A complete guide to Streaky Bay, SA
Streaky Bay is an important service centre and holiday destination on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. A sleepy town with a population of a little over 2000, it has superb coastal scenery and a wonderful Mediterranean-like ambience.
Its major attractions lie to the north and south of the town, and include the Westall Way Loop, a 32km driving route with beautiful views of the area’s rugged cliffs and pristine white beaches; Smooth Pool, a popular snorkelling spot known for its calm waters and diverse marine life; and Point Labatt, where you can spot sea lions swimming and lazing about in the sun.
About 41km south of Streaky Bay, tourism operator Baird Bay Experience offers sightseeing tours where you can swim with wild sea lions and dolphins.
Streaky Bay’s reputation as a fishing hotspot and a place to eat excellent seafood is well-deserved. It’s located on the edge of a deepwater harbour, and the surrounding ocean boasts abundant and accessible stocks of King George whiting, blue swimmer crab, snapper, salmon, flounder, abalone and squid that can be caught from 18 locations around the region.
Most holidaymakers use the town as a base and spend their days fishing, swimming and exploring the coastline.
Origin of name: When Matthew Flinders explored the bay in 1802, he named it Streaky Bay because he noticed streaks in the water – discolouration that was likely caused by light reflecting off seaweed.
Things to do
Westall Way Loop
This 32km scenic drive explores the beautiful stretch of coastline south of Streaky Bay, which boasts pristine beaches, dramatic cliffs, bays, inlets, headlands and rocky outcrops.
Highlights include Tractor Beach, Speed Point, High Cliff, The Granites (a popular surfing beach), Smooth Pool, and the white dunes at Yanerbie Sandhills – the area’s best sandboarding location.
There’s a lot to see and do, so expect this scenic drive to take anywhere from 1.5–3 hours.
Cape Bauer Loop
Explore Cape Bauer on this 38km scenic drive, just a stone’s throw north-west of Streaky Bay, which will take between 1–2 hours.
Highlights include Hallys Beach, and Whistling Rocks and the Blowholes, where you’ll find a 360m-long boardwalk and wheelchair-accessible viewing platform.
While exploring Cape Bauer, keep your eyes peeled for peregrine falcons, eastern ospreys and white-bellied sea eagles, which are known to breed in the area.
Point Labatt
The 60m-high cliffs at Point Labatt lie some 40km south of Streaky Bay and have a viewing platform that offers panoramic views of the sea across the Great Australian Bight. Point Labatt is home to mainland Australia’s only permanent colony of Australian sea lions. If you’re lucky, you may even spot pups playing and learning how to swim. These endangered marine mammals cohabit with New Zealand fur seals, forming a population of about 50 individuals. But don’t expect to get up close and personal with the sea lions, as they live on a beach below the viewing platform.
The area is a breeding site for endangered ospreys and provides habitat for white-bellied sea eagles. It’s also home to a colony of Parvulastra parvivipara, the world’s smallest species of starfish. Between May and October, Point Labatt is a great place to go whale watching, as whales migrate north from Antarctica to breed and calve in warmer waters.
Murphy’s haystacks
This is one of Australia’s most iconic geological formations and is located about 40km south of Streaky Bay, off the Flinders Highway. Murphy’s Haystacks are a series of dramatically weathered granite outcrops, known to geologists as inselbergs. (And some of them really do look like old-fashioned haystacks!)
These rock formations are about 1.6 billion years old, making them among the oldest in Australia. It’s thought the rocks, which are made of pink granite, were weathered and sculpted into their present form about 100,000 years ago.
Murphy’s Haystacks are located on private property, so there’s a $2 entry fee to help with site maintenance. The site has a walking trail that takes visitors around the impressive
