Point Lowly

About 10km south of Whyalla, on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, is Point Lowly, traditionally owned by the Barngarla people.

The lighthouse, which originally on kerosene and had a lightkeeper, is now decomissioned and stands as a reminder of times gone by. Not an unfamiliar story.

There’s a plaque that tells of the voyages of Matthew Flinders and Louis-Claude de Freycinet, who missed one another at this point by 9 months, while both were mapping the coastline of Australia. The Freycinet Trail goes along the coastline from Point Lowly, along Fitzgerald Bay for 12km. We arrived much later than anticipated, so declined to do it this time, but are keen to try it.

Walking around the lighthouse, we saw some interesting rock formations,

Spied a seal having a swim,

And admired the foliage.

Cuttlefish are known to use this bay for mating and spawning between May and August each year. Unfortunately, we missed them, even though it’s July, so that’s another reason to return.

Across the point is Port Bonython, where liquid hydrocarbons from the Cooper/Eromanga Basins are processed. It’s not the end of environmental damage occurring in the region.

The scenery was quite lovely and we really enjoyed all the shades of blue.

Our plan was to go to the visitor centre and plan what we’d see in our whirlwind stopover, but that didn’t occur. Our caravan park (Discovery Park, Whyalla Foreshore) had an information board that sent us out to a couple of spots, and I’ll write about those next. Whyalla doesn’t usually inspire South Australians to visit it, but I don’t think it should be overlooked.