Tumby Island is a low bedrock island located 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 The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe an ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. The island is a conservation park comprising .

History

The island was named by explorer

Matthew Flinders Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer who led the first littoral zone, inshore circumnavigate, circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then ...

in 1802, after his native parish in England. On 20 April 1909, a

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 ocea ...

was caught near Tumby Island by Captain Simms and the crew of the fishing

cutter Cutter may refer to: Tools * Bolt cutter * Box cutter * Cigar cutter * Cookie cutter * Cutter (hydraulic rescue tool) * Glass cutter * Meat cutter * Milling cutter * Paper cutter * Pizza cutter * Side cutter People * Cutter (surname) * Cutt ...

''Minnie Simms''. It was almost in circumference, and its jaws measured across. Some of its teeth were bought by people in Tumby Bay. On 26 December 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 ( Tumby Island Conservation Park) and is managed under South Australia's ''

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

''. The area is around . As of 2011, no management plan exists for the park. The island is classified by

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

as a Category 1A conservation asset, which means that it has been "strictly set aside to protect biodiversity and also possibly geological/

geomorphological Geomorphology () is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topography, topographic and bathymetry, bathymetric features generated by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. Ge ...

features, where human visitation, use and impacts are strictly controlled and limited".

Access

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 The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government or the SA Government, is the executive branch of the state government, state of South Australia. It is modelled on the Westminster system, meaning that the h ...

) before visiting and be mindful of the presence of Death adders.

Features

On the northern side of the island there is a long sandy beach fronted by 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 Snapper(s) may refer to: Animals * Lutjanidae, a family of fish known as snappers **''Lutjanus campechanus'', a fish found in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast of the United States ** Bigeye snapper (''Lutjanus lutjanus''), a fish that p ...

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, altho ...

. These are best accessed from the mainland, or by boat.

Flora and fauna

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". Fairy terns live in colonies along the coastli ...

and the vulnerable eastern curlew and

banded stilt The banded stilt (''Cladorhynchus leucocephalus'') is a Bird migration#Short-distance and altitudinal migration, nomadic wader of the stilt and avocet family, Recurvirostridae, native to Australia. It belongs to the monotypic genus ''Cladorhync ...

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. The island is also a nesting place for the eastern osprey, an

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

in SA. After finding that

foxes Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

had been stealing eggs, the Friends of Osprey conservation group and

National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia The National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia (NPWSSA), formerly a government agency known as National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and later a service under variously named government departments and branded National Parks and W ...

installed towers to provide an elevated platform for ospreys to nest. Their efforts were rewarded on Tumby Island, where a chick hatched in October 2023.

References

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