Visit Eyre Waterhole, Streaky Bay, South Australia

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The memorial carin to explorer Edward John Eyre who camped here in 1840 at the waterhole near this memorial. Long before white settlers moved to this region the bay here was sighted by at least three white visitors. The first was Peter Nuyts the Dutch explorer who came along this coast in 1627 in his ship the Golden Zeepard. The second European to visit this picturesque part of South Australia on the western coast of Eyre Peninsula was Captain Matthew Flinders who sighted and named the bay in 1802. The water was discoloured by streaks so he named it Streaky Bay. The next white man to visit this spot was Edward John Eyre on his explorations of Eyre Peninsula in 1839. Eyre established a camp at a water hole about 2 miles from the bay. Like the Murray Mallee, the South East and Yorke Peninsula, Eyre Peninsula is also a limestone area with no water courses on the land surface. In 1840 Eyre began his disastrous expedition across the Nullarbor Plain from this waterhole. It is signposted a couple of miles out of the town toward Port Lincoln. Eyre made contact with the Wirunga Aboriginal people on the Peninsula and he was assisted in his explorations with his devoted Aboriginal tracker and friend Wylie whom Eyre had taken into his employ from Albany in Western Australia. The party of two white men and three Aboriginal men set out from Eyre Peninsula in 1841 to cross the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor Plain but only Eyre and Wylie managed to reach Esperance and finally Albany.

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