Cuttlefish wow our visitors
The annual migration of the Australian Giant Cuttlefish ‘Sepia Apama’ is one of the most spectacular natural events in the Australian marine environment.
Every year between May and August, they come in their tens of thousands to mate and reproduce, in the process creating an amazing spectacle of cunning games, predation, underwater light shows and colourful kaleidoscopic displays.
Whyalla is the only place in the word where they gather in such numbers, and as word spreads the number of people who take the opportunity to brave the cold winter waters to witness this natural phenomenon increases.
Page after page in the visitor book at Stony Point tell of how blown away by this experience our visitors have been.
But one recent visitor took it a step further, contacting Council via email to share her experience and express her delight over her recent trip to Whyalla.
This is what Lara Bickford, from Fitzroy, Victoria had to say:
Dear Whyalla City Council
My family of 6 returned recently from a fabulous trip to your town of Whyalla.
I recently discovered the “Swim with the Cuttlefish” through the SA National park email “Good Living” and decided to pack up the kids from Melbourne and head over this school holidays.
We are so glad we did!
We spent 2 nights in local accommodation and enjoyed the hospitality of the town, dining at a restaurant, taking breakfast and delicious coffees at local cafes, enjoying takeaways, lunch at your bakeries and drinks at a local hotel.
We also enjoyed and learnt a lot from the Steelworks tour.
It was so great to see the city of Whyalla embracing and valuing the phenomena of the cuttlefish in the gulf with the Cuttlefest.
It was a delight for the family to see the giant cuttlefish toys in windows and the friendliness of the locals we interacted with was wonderful.
The natural beauty of the coast and the saltbush mallee is breathtaking and together with the underwater sights, Whyalla has much to value and promote to tourists.
What is certain is that Whyalla is blessed with the natural beauty of the gulf and its coast, and with support and protection from the Whyalla residents, can be promoted to bring in tourists for years to come.
I have attached some of our holiday snaps which capture what a great time we had!
We will definitely be back to explore more of the coast, including the Freycinet hike on Fitzgerald Bay as well as the Whyalla Conservation Park that we didn’t have time for.
I will be spreading the word to visit Whyalla to swim with the cuttlefish and to take some time to enjoy your wonderful city and environs.