The small and charming settlement of Tumby Bay is located 301 km west of Adelaide via the Princes and Lincoln Highways.
Tumby Bay is a typical Eyre Peninsula holiday resort. The township is dominated by the long,narrow arc of beach,the two jetties which jut out into the bay,the large caravan park on the beachfront,and the remarkable domination of corrugated iron which assails the traveller who drives in off the Lincoln Highway. It seems as though every second building and fence on the outskirts of town is built out of corrugated iron.
Like so much of the coastline of Eyre Peninsula,Tumby Bay was first explored by Matthew Flinders in 1802. Flinders named the bay and a nearby island (somewhat incongruously) after the village of Tumby in Lincolnshire,England. In 1984 the name was expanded from Tumby to Tumby Bay.
The first settlers moved into the area in the 1840's. In 1854 a farmer named James Provis took up land around the bay. The area was agricultural for nearly 50 years before the town came into existence.
There is a fascinating account of life in the area at this time:'People who came to Tumby Bay in 1858 were carried ashore from sailing boats. Sandhills,scrub and black"wurlies"were the only objects that met the eye...A jetty was built at Tumby Bay,which became the shipping port of the Burrawing Mine. There was no regular services,boats called only when there was cargo offering. The only building then erected was a small office near the jetty.'
By 1874 the first jetty had been built but there was no sign of a permanent settlement. One of the many interesting sights in town is the old tram at the end of the jetty near the Seaview Hotel. It was originally used to take bags of wheat from the drays to the boats berthed at the end of the pier.
The low rainfall in the area meant that the European population in the area grew very slowly. It wasn't until 1900 that the town was gazetted and even then it was really only a port where supplies could be landed and bags of grain could be shipped out.
It is a comment on the size of the town at this time that'The new buildings were hidden by scrub and people had to clamber over low sandhills to reach them...When the institute was erected in 1907,it was thought the occasion warranted something extra in the way of ceremony,so the Premier was invited to perform it. The ceremony took place at night,and in case the Premier and his party should get lost in the scrub before reaching the building,lanterns were hung in bushes along the route.'
Today Tumby Bay is a popular seaside holiday town which services the surrounding farming community.