Coffin Bay National Park

Open dai­ly.

Clo­sures and safety

This park is closed on days of Cat­a­stroph­ic Fire Dan­ger and may also be closed on days of Extreme Fire Danger.

You can deter­mine the cur­rent fire dan­ger rat­ing by check­ing the Fire Ban Dis­trict map on the CFS website.

Check the CFS web­site or call the CFS Bush­fire Infor­ma­tion Hot­line 1800 362 361 for:

• Infor­ma­tion on fire bans and cur­rent fire conditions
• Cur­rent CFS warn­ings and incidents
• Infor­ma­tion on what to do in the event of a fire.

Lis­ten to your local area radio sta­tion for the lat­est updates and infor­ma­tion on fire safety.

Vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion, book­ings and park management:

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Port Lin­coln Office
Phone: (+61 8) 8688 3111
Email: EPParks@​sa.​gov.​au

Port Lin­coln Vis­i­tor Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre
3 Ade­laide Place, Port Lin­coln
Phone: 1300 788 378
Email: info@​visitportlincoln.​net.​au
Vis­it Port Lin­coln website

Emer­gency contacts:

Med­ical, fire (includ­ing bush­fire) and police emer­gency sit­u­a­tions
Phone: Triple Zero — 000

Police Assis­tance
Phone: 131 444 for non-urgent police assistance

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice SA – After-hours duty offi­cer
Phone: 08 8688 3223

Injured wildlife:

With­in the park
Please con­tact Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Port Lin­coln Officeon (08) 8688 3111 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on (08) 8688 3223

Out­side of the park
Please con­tact a local wildlife res­cue group

Marine mam­mals
If you find a sick or strand­ed marine mam­mal (includ­ing whales, seals, sea lions and dol­phins), please con­tact Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Port Lin­coln Office on (08) 8688 3111 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on (08) 8688 3223

Sum­mer in Cof­fin Bay Nation­al Park is per­fect, the weath­er is warm to hot and usu­al­ly dry. It’s great for camp­ing and ide­al for beach lovers. If you vis­it dur­ing late win­ter and spring – the best time for walk­ing – you’re like­ly to see the park teem­ing with native flo­ra and birdlife.

Cof­fin Bay Nation­al Park is locat­ed 50km west of Port Lin­coln. Access from Flinders High­way is via Cof­fin Bay Road. The park is on the tip of the Eyre Penin­su­la and is an eight hour, 680km dri­ve from Ade­laide. The trip can be short­ened by tak­ing the fer­ry from Wal­la­roo to Cowell.

• Park maps

Yang­ie Bay

Park­ing

There are no ded­i­cat­ed acces­si­ble park­ing spaces at Yang­ie Bay.

Toi­lets

There are 2 pit toi­lets which are acces­si­ble one is a left hand toi­let and one is a right hand toi­let. The paths to the toi­lets are com­pact gravel.

Pic­nic area

The pic­nic area is acces­si­ble. Shel­ter and seat­ing is avail­able. Both pic­nic tables have spaces for wheelchairs.

Camp­ing

The Yang­ie Bay camp­ground, has 19 camp­sites all suit­able for car­a­vans. Most of the camp­sites are wheel­chair acces­si­ble. They are on flat ground with a com­pact­ed grav­el sur­face. Camp­sites 9, 10, 18 and 19 are clos­est to the toilets.

Trails

Tem­ple­to­nia Look­out — A very short wheel­chair acces­si­ble walk along a board­walk to see the stun­ning views of Yang­ie Bay. There is a steep sec­tion along the board­walk so some assis­tance is required. 

Assis­tance dogs are per­mit­ted in most pub­lic places and are there­fore wel­come in South Australia’s parks and reserves. Assis­tance dogs must be appro­pri­ate­ly restrained on a lead and remain under your effec­tive con­trol at all times while in a park or reserve.

As per the dogs in parks and reserves pol­i­cy, if the dog is not an accred­it­ed assis­tance dog, they must be trained to assist a per­son with a dis­abil­i­ty to alle­vi­ate that dis­abil­i­ty and meet stan­dards of hygiene and behav­iour appro­pri­ate for a dog in a pub­lic place. How­ev­er, refusal may be giv­en if the per­son with the dis­abil­i­ty is unable to pro­duce evi­dence the dog is an assis­tance dog with the appro­pri­ate training.

Before tak­ing your assis­tance dog into a park that does not nor­mal­ly allow dogs, it is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed that you con­tact us so we can pro­vide you with the lat­est infor­ma­tion on any poten­tial haz­ards with­in spe­cif­ic parks that may affect your dog. Please con­tact the park via the con­tact details pro­vid­ed under the con­tact tab or con­tact the vis­i­tor ser­vice cen­tre via email or on Face­book.

Dogs are not per­mit­ted in this park.

Dis­cov­er which parks you can walk your dog in on our find a park tool or read 12 dog-friend­ly walks in Ade­laide Parks by Good Liv­ing for inspiration.

There are a vari­ety of facil­i­ties avail­able at the camp­grounds with­in the park.

Toi­lets are avail­able at the Yang­ie Bay, Black Springs, Mor­gan’s Land­ing and The Pool campgrounds.

A pic­nic shel­ter and kayak launch facil­i­ty is also avail­able at the Yang­ie Bay campground.

There is no water avail­able in the park and you must bring your own.

Col­lec­tion of wood for camp­fires is not per­mit­ted in the park and you must bring your own fire­wood for campfires.*

Gen­er­a­tors may be used in the park between the hours of 9am and 9pm. Please con­sid­er oth­er campers and keep gen­er­a­tor use to a minimum.

*Restric­tions apply. See fire safe­ty.

• Read about the 5 trea­sures of Cof­fin Bay Nation­al Park on the Good Liv­ing blog. 
• Read the Insid­er guide: Cof­fin Bay on the Good Liv­ing blog. 
• Many of the cliffs in this park are under­cut and crum­bling. Please take extreme care when walk­ing, fish­ing or dri­ving near any coastal area.
• Explore what oth­er nature and out­door activ­i­ties are avail­able in this area on the South Aus­tralia Tourism website. 

• Mobile phone cov­er­age can be patchy and unre­li­able in this park, espe­cial­ly if you are in low-lying areas.

• Parks man­age­ment plans
• Trails SA
• SA Marine Parks

• Impor­tant: Col­lec­tion of fire­wood with­in Nation­al Parks is pro­hib­it­ed. Dead wood plays a vital role in pro­vid­ing shel­ter for ani­mals and adding nutri­ents to the soil.

Take a vir­tu­al tour of this park and see what Cof­fin Bay Nation­al Park has to offer, with huge white dunes, look­outs, native scrub­land and more avail­able to explore!

• Geo­ra­ma vir­tu­al tour

Plants

The flo­ra of Cof­fin Bay Nation­al Park is espe­cial­ly diverse, com­pris­ing sev­en broad veg­e­ta­tion com­mu­ni­ties includ­ing sam­phire shrub­lands, mallee wood­lands and tall cut­ting grasslands. 

The dom­i­nant veg­e­ta­tion com­mu­ni­ties are coastal shrub­land and coastal heaths sup­port­ing plants such as coastal beard­ed-heath, cush­ion bush, salmon cor­rea and the spec­tac­u­lar cocky tongue which pro­duces a mass of large orange, red and yel­low flow­ers dur­ing late win­ter and spring.

Anoth­er impor­tant plant com­mu­ni­ty that rep­re­sents a dis­tinc­tive com­mu­ni­ty in its own right, but which has been exten­sive­ly mod­i­fied by pas­toral land uses, is the droop­ing sheoak wood­lands. This com­mu­ni­ty is com­prised of a diverse vari­ety of under­storey shrubs and grass­es. The sheoaks wood­lands are the focus of habi­tat restora­tion activ­i­ty by vol­un­teers and Rangers on the west­ern end of the penin­su­la near Point Sir Isaac. 

Ani­mals

You are like­ly to see emus, goan­nas and west­ern grey kan­ga­roos al year round. Dur­ing the win­ter months, you may catch a glimpse of south­ern right whales from the Avoid Bay cliffs.

More than 120 bird species, many of con­ser­va­tion sig­nif­i­cance, find safe refuge and nest­ing sites with­in the park. The hood­ed plover, a threat­ened species in South Aus­tralia, nests on beach­es through­out the park. Rare white-bel­lied sea eagles and osprey breed all along the coast, they are reg­u­lar­ly spot­ted hunt­ing in the park. When bird watch­ing, car­ry binoc­u­lars and a field guide to help with bird iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. Wear clothes that blend in with the sur­rounds and be qui­et, par­tic­u­lar­ly if birds are nest­ing. Do not approach or inter­fere with nests – this can cause birds to aban­don them.

Cast your eye down­wards and look between the cracks and crevices to find the less­er seen skinks, geck­os, snakes, bush rats, spi­ders and scor­pi­ons that live with­in the park. 

Oys­ters live on rocky lime­stone, cock­le worms bur­ry them­selves in the sand and inver­te­brates such as crabs and shell­fish live amongst sam­phire plants. 

The once rare Rosen­berg’s goan­na pop­u­la­tion is recov­er­ing in Lin­coln Nation­al Park thanks to the Rangers inten­sive fox bait­ing program. 

Have you seen a goan­na on the Eyre Peninsula? 

Vis­i­tors can record their goan­na sight­ings and pho­tographs to help under­stand the recov­ery of goan­nas in this region. 

Have you seen a goanna?

Flo­ra and fau­na species lists

To down­load flo­ra (plants) and fau­na (ani­mals) species lists for this park, use the ​‘Cre­ate Sim­ple Species List’ tab under ​‘Flo­ra Tools’ or ​‘Fau­na Tools’ in NatureMaps.

Vis­i­tors should be aware that intro­duced Euro­pean hon­ey bees may be present with­in this park. Take extra care in the warmer months, from spring through to autumn, when the bees swarm and are attract­ed to water sources.

You can help reduce the risk of bee stings by care­ful­ly man­ag­ing attrac­tants, such as food, drink­ing con­tain­ers and oth­er sources of mois­ture, such as dish­wa­ter and wet clothing.

Long cloth­ing, enclosed foot wear and insect repel­lents can also help to pro­tect from bee stings. If you have any aller­gies to bee stings, ensure you car­ry appro­pri­ate medication.

The Barn­gar­la and Nauo peo­ple used the rich food resources of the low­er Eyre Penin­su­la coast long before the arrival of Matthew Flinders. They made use of a wide vari­ety of fish, inland mam­mals, rep­tiles and plants. The non­do bean which grows pro­lif­i­cal­ly on the sand hills was a high­ly prized food. Fish traps made from stone arrange­ments, stone work­ing sites and mid­dens are still present in the park.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples have occu­pied, enjoyed and man­aged the lands and waters of this State for thou­sands of gen­er­a­tions. For Abo­rig­i­nal first nations, cre­ation ances­tors laid down the laws of the Coun­try and bestowed a range of cus­tom­ary rights and oblig­a­tions to the many Abo­rig­i­nal Nations across our state. 

There are many places across the State that have great spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cance to Abo­rig­i­nal first nations. At some of these places Abo­rig­i­nal cul­tur­al pro­to­cols, such as restrict­ed access, are pro­mot­ed and vis­i­tors are asked to respect the wish­es of Tra­di­tion­al Owners.

In places where pro­to­cols are not pro­mot­ed vis­i­tors are asked to show respect by not touch­ing or remov­ing any­thing, and make sure you take all your rub­bish with you when you leave.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples con­tin­ue to play an active role in car­ing for their Coun­try, includ­ing in parks across South Australia. 

• DEW Park management
• DEW Abo­rig­i­nal partnerships

Colo­nial his­to­ry in the Port Lin­coln area is first record­ed in Matthew Flinders’ voy­age of dis­cov­ery aboard the Inves­ti­ga­tor in 1802. He sur­veyed and mapped much of the coast­line of low­er Eyre Penin­su­la, nam­ing many sites in and around the Nation­al Park, includ­ing Point Sir Isaac and Cof­fin Bay itself, named after Admi­ral Sir Isaac Cof­fin, 1^st Baronet, an offi­cer of the British Roy­al Navy. 

Whal­ing and seal­ing took place in the area dur­ing the ear­ly 1800s, how­ev­er the indus­try col­lapsed a few decades lat­er due to deplet­ed stocks. 

A pas­toral indus­try devel­oped on the Cof­fin Bay penin­su­la in the mid 1800s and con­tin­ued for 140 years, with thou­sands of sheep being grazed at the west­ern end of the penin­su­la. Horse and cat­tle graz­ing, and fod­der cul­ti­va­tion also occurred but it soon became clear that the land could not sus­tain the industry. 

Cof­fin Bay Nation­al Park was estab­lished in Decem­ber 1982. The nation­al park is now devel­oped for nature based tourism and con­ser­va­tion on approx­i­mate­ly 31,000 hectares of the Cof­fin Bay peninsula.