Arno Bay, a missing duck and a squid schnitzel

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

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

I still struggle to figure out why there aren’t more ducks lost in the winding mangroves, mudflats and samphire. An ironic smile appears on Lyndelle’s face as she reveals it was a rubber duck.

The Tidal Creek Rubber Duck Race is one of the annual events that creates a huge sense of community in this small town of just over 300 people on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.

It is this community spirit that has helped to build the multi-award-winning boardwalk where, during the highest tides of the year, visitors can stroll across completely exposed vegetation only to discover, hours later, at high tide, that the dunes, shrubs and mangrove forests have been completely submerged by the swelling creek.

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

We were determined to visit Arno Bay and try the pub’s famous squid schnitzel after seeing it on a YouTube travel show — it turns out the squid schnitzel is the Eyre Peninsula dish. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, it’s like eating a giant breaded squid ring. The optional garlic prawn sauce helped to enhance it.

When we left 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 am back on the boardwalk, although not with the king tide needed to reveal the full tidal spectrum, but it is still a great comparison.

The project has been ten years in the making. It began in 1996 when a group of enthusiastic locals joined forces to form the Arno Bay Estuary Group. They wanted to explore how they could improve the experience of their tidal creek and create an attraction for both visitors and locals.

By 2001, they had secured a series of grants and had begun construction of the boardwalk, sealing the road and building a gazebo. In 2007, phase two was completed, extending the boardwalk and adding fishing and viewing platforms, as well as barbecue areas.

Ultimately, it was estimated that local volunteers spent 9,450 hours constructing approximately one kilometre of walking path and all associated extensions from the mangrove forests to the beach.

I ask Lyndelle about this sense of community and she confirms that she has never experienced a city like it.

Her voice rises as she tells me that the pub in Arno Bay is throwing her a grand farewell this weekend as she leaves the town she has come to love.

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

Hopefully she at least catches up with that duck.

READ MORE