Marion Bay - Places to See

Innes National Park
BE WARNED: The road is rough and the seas, at the northerly edge of the Roaring Forties, can be very dangerous. This is an area of great beauty but also of great danger.

One of the hidden wonders of South Australia, indeed of Australia. The Innes National Park, an area of nearly 9000 hectares, protects the southerly tip of the Yorke Peninsula and is home to a rich and diverse range of landscapes from peaceful bays to spectacular cliffs.

Stenhouse Bay
Located about 8 km south of Marion Bay in the Innes National Park, Stenhouse Bay is now a ghost port. There was a time when the old jetty and the hoppers and storage bins along the shoreline were bustling with activity. Windjammers used to arrive to load limestone which was mined inland and brought to the port.

Wreck of the Ethel
Whether it is still there is really up to the sea but for many years the Ethel, an old barque who never made it beyond Reef Head, could be seen from the road between Inneston and Pondalowie Bay. The vessel was wrecked in 1904. If it has disappeared at least there is a memorial to the event on the cliffs. The views along Ethel Beach are particularly beautiful.

Cape Spencer
Innes National Park is full of joys and surprises. One of the major attractions is the views. At Cape Spencer the view across to the two tiny islands is particularly attractive.

Bird watching
Innes National Park is home to a number of rare and endangered species of bird. If you are a keen birdwatcher it is worth preparing to see the mallee fowl, the western whipbird, the osprey and the beautiful white-breasted sea eagle. The winter rains attract over 120 species of bird to the park in the spring months when the wildflowers are blooming.

Surfing and Fishing
The park is famed for its excellent fishing and surfing. Pondalowie Bay and Chinamans Bay are known to surfers around Australia for the excellence of their waves and Browns Beach has a reputation with anglers fishing for salmon.

Inneston
The historic town of Inneston was first settled in the late 1880s when gypsum was first discovered in the area. Today it is nearly a ghost town (lots of rusting old equipment, a crushing plant, a disused Post Office, stables and so on) but some of the cottages have been leased to people who are trying to revitalise the tiny settlement.