three room schoolhouse, it is a typical, small rural folk museum piled high with interesting pieces of memorabilia about the area. Three rooms are devoted to recreating the kitchen, bedroom and parlour of a typical Eyre Peninsula rural dwelling from the 1880's.

Koppio
Inland from Tumby Bay, on an interesting road which twists and turns through dry, gently rolling hills, is the village of Koppio which is really nothing more 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 blacksmith's shop in 1903.

Today these two restored buildings are just a small part of a huge complex of historical buildings and machinery. There is the old Koppio school house (which has a range of exhibits including some old firearms and some interesting photographs), a magnificent old slab and daub hut called Glenleigh, a post, telephone and telegraph office, and a vast collection of restored tractors which is reputed to be the largest collection in South Australia.

The Koppio Smithy Museum announces itself as a 'tractor display, harvest machinery, blacksmithing, rural school and a horse drawn vehicles and cottage' which is a rather simple and bald description for a museum where an enthusiast could easily spend a day inspecting the wide range of exhibitions.

Spilsby Island

Sir Joseph Banks Islands
Sir Joseph Banks Islands (22 km east), known to locals as "the Groups", offers a range of sheltered bays, golden sand beaches. The islands are all low-lying limestone capping granite platforms, which is often exposed along shorelines and in adjacent shallow and drying reefs. They are a breeding ground for a large variety of sea birds, seals, dolphins and fish, with the King George whiting and snapper the most sought after. The archipelago has breeding colonies for Australian Sea Lions and Cape Barren Geese. Eighteen of the islands are protected in the Sir Joseph Banks Group Conservation Park, while the surrounding waters are protected in a 2627 km2 marine park. Spilsby Island is privately owned and continues to be grazed by sheep, as well as holding a few holiday cottages.

One of the town's special attractions is a charter trip to the Sir Joseph Banks Islands which lie 12 nautical miles off the coast. The islands were originally used to graze sheep but today they are a conservation area where Southern Ocean birds such as Gape Barren geese and albatrosses as well as seals and porpoises can be seen. The islands were named by explorer Matthew Flinders in February 1802 after the famed botanist, Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), who accompanied Liet. James Cook on his voyage of discovery to the South Pacific and east coast of Australia in 1770.

About Tumby Bay
Origin of name: the town's name is taken from the coastal feature on which it stands. The bay and nearby island was named by Matthew Flinders when he sailed the coast in March 1802. At this stage of his circumnavigatory voyage around Australia, Flinders was naming the coastal features he charted after localities in Lincolnshire, England, the county in which he was born. Tumby is a village in Lincolnshire.

Brief history: Like so much of the coastline of Eyre Peninsula, Tumby Bay was first explored by Matthew Flinders in 1802. Flinders named the bay and a nearby island (somewhat incongruously) after the village of Tumby in Lincolnshire, England. In 1984 the name was expanded from Tumby to Tumby Bay.

The first settlers moved into the area in the 1840's. In 1854 a farmer named James Provis took up land around the bay. The area was agricultural for nearly 50 years before the town came into existence. There is a fascinating account of life in the area at this time: 'People who came to Tumby Bay in 1858 were carried ashore from sailing boats. Sandhills, scrub and black "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, boats called only when there was cargo offering. The only building then erected 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 bags of wheat from the drays to the boats berthed at the end of the pier.

The low rainfall in the area meant that the European population in the area grew very slowly. It wasn't until 1900 that the town was gazetted and even then it was really only a port where supplies could be landed and bags of grain could be shipped out.