DAY 150 - ELLISTON HERE WE COME….

Steve was still a little keen to stay an extra day, but Ian and Kathy are on a bit of a time line now as they leave us in Port Augusta to head back to Queensland.  I think we would all have been happy to have had an extra day there if the fish were biting…

In the end we decided that Steve would get up early the following morning and go out and have a fish.  If the fish were biting and he was catching them we would stay, but if after a couple of hours he still hadn’t caught any we would move onto Elliston which was another 50kms down the road….

By 8.30am he was back at the van happy to move on… there were no bites and he figured we would be better trying other spots along the coast rather than wasting a whole day here where there were no fish biting.  So much for all the fish you catch at Venus Bay…

We were all packed and driving out of the caravan park by 10am.

Elliston here we come…

There were a few things, I wanted to do in Elliston, mostly the Anxious Bay Clifftop drive to see all the sculptures on the cliffs. 

By the time we had arrived and set up our vans it was lunch time, so after a quick bite to eat, we headed off to do some sight seeing. 

First sculpture we came across

 We headed off to drive the 12kms coastal scenic drive between Waterloo Bay and Anxious Bay which includes stretches of rugged cliffs, islands and spectacular views of the Great Australian Bight.   

Sculpture No. 2

There are quite a few lookouts along the way including Salmon Point and Blackfellows Point (now called Blacks), which has one of the best surfing beaches in Australia.  We were watching some surfers out in the ocean and then realised they had to climb up and down a huge cliff to get out to the waves - they certainly are dedicated to go to this much trouble to surf.

Bees have made their hive in this piece of sculpture

In recent times the loop has been enhanced by a number of uniquely Australian coastal sculptures including "the big thongs".

The history of the Sculptures on the Cliffs is intriguing. In their book Out of the Silence: The History and Memory of South Australia's Frontier Wars, Robert Foster and Amanda Nettelbeck explain: "stories of a massacre [of local Aborigines] on the Elliston cliffs have endured, a symptom of unreconciled tensions in the region's past. In 2002 members of the Elliston community initiated a community arts project, Sculpture on the Cliffs, as part of the state-wide Encounter 2002 commemoration, a bicentennial celebration of the meeting of Matthew Flinders' and Nicholas Baudin's navigating vessels on the South Australian coastline in 1802. Sculpture on the Cliffs aroused so much public interest in 2002, it subsequently became a biennial event until it ceased in 2008.

Some of the sculptures have remained on permanent display, adding another dimension to this breathtaking drive.

I did wonder how safe this jetty was after seeing this....

From this drive, we headed back into Elliston to check out their historic jetty.  The Elliston Jetty is heritage listed because of its steel pylons screwed directly into the sea floor using a horse drawn winch. It is 424 metres long and lots of people walk out along it or fish on it.  Steve took his rod with him when we went for our walk… Mind you I really did wonder how safe this jetty was as a lot of the pylons were very rusty and some had rusted through completely.  I felt much safer when we were back on dry land again. 

 The beach around the jetty was very interesting with lots of limestone caves in off the beach.  I could imagine that it would be a great place for kids to play and explore. 

As it was after 4pm we decided to stop in at the supermarket in town to pick up a couple of supplies for dinner before we tackled the Little Bay Cliff Top Loop. 

 Elliston is a very interesting place and obviously a very artist town, as we noticed several noteable art works in town, include a great RSL Children’s play centre, the murals on the pharmacy building, and also the Visitors Information Centre and children’s playground.   More about that later…..

From Little Bay Cliff Top Loop you get visit a number of lookouts which gives views of over the outlying islands, including Top Gallant Isles, Flinders Island, Person Island and part of Waldergrave Island.  You also get a great view of Waterloo Bay and Elliston from up here. 

This drive was fairly short and ended at the  memorial to the victims of what is known as the 1849 Waterloo Bay massacre. The  memorial is part of a coastal walking trail which was only opened in May this year. 

Steve noticed these rock shaped cocoons laying all over the ground up around the clifftops.  He was pretty fascinated by them and bought a couple back to show me.  He soon noticed though that there were thousands of them laying around underfoot, and he had to make a real effort not to look at the ground to stop picking more up.  When we got back to the caravan park, we found out that this area is well known for fossilized weevil cocoons,

(Leptopius duponti beetle from the late Pleistocene era) locally called “clogs”) and this is what they were…. This part of Australia must have been knee deep in these acacia beetles back then as they were everywhere up on these cliffs. 

Before heading back to the caravan park, we decided to head back to take some photos of Elliston Community Hall Murals… 

 The huge mural, painted by the community under the guidance of artists Siv Grava and John Turpie, depicts the life of Elliston. It was completed in 1992 and repainted in 2014 and is reputedly the largest single mural in the country. 

The sign outside the Hall notes: "This mural is the largest of its type in Australia. It depicts the historical life of Elliston and covers more than 500 square metres in area." The mural was painted over three weeks in 1992. The council and local sporting clubs covered the cost and a grant from the Australia Council paid for the assistance of two professional artists, Siv Grava and John Turpie. The mural depicts both historic and current life in Elliston and most of the imagery - houses, boats, carts, horses and people came from local family photo albums.  It was all very interesting and adds to the charm of this small fishing town. 

A little more of the art work around Elliston

The front of our caravan park in Elliston

Our site at the caravan park in Elliston

Spoilt with flowers from my man - he picked them on his way to the beach

Tomorrow we are on the move again heading to Coffin Bay.  We have just over 120kms to go tomorrow…. Loving these short drives, especially after all the kilometres we did crossing the Nullabor….