Peterborough and Port Lincoln

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PETERBOROUGH U 1808

The Peterborough region, 530 metres above sea level and encircled by the outlying hills of the Flinders Ranges, was known as 'alta' or 'the circle', by its first inhabitants, the Ngadjuri Aboriginal people. The town at the centre of the circle - like a wheel hubwas to develop into a major railway junction radiating snaking lines of steel rails instead of spokes.

The newly-established town was named Petersburg in 1880, after Peter Doecke, a German immigrant landowner. Anti-German feeling during the First World War saw the name's Anglicisation in 1918. Within a year of Peterborough's founding the railway from Adelaide had arrived, and by 1888 the line from Broken Hill had intersected it. Eventually Peterborough was to become famous as one of the few places in the world to have three railway gauges, narrow, standard and broad, depending on whether the line was going north to Port Augusta, north-east to Broken Hill or south to Adelaide.

With the standardisation of the rail links to Alice Springs and Broken Hill, the tedious business of exchanging wheel assemblies on freight cars is a thing of the past but the railway heritage remains alive and well: Peterborough's Tourist Information Centre is a railway carriage which was honourably retired after operating on the transcontinental railway and the line to Alice Springs between 1917 and 1979.

The town's abbatoir - one of only two in Australia that is licensed to slaughter horses for human consumption - serves a vast grazing region stretching into south-west Queensland, while a more local service is provided by South Australia's only gold-extraction battery, where ore crushing has been continuous since 1897 - first under steam power and later diesel driven (see subentry). 

Population 2240 

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PORT LINCOLN • 1955 11, 

the sheltered blue waters of lkston Bay, a harbour several timesthe size of the one in Sydney, is busyLincoln. it is the base for Aus-traI'5 largest tuna fleet, handling jot for the wool, fat lambs, live heep and grain of the hinterland and centre for processing and exportof local seafood - tuna, prawns and ,one. The writer Cohn Thiele was ahoolteacher in the district, and novel Blue Fist describes the tunaa5h1n8 industry of the bay, and the of a tuna boat in its waters.The town site, named 'in honour of my nativeprovince by Matthewnder5 in 1802, was used by Whalers and fishermen and in 1836sea5 visited by Colonel William Light, who decided against a capital here largely because of worries about the id interior. European settlement here dates from 1839, but faced many problems including the lack of surface water and a natural hostility - 0ft1me5 leading to clashes - from the Aborigines. The town's first inn, the Lincoln Hotel, built in 1840, still stands on the waterfront. For explorer Edward Eyre the fledgling town was the starting point for his first westward trek. Population 11 550

MILL corrAGE Pioneer settler Cap. lain John Bishop built this house for is son Joseph in 1866. It is now owned by the National Trust, and in it is preserved more than one hundred years of Bishop family history and belongings.

MIKSIRA STATION 

This was the first sheep station on the peninsula and is nowadays open to the public and has picnic and barbecue facilities. The original homestead dates from the 1840s. It is a simple whitewashed, four-roomed, thatch-roofed dwelling and with its outbuildings, has been restored.

WHALERS WY 

Whalers Way is a privately owned scenic drive and to enter it a key and permit must be obtained from the tourist office at Port Lincoln. The way winds along the clifftops above Sleaford Bay to the very tip of Eyre Peninsula giving dramatic panoramas of the rugged coastal scenery, with its capes, cliffs, caves, crevasses, blowholes and golden beaches. At the base of many of the limestone cliffs are platforms of harder granite where fur seals sometimes come ashore. The site of the old whaling station is in Fishery Bay, on the sheltered eastern side.

DANGEROUS REEF Off 

Port Lincoln are the windswept, rocky outcrops of Dangerous Reef, three sections of which are permanently above water. The reef supports the third largest breeding population of sea lions in Australia, as well as one of the largest colonies of black-faced cormorants in South Australia. This Is the only exclusively marine cormorant in Australia, and it is restricted to the southern coasts where it breeds in nests of seaweed on islands and reefs. They feed by the hundreds in the waters of Spencer Gulf and to help with their ballast when swimming and diving, swallow pebbles so that they can stay under longer.Regular services from Port Lincoln lake tourists to the reef and a view-
ing platform anchored there has an underwater observatory, a largeaquarium, and even a dive cage for those hoping for a close encounter with one of the great white sharks which frequent these waters.

FESTIVALS 

Adelaide to Port Lincoln Yacht Race, January; Tunarama Festival, January.PORT NEILL • 1956The deepwater boat ramp and the breakwater, which allow all-weather fishing in any wind conditions, make Port Neill, on Dutton Bay, a haven for small boat fishermen, and the bay here is indeed bountiful with hauls of King George whiting, snapper and garfish to be expected. Swimming on the white sandy beaches, sailing, waterskiing and skin diving are also popular activities. From Port Neill Lookout, on a nearby hilltop, are sweeping views over Spencer Gulf,the coastline and rolling hinterland. Port Neill came into existence in 1908, and was first known as Carrow,a derivation from its Aboriginal name. On the foreshore, there is the mighty anchor of the barque Lady Kmnaird which foundered off nearby Cape Burr in 1880.SIR JOSEPH BANKS • 1957GROUP CONSERVATION PARK The offshore islands of the Eyre Peninsula, largely free of introduced predatory animals such as foxes or cats, are a last refuge for a number of native birds and animals which are endangered or extinct on the mainland. The islands of the Sir Joseph Banks Group Conservation Park have the largest breeding ground in Australia of the Cape Barren goose, a bird driven almost to extinction by sealers in the nineteenth century. These large, distinctive birds, unique to Australia, graze on the grassy swards and heaths of the islands, and nest and raise their young amongst the rocks and tussocks.The rare Australian sea lion also finds a safe home here on English Island, where there is a breeding population. Births occur from mid-October to early January, the pups stay close to their mothers and are not weaned until about a year old. The sight of a bull sea lion guarding his lounging harem, whiskered dg-like face upturned, is a common ne along the secluded beach-
wave-washed rocky plsGuru. .t ihi: