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. Collect the key for the drive from the Port Lincoln Visitor Centre, Port Lincoln.

The coast is inundated with a series of natural crevasses, giant fissures in the rocky coastline which have created deep bays and chasms into which the sea surges back and forth. These crevasses and headlands are of varying depths, lengths and widths.




allowfullscreen>

Cape Carnot

Cape Carnot
The most south-westerly tip of Eyre Peninsula, Cape Carnot was named by French explorer Nicolas Baudin on 6th April 1802, in honour of Lazare Carnot. The latter was a shrewd organiser who was one of the few members of the notorious Committee for Public Safety to keep his head during the French Revolution. He later served Napoleon as Minister for War and managed to survive his downfall, although exiled. Whether this pioneer of the concept of total war deserved a cape named after him is questionable.

Cape Carnot consists of two spectacular rocky promontories; the more westerly ends in a small Peninsula, roughly circular in shape, which contains some of the most significant exposures of early Proterozoic/ Archaean gneisses. The rest of the area of interest extends along the wave-washed coastline to the eastern promontory in a strip only about 120m wide. The older rocks further inland being covered by Tertiary to Pleistocene aeolianite with a calcrete capping and superficial sand dunes. The calcrete carries an interesting stunted coastal vegetation. The coastline is a dangerous one, subject to freak waves. The rocks constituting Cape Cornot are said to be amongst the oldest known in South Australia. They consist of granulites and gneisses showing folded layering.

Mainsail Break
Nearby is Mainsail Break, which was known to the local fishermen as Wreck Reef. The spray from the surf at this location rises to 46 metres, and recalls the mainsails of the old windjammers which plied this coast, hence its name. The Caves and old Whalers' Grotto is a unique and beautiful series of sea caves and overhangs. They feature staligmites and staligtites and rock pools which often contain fish.

Cape Wiles

Cape Wiles
Named by Matthew Flinders on 19th February 1802 after the botanist James Wiles who sailed with Flinders, Cape Wiles is a 100 metre high cliff face above the swirling sea, with pillars of rock and an island offering continuing resistance to the Southern Ocean. The island, which has been worn away through its middle by centuries of destructive tides, takes the form of two golden sandstone pyramids that stand defiantly against the pounding waves. Dozens of fur seals gamble in the water or bask on the rocks at this locality.

Nine years before circumnavigating Australia with Flinders, James Wiles had joineed Captain William Blight aboard HMS Providence in Jamaica prior to setting sail with HMS Assistant for Tahiti, via Cape of Good Hope and Van Diemans Land. Wiles and Christopher Smith, the expedition's Naturalists, were appointed by Sir Joseph Banks who supported the expedition and also Bligh's historic but unsuccessful voyage of the Bounty in 1789.

Whalechaser's Crevasse
A dramatic chasm with steep sides astride the cleavage worn in a soft part of the cliff face, however it is not on the normal face that fronts the swells. At 61 metres high it isn't the highest in the area, but it's one of the most dramatic. The crevasse is named after the gallant fast sailing ships used to hunt the whale.

Booby Gannet Crevasse
The large white gannet often seen flying and diving in this area gives its name to this rugged crevasse. It can be viewed from Black's Lookout, named after Johnathan Black, a blacksmith of Port Lincoln, who arrived in 1859 from Portstewart, Northern Ireland. Nearby is the Humpback Whale Blowhole and the 122 metre high face of Top Gallant Cliffs.

Theakestone's Crevasse
Named by Frank J Mart in the 1930s after a local pioneer family who settled in the area in 1889, this fissure in the rock face almost seems man made. Formed over millions of years along a fault line, the crack is deceptively deep. Standing at the lookout above the crevasse, it appears to be little more than a few metres deep, but venture down the path which circles the head of the cerevasse and peer into its depths from that vantage point, and it is quite believable that this narrow gully is in fact around 13 metres deep with 9 metre high walls. Constantly being scoured by the sea, the crevasse extends some 30 metres underground.

Flinders Crevasse and Cave
This crevasse, named after navigator Matthew Flinders, cuts in from the coast some 183 metres, and terminates in a huge overhang cave. On the high ground above the crevasse, some 18 metres above the sea, are a group of randomly strewn large bassalt rocks. These rocks are completely foreign to this area, and it is not known how they got there.