Tumby Island is a low bedrock island located 500 m east of the southern tip of

Tumby Bay Tumby Bay is a coastal town situated on the Spencer Gulf, on the eastern coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, north of Port Lincoln. The town of Tumby Bay is the major population centre of the District Council of Tumby Bay, and the cen ...

(Tumby Point) in Spencer Gulf,

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. The island is a conservation park comprising 35 hectares. The island can be accessed on foot at low tide by traversing shallow water-covered rock flats and curving sand. Visitors should request access permission from DEWNR ( Government of South Australia) before visiting and be mindful of the presence of Death adders.

History

The island was named by explorer Matthew Flinders in 1802, after his native parish in England. On April 20, 1909, a 15–16 ft

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocean ...

was caught near Tumby Island by Captain Simms and the crew of the fishing cutter ''Minnie Simms''. It was almost 10 ft in circumference. Its jaws measured 2 ft across and some of its teeth were bought by people in Tumby Bay. On December 26, 1914, the region's first boating fatality was recorded involving a boat en route to Tumby Island departing from Tumby Bay. Mr W. A. L. Williams, chemist, was killed when his boat ''Dolphin'' capsized. All six passengers aboard survived. In 1969, Tumby Island was proclaimed a Conservation Park and is managed under South Australia's ''

National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 Protected areas of South Australia consists of protected areas located within South Australia and its immediate onshore waters and which are managed by South Australian Government agencies. As of March 2018, South Australia contains 359 sepa ...

''. As of 2011, no management plan exists for the park. The island is classified by IUCN as a Category 1A conservation asset, which means that it has been 'strictly set aside to protect biodiversity and also possibly geological/geomorphological features, where human visitation, use and impacts are strictly controlled and limited.'

Features

On the northern side of the island there is a 350 m long sandy beach fronted by 100 to 200 m wide rock and sand flats. The remainder of the island has low rock bluffs, which are steep on the southern side. Waters close to Tumby Island are known for their fishing. Popular targeted species include snapper and

tommy ruff The Australian herring (''Arripis georgianus''), also known as the ruff, tommy ruff, or Australian ruff, is one of four Australasian fish species within the genus '' Arripis''. It closely resembles its sister species, the Australian salmon, alth ...

."ANGLING & FISHING"
''The Mail, ''South Australia (1927-10-01). Retrieved 2014-01-10. These are best accessed from the mainland, or by boat. The island is known to host a population of Death adders which represent a potential threat to human visitors. The island also provides roosts and breeding habitat for a variety of seabird species. The endangered

fairy tern The fairy tern (''Sternula nereis'') is a small tern which is native to the southwestern Pacific. It is listed as " Vulnerable" by the IUCN and the New Zealand subspecies is " Critically Endangered". There are three subspecies: * Australian fai ...

and the vulnerable

eastern curlew The Far Eastern curlew (''Numenius madagascariensis'') is a large shorebird most similar in appearance to the long-billed curlew, but slightly larger. It is mostly brown in color, differentiated from other curlews by its plain, unpatterned brown ...

and

banded stilt The banded stilt (''Cladorhynchus leucocephalus'') is a nomadic wader of the stilt and avocet family, Recurvirostridae, native to Australia. It belongs to the monotypic genus ''Cladorhynchus''. It gets its name from the red-brown breast band fo ...

have been recorded in the Tumby Island / Cape Euler coastal cell.Eyre Peninsula Coastal Action Plan and Conservation Priority Study
''Eyre Peninsula Natural Resource Management'' (2011). Retrieved 2013-01-10.

References

{{Eyre Peninsula , state=autocollapse Islands of South Australia Spencer Gulf Eyre Peninsula