Venus Bay

Thursday 31st March 2022

Today we left Streaky Bay for Venus Bay. We are heading south east down the coast of the Eyre Peninsula before heading back up the north east.

Today we travelled just under 50km to Venus Bay.

Venus Bay, as with most of the coast of the Eyre Peninsula, was first recorded by Captain Matthew Flinders in 1802.

The first Europeans to explore the bay were the party which landed from the brig Nerus in March 1839, comprising Captain F.R. Lees, David McLaren, and Samuel Stephens, the latter two being the current and former Colonial Managers of the South Australian Company, who were examining the West Coast.

Sheep pastoralists soon followed, and in 1850, in order to load wool, the bay was first entered by a vessel, Robert Venn’s schooner Venus, 60 tons, from which the bay took its name. The Venus continued to trade along the coast, carrying wool, wheat, and passengers, until she was sold in 1852 to NSW, where she was wrecked at Cronulla on 22 July.

The town was established after a whaling station was built in the 1850s, and for twenty years it existed as no more than a shop, hotel and police station.

In 1855 there were eleven Aboriginal mounted constables of the Native Police Force stationed at Venus Bay under Sergeant Eyre. The focus of the town soon turned from wool and pastoralism to agriculture as the area was opened for cereal cropping in the 1870s.

The town was surveyed in August 1864 and was subsequently given the name “Parkin” in honour of William Parkin, who was notable as a businessman, politician and philanthropist. The name of the town was officially changed to “Venus Bay” in July 1940.

Today it is a small tourist and fishing town with a population numbered in the twenties for most of the year.

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We arrived and set up the caravan at the Venus Bay Tourist Park.

We had takeaway lunch at the kiosk before going to the fish station to fillet the flathead from yesterday.

At the fish station the pelicans were very aggressive and would come to get fish guts out of your hands. One silver seagull almost took a whole fillet off the chopping board.

A gentleman came and handed Madeline a broken fishing rod that was stored at the fish station for the sole purpose of scaring the birds away.

We then walked down the beach in very windy conditions to the Venus Bay Jetty.

Jason did some lure fishing in the shallows.

We then went to the local playground for an hour or so.

Back at the van we prepared dinner which took an hour to bake because the wind and external temp was so cold.

The temp had dropped to 17 degrees at 730pm with a wind chill feels like 10 degrees. Thank goodness for the diesel heater.

Tomorrow

We move on to Elliston.