Camper Trailer Australia - April 2018

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adventure

WordsJOHN WILLIS

PicsJOHN WILLIS, BARRY ASHENHURST, SUPPLIED

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whether you're staring into the eyes of a great white shark or camping out with a local tipple

and fresh seafood caught straight from the boat — there's something for everyone in this

coastal town

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f I ever disappear off the face of the earth
don’t look for me at Port Lincoln — you
just may find me. This seems to be a
common theme among the so-called
locals.
“I came for a three month work contract,
that was fifteen years ago,” says Andrew
Wright skipper and part owner of Calypso Star
Charters shark cage diving; a tourism boat
tender business that helps eager visitors get up
close and personal with one of the region's hot
attractions: the magnificently intimidating Great

White shark.

The development of a localised oceanic

fishing industry in the 1950s and 60s changed

the southern Eyre Peninsula from coastal

village into a thriving port of more than

14,000 residents and a large transient tourism

industry. The historic MFV Tacoma began

catching southern bluefin tuna in the early

1950s and transformed the town, triggering

the beginnings of a nautical boom that put

Port Lincoln on the map. The 85ft purse seine

trawler was capable of pulling in 200 tonne of

fish — be it bluefin, pilchard, salmon, sardine or

other pelagic fisheries — from the wild waters,

up to 1000 miles into the Antarctic and the

remote waters of the Great Australian Bight.

News of the tuna stocks attracted investors

and seafarers from near and far including

brothers Joe and Mick Puglisi and their boat

the San Michael, in 1960. Others joined the

fray — mainly European migrants in search of

opportunity in a brave new world. Tony Santic,

owner of triple Melbourne Cup winner Makybe

Diva, and Dinko Lukin, whose son Dean was

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