Arno Bay, a missing duck & a squid schnitzel

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Arno Bay, a missing duck & a squid schnitzel

Lyndelle Jeffrey is looking for her duck. She lost it months ago on Australia Day during Arno Bay’s community duck race.

“I’m still waiting for my duck to come back, he’s got lost along the way,” she tells me as we cross paths on the community-built boardwalk over the town’s tidal creek.

I’m still struggling to understand why more ducks didn’t get lost in the winding mangroves, mudflats and samphire. A wry smile crosses Lyndelle’s face as she reveals it was a rubber duck.

Camera IconLyndelle Jeffrey. Credit: Christien de Garis/Supplied

The tidal creek rubber duck race is one of the annual events that brings an immense sense of community to this small town of just over 300 people on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.

It’s that community spirit which helped build the multi-award-winning boardwalk where a visitor, on the biggest tides of the year, can wind their way over totally exposed vegetation only to return hours later on the high tide and find the dunes, shrubs and mangroves are entirely flooded by the swelling creek.

This story has been a few months in the making. I first experienced the tidal creek on low tide as part of my journey around Australia with my dog Mallee and, at that stage, my brother and his family.

We were determined to visit Arno Bay and have the pub’s famous squid schnitzel after seeing it in a

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travel show — the squid schnitty turns out to be the dish of the Eyre Peninsula. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised it’s like eating a massive crumbed squid ring. The optional garlic prawn sauce helped elevate it.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Camera IconThe squid schnitzel. Credit: Christien de Garis/Supplied

As we were leaving we decided to check out the tidal creek and all I could think about was coming back to see it at high tide. Now, a few months later, I’ve returned to the boardwalk, albeit not with the king tide that is needed to reveal the full tidal spectrum, but it’s still a great comparison.

The project was a decade in the making, beginning in 1996 when some passionate locals got together and created the Arno Bay Estuary Group to look at how they could elevate the experience of their tidal creek and build an attraction for both visitors and locals.

By 2001 they had cobbled together a range of grants and started building the boardwalk, sealing the road and constructing a gazebo. In 2007 stage two was completed, extending the boardwalk and adding fishing and viewing platforms as well as barbecue areas.

In the end it was estimated local volunteers gave 9450 hours to construct about one kilometre of boardwalk and all the additions leading from the mangroves to the beach.

I ask Lyndelle about this community spirit and she confirms to me she hasn’t experienced another town like it.

Her voice catches and she reveals the Arno Bay pub is actually putting on a big farewell for her this weekend as she’s leaving the town she’s come to love.

“Everyone has been so friendly, I’m a bit of a sooky la la anyway, but it’s going to be hard to say goodbye,” she says.

Hopefully she’ll at least catch up with that duck.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Camera IconFishing platform in Arno Bay. Credit: Christien de Garis/Supplied

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