Beachport began as a whaling station in the 1800s, but it was the thriving wool industry that created the need for a 772-metre jetty. Stretching far out into the pristine blue waters of Rivoli Bay, it’s the second longest jetty in South Australia.

Today Beachport is home to a busy fishing fleet and you’ll often find locals dropping a line for whiting, mullet and salmon off the jetty. From June to October, cast your eyes to the horizon for something slightly larger – the jetty is the perfect vantage point for Southern Right Whales on their annual migration along Australia’s southern coastline.

FAST FACTS!

• More than 100 ships were wrecked off the Limestone Coast within a few hundred kilometres of this spot, with 218 lives lost
• The Pool of Siloam just outside Beachport is nearly seven times saltier than the sea (makes it fun for swimming because you’re so buoyant and locals say it’s also great for relieving aches and pains)
• Rivoli Bay was named by French explorer Nicholas Baudin after an Italian town where the French fought and won a battle in 1797
• Woakwine Cutting, just north of Beachport, is Australia’s biggest one-man engineering feat, created to drain land for pastoral use
• Before European settlement, Beachport was known as Wirma Ngrang to the local Boandik People