Fowlers Bay. Great Southern Right Whale tail as seven mothers and white calves play around the bay.
Head of the Bight and Whales. The Head of the Great Australian Bight has a lookout controlled and managed by Yalata Aboriginal Community. It is a further 165 kms west of Fowlers Bay. The Bight is a breeding and calving grounds for Southern Right Whales and it is a favoured spot for them from June until October. There is a small viewing platform there on cliffs that are about 70 metres high and by late August about 70 Southern Right Whales are usually in these waters. Our cruise from Fowlers Bay actually takes us into the Southern Ocean around Fowlers Bay where we should see plenty of Southern Right Whales as Fowlers Bay is second to Head of the Bight for calving and whale spotting. The Fowlers Bay area has around 100 whales passing through on occasions. You are also likely to see Humpback whales on the cruise too as well as dolphins, sea lions, fur seals, marine birds – including Albatross, Sea Eagles and Little Penguins. Southern Right Whales have no fins and often have white lumpy sections on their backs whilst Humpback Whales have small dorsal fins on their backs and pectoral flippers on their sides. Humpback whales do not breed and calve along the Great Australian Bight. Whales have frequented this area for a long period and a whaling station operated in the Fowlers Bay area from around 1840 to 1844.
Fowlers Bay. A port like Fowlers Bay was essential for the establishment of the Yalata sheep run in 1860. Communication with Adelaide for supplies or mail was by ship. A postal service began in 1865 mainly for the Yalata sheep run but there were other runs near Fowlers Bay. The government approved the construction of a police station and lockup for prisoners at Fowlers Bay. The coast was surveyed in 1867 from Fowlers Bay to the Western Australian border and a store keeper was licensed to operate there on 13 March 1867. Also in March a member of parliament made the first parliamentary visit to Fowlers Bay. His voyage from Port Adelaide took four days. The government then appointed two Justices of the Peace to Fowlers Bay in June 1867. Later in 1867 a local resident requested a doctor to be sent to Fowlers Bay as many of the Aboriginals were dying of disease and needed medical attention. In July 1867 the government approved £1,000 for a small jetty to be built at Fowlers Bay. The Fowlers Bay Post Office in 1867 was busy. The government spent £499 financing the mail service from Port Lincoln to Fowlers Bay for a revenue from those mails of only £108. But communication changed drastically in 1876 when the government spent £600 building a telegraph station and Post Office at Fowlers Bay. The telegraph station, which was also a repeater station, started operating on 8 December 1877 with the first telegraph line completed from Adelaide to Port Lincoln to Fowlers Bay and onwards to Eucla and Perth. R Knuckey from the government built the line across the Nullarbor from Fowlers Bay to Eucla with 38 men and 89 horses from July 1876 to July 1877. WA still had to complete the telegraph line to Eucla.
The town was re-surveyed in 1890 when the Hundred of Caldwell was surveyed. A timber and iron school room opened in 1893. From 1896 the school room was used for Congregational Church services and a foot pump organ was placed in the school room for use the by the children as well as the church congregation. The school closed in 1959 and children were sent to Coorabie School. Other facilities in the small town included: a bigger rebuilt jetty in 1896 which was then extended in 1907 and 1914 and again in 1948, a new Police Station in 1883 and Courthouse addition on the side street in 1912. The Institute was officially opened on 13 January 1923 with the foundation stone laid by George Murray of Yalata station in 1922. Although a hotel was licensed in the 1880s the current building was erected around 1900. Near the jetty is the Captain Matthew Flinders monument which was erected in 1948. In the early years there was evidently much drunkenness especially when a new shipment of beer and spirits arrived at the jetty! This was a busy jetting shipping out wheat and wool. The port was fortunate to be served by the Coast Steamships Limited from 1901 to 1966. The wheat trader James Darling, who had flourmills around SA, also ran his own steamer service to Fowlers Bay until 1942. Darling’s last steamer on the Fowlers route was called the Coorabie. Throughout this period some sailing ketches also serviced the ship route from Port Adelaide to Fowlers Bay including the Failie. The Yandra was especially built for the Far West Coast services of Eyre Peninsula. This steamer was built in Denmark in 1928 with a shallow draft for places like Fowlers Bay which it serviced it until it sank in Spencers Gulf in 1959.
From the town’s foundation Betts ran a general store in Fowlers Bay from 1890 to 1925. They also ran stores in Denial Bay, Ceduna, Streaky Bay etc. The caravan park is now located where the general store once stood. The town has declined since the closing of Bett’s store and then that of the Telegraph Office in 1927. The Telegraph Office was a small addition in 1877 to the 1875 built Post Office. It is on the esplanade and is now the oldest building in Fowlers Bay. The Harbour Master’s house in West Terrace was built around 1890. The last harbour master was Mervyn Warmington who left with the last ship in 1966. He was married in 1956 in the Fowlers Bay Public Hall at the age of 26 years. The Post Office closed in 1967 after 92 years of usage. Today tourism and whale watching keep the town alive today with about 25 residents. The caravan park has a fine a café using locally caught fish. The bay is known as a nursery area for mother whales and their infants. On the edge of the town is a giant white coastal sand dune which looks as if it will one day swallow the town. But in 1952 it was estimated that Fowlers Bay would be under the sand dune within 20 years – i.e. 1972. That has not happened yet.
Fowlers Bay. Great Southern Right Whale tail as seven mothers and white calves play around the bay.
Head of the Bight and Whales. The Head of the Great Australian Bight has a lookout controlled and managed by Yalata Aboriginal Community. It is a further 165 kms west of Fowlers Bay. The Bight is a breeding and calving grounds for Southern Right Whales and it is a favoured spot for them from June until October. There is a small viewing platform there on cliffs that are about 70 metres high and by late August about 70 Southern Right Whales are usually in these waters. Our cruise from Fowlers Bay actually takes us into the Southern Ocean around Fowlers Bay where we should see plenty of Southern Right Whales as Fowlers Bay is second to Head of the Bight for calving and whale spotting. The Fowlers Bay area has around 100 whales passing through on occasions. You are also likely to see Humpback whales on the cruise too as well as dolphins, sea lions, fur seals, marine birds – including Albatross, Sea Eagles and Little Penguins. Southern Right Whales have no fins and often have white lumpy sections on their backs whilst Humpback Whales have small dorsal fins on their backs and pectoral flippers on their sides. Humpback whales do not breed and calve along the Great Australian Bight. Whales have frequented this area for a long period and a whaling station operated in the Fowlers Bay area from around 1840 to 1844.
Fowlers Bay. A port like Fowlers Bay was essential for the establishment of the Yalata sheep run in 1860. Communication with Adelaide for supplies or mail was by ship. A postal service began in 1865 mainly for the Yalata sheep run but there were other runs near Fowlers Bay. The government approved the construction of a police station and lockup for prisoners at Fowlers Bay. The coast was surveyed in 1867 from Fowlers Bay to the Western Australian border and a store keeper was licensed to operate there on 13 March 1867. Also in March a member of parliament made the first parliamentary visit to Fowlers Bay. His voyage from Port Adelaide took four days. The government then appointed two Justices of the Peace to Fowlers Bay in June 1867. Later in 1867 a local resident requested a doctor to be sent to Fowlers Bay as many of the Aboriginals were dying of disease and needed medical attention. In July 1867 the government approved £1,000 for a small jetty to be built at Fowlers Bay. The Fowlers Bay Post Office in 1867 was busy. The government spent £499 financing the mail service from Port Lincoln to Fowlers Bay for a revenue from those mails of only £108. But communication changed drastically in 1876 when the government spent £600 building a telegraph station and Post Office at Fowlers Bay. The telegraph station, which was also a repeater station, started operating on 8 December 1877 with the first telegraph line completed from Adelaide to Port Lincoln to Fowlers Bay and onwards to Eucla and Perth. R Knuckey from the government built the line across the Nullarbor from Fowlers Bay to Eucla with 38 men and 89 horses from July 1876 to July 1877. WA still had to complete the telegraph line to Eucla.
The town was re-surveyed in 1890 when the Hundred of Caldwell was surveyed. A timber and iron school room opened in 1893. From 1896 the school room was used for Congregational Church services and a foot pump organ was placed in the school room for use the by the children as well as the church congregation. The school closed in 1959 and children were sent to Coorabie School. Other facilities in the small town included: a bigger rebuilt jetty in 1896 which was then extended in 1907 and 1914 and again in 1948, a new Police Station in 1883 and Courthouse addition on the side street in 1912. The Institute was officially opened on 13 January 1923 with the foundation stone laid by George Murray of Yalata station in 1922. Although a hotel was licensed in the 1880s the current building was erected around 1900. Near the jetty is the Captain Matthew Flinders monument which was erected in 1948. In the early years there was evidently much drunkenness especially when a new shipment of beer and spirits arrived at the jetty! This was a busy jetting shipping out wheat and wool. The port was fortunate to be served by the Coast Steamships Limited from 1901 to 1966. The wheat trader James Darling, who had flourmills around SA, also ran his own steamer service to Fowlers Bay until 1942. Darling’s last steamer on the Fowlers route was called the Coorabie. Throughout this period some sailing ketches also serviced the ship route from Port Adelaide to Fowlers Bay including the Failie. The Yandra was especially built for the Far West Coast services of Eyre Peninsula. This steamer was built in Denmark in 1928 with a shallow draft for places like Fowlers Bay which it serviced it until it sank in Spencers Gulf in 1959.
From the town’s foundation Betts ran a general store in Fowlers Bay from 1890 to 1925. They also ran stores in Denial Bay, Ceduna, Streaky Bay etc. The caravan park is now located where the general store once stood. The town has declined since the closing of Bett’s store and then that of the Telegraph Office in 1927. The Telegraph Office was a small addition in 1877 to the 1875 built Post Office. It is on the esplanade and is now the oldest building in Fowlers Bay. The Harbour Master’s house in West Terrace was built around 1890. The last harbour master was Mervyn Warmington who left with the last ship in 1966. He was married in 1956 in the Fowlers Bay Public Hall at the age of 26 years. The Post Office closed in 1967 after 92 years of usage. Today tourism and whale watching keep the town alive today with about 25 residents. The caravan park has a fine a café using locally caught fish. The bay is known as a nursery area for mother whales and their infants. On the edge of the town is a giant white coastal sand dune which looks as if it will one day swallow the town. But in 1952 it was estimated that Fowlers Bay would be under the sand dune within 20 years – i.e. 1972. That has not happened yet.