Coffin Bay - Culture and History

Coffin Bay was named by Matthew Flinders after his friend the naval officer, Isaac Coffin. Coffin, who was to become a Vice Admiral of the British Navy, assisted Flinders when he was preparing to sail for Australia. Flinders passed the area in 1802 although he never actually entered Coffin Bay.

Flinders was not the first European to visit this lonely and isolated coastline. A decade earlier the French explorer Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, had sighted the coast but, like Flinders, he had been loath to come too close because of the rugged coastline and the difficult and dangerous seas.

By the 1840s there was a small settlement, appropriately named Oyster Town, in Coffin Bay exploiting the vast supplies of oysters in the area. The oysters were shipped out to Adelaide until supplies ran out and the town was abandoned.