Spotlight: Streaky Bay, South Australia

Located on South Australia’s pictruesque Eyre Peninsula, Streaky Bay is one of those tiny towns that you might find selling ‘Where the hell is ….?’ stickers to the few tourists that discover its charms.

Although popular with grey nomads doing the Nullarbor run, I’d never heard of the coastal town until early last year, when Streaky Bay hit the headlines as one of few places in Australia more recently to get a new caravan park built from scratch.

Intrigued, I decided to haul the family from Melbourne in a borrowed motorhome over the summer holidays for a visit and, despite the kids’ protestations, it was well worth the two-day, 1500km-plus drive…

Getting away from the crowds

While not as ideally located to the town centre and beach as the other, council-owned park, the Streaky Bay Islands Caravan Park is still only a couple of kilometres from town and walking distance to the water, with the bonus of elevated sunset views over the bay.

There are no grassy sites, but that’s about the only thing to complain about at the park, which provides more important things like supersized powered sites that easily fit the largest caravans and tow vehicles or motorhomes, and wide access lanes to make backing into them a breeze.

Each row of sites is raised higher than the other and separated by wire fencing, to prevent neighbours walking through your campsite. There are two pristine ablution blocks, featuring apartment-style bathrooms with toilet, shower and basin for complete privacy when showering. If you have teenage girls, expect them to disappear for long periods of time!

Other ‘highlights’ include the well-equipped laundry, that includes free trolleys for taking your washing out to the drying lines. There’s also a nice rec room with pool table, reading area and large TV, and a friendly reception area with small shop.

One surprise is the tiny saltwater pool –being an over-55s park, there’s apparently no need for a resort pool or kid-friendly splash park!

The owners instead are planning to spend more money on building a golf course on adjacent land for guests to use. We were also told the environmentally-friendly park was about to fit a third desalination machine, to go with the large solar panel array that supplies the park with some of its fresh water and electricity.

Sleepy town

Given the long distances to any major capital city, it's not surprising Streaky Bay remains a sleepy town, even during the peak New Year’s period. The Islands park was only about half full, but that might not be the case for long as word gets around…

It’s only a short walk from your site to the protected beach. Like most SA beaches you can drive your 4WD onto the sand, although we saw few vehicles or even people on the shore during our stay. The swimming is great and at low tide you can walk out to a small rock and sandy outcrop – just watch out for the blue swimmer crabs that nip your feet if you get too close!

With a population around 1600, the town has the basics covered including two mid-sized supermarkets, a decent bakery and trendy café for the latte lovers. There’s a fresh fish shop for those who don’t have a fishing rod or boat to catch their own, and a few coastal drive options for those who want to explore the area.

If you can, try and be there for New Year’s Eve, when the Streaky Bay sky bursts into colour with a spectacular fireworks display. It's part of a small family festival including food vans and kids entertainment, located along the lawns in front of the pier. However, being so close to the action can make it pretty noisy and distressing as the fireworks go off, for some young children and dogs.

While there are plenty of great coastal towns to stop off along the spectacular Eyre Peninsula, you can't go wrong spending a few days at this well-run, well-designed and RV (and dog) friendly park. The price is also right – the high-season rate for a powered site just $33 (children are extra).