At the Eyre Bird observatory there are walks (see below), the beach is just 800m away, you can get involved in bird data collection, you can visit the Museum, and there various courses you can attend (these must be pre-booked).
Or you can just stay for 2 or more nights and enjoy being ‘unplugged’ in the serenity of this pristine natural environment.
In the lovely old building, we have our museum.
Together with a history of the Telegraph – early telecommunications, and other related Post Office history we have a quirky collection of memorabilia collected from the beach, dunes and walks, along with historical artifacs and relics. We hope in the future to gain a grant to update these facilities and preserve the contents for the future.
Walks
There are several self-guided walks with brochures available from the office to help you navigate and to indicate points of interest along the way.
The Sunset Walk – by Marg and Simon Baltais caretakers -Spring 2024
If there is one walk that will capture the heart and bring into the focus the raw beauty and challenges of the Eyre Bird Observatory (EBO) landscape in 20 minutes, it has to be the Sunset Lookout Walk. Totalling only 700 metres in length it’s always a great walk to send daytime visitors and overnight guests on their first EBO adventure. Departing the EBO along the driveway you turn north into the acacia regrowth and re-appear shortly thereafter onto the fire break, a stark reminder that mother nature can serve up some fierce behaviour, such as the fire of 2016. You soon pass back into the mallee and follow fishing ropes recovered from the beaches and repurposed, laid upon the track for a more benign use to guide the visitor. It reminds us about human impacts upon our oceans and its creatures. The bush is alive with small bush birds and the plants change with the seasons. Often seen are White-browed Scrubwrens, Blue-breasted Fairy-wrens, White-browed Babblers, Grey Shrike-thrush, Western Whistlers while Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos, Collared Sparrowhawks, Brown Falcons and Nankeen Kestrels are seen flying overhead.
Now the grass is drying, and some acacias are in seed, Brush Bronzewing numbers grow and there is the occasional Common Bronzewing. Lately orchids have been prevalent, but they soon fade and are replaced by flowering mallee, acacia and a great variety of shrubs.
Turning southwest you climb a vegetated sand dune and walk across sand criss-crossed by the tree roots searching for moisture and with this patch work of natural fibre holding the dune together.A further 200 metres and you are greeted by a pure white dune system, which looks more like snow-covered hills stretching out to the northwest.
A further few hundred metres and you veer around the eastern edge of the dunes climbing gently to arrive at the top. It is spectacular in the hour before sunset and just after sunrise as the soft pastel light is captured by the sand and the ripples are highlighted at their best. Add the rapidly changing weather and the parade of changing clouds and you can make a magical portrait with the simplest of cameras. To the west you can see along the coast and as far as Twilight Cove on a clear day. To the north the dune plunges into the mallee like a slow-moving tsunami drowning trees and shrubs as it slowly moves northwards. It is here that we need to remind ourselves that the EBO owes its continued existence to the decades of effort applied by the Dune Restoration team in stabilising the most problematic dunes. It’s this contrast of beauty and beast that makes this just a magical and informative walk, a great segue into EBO’s wonderful natural and human history.
Time Out on the Lookout Circuit Walk – 1. Autumn 2024 – Chosen by Mandy & Steve Edwards, caretakers
The EBO has several different walks, each a little different in distance and terrain, and each pleasurable in its own way. One which I enjoy and use to give myself a brief break from ‘host duties’ is the Lookout Walk.
The beginning of this track is almost opposite the turn off into the observatory and takes you in the direction of the Rope Walk and East Track. Traversed initially by several exposed tree roots, it soon turns left through the mallees and patchy understory. When the trees are in flower, this corner is alive with the sound and activity of happy honeyeaters.
As well as having ropes and buoys to show the way, a previous caretaker has gone to considerable effort to direct walkers with arrowed poles, taking delight in skirting round bushes and logs with big right-hand turns. It pays to follow the markers. Stepping away from the track and wondering through the trees for even a brief period, it is easy to lose one’s bearings.
The track briefly joins the old telegraph line, a reminder of days gone by and the reason for the old building’s existence. The metal telegraph poles no longer strongly support the wire, which stretches through the bush just below head height before it travels north towards the highway.
All the while the track snakes slowly and gently up towards a high point. Here I recall the highlights of previous visits. An introduction by Janine and Bevan to the micro fauna that lives along the track. The discovery of a Grey Currawong nest, full of downy feathers and pleading beaks close to the track. My first encounter with a Fan-tailed Cuckoo which trilled from a branch just above my head. A family of Blue-breasted Fairy-wrens skipping lightly through the sun lit branches of now dead bushes, their tinkling call alerting me to their presence. And once a dark dugite slithering out of my way as I rushed back to serve dinner.
A recent addition is Col’s seat. It is almost halfway to the top and faces a small valley towards the south-east.
I always stop and imagine Col as I sit there, and invariably one or more little birds appear and forage in the canopy. Thornbills, Weebills, Scrubwren, Honeyeaters and once a Grey Shrike thrush have all delighted me with their appearance.
Mandy on Cols seat.
A signed turnoff marks the way to the Lookout. There, under a tree, erected between the exposed tree roots, is a bench which looks down on the old telegraph station nestled into its surroundings. It is a magic place to sit. The turquoise of the ocean can be glimpsed between the sand dunes and there is a 180-degree view of the area coloured by the textures and varied greens of the vegetation which is framed by an ever-changing sky. In the summer Spotted Pardalotes fly in and out of their nests in the bank below the seat, and the distant calls of Major Mitchells Cockatoos, Grey Currawong and Grey Butcherbirds can be heard most of the year.
From here you retrace your steps back to the turn off and follow the path which threads you under a bent tree branch and zig zags its way down to the observatory’s access road. From this point you can follow the road back to the observatory or cross the road and walk along a track that joins the Horse Paddock Walk. Here you can extend the walk by completing the full circuit of the Horse Paddock Walk or turn east and walk back across the firebreak where Rainbow Bee-eaters fly high overhead in the summer, and through a little eucalyptus grove where there is another hidden seat to pause a moment and catch a glimpse ‘birds in season’ before arriving ‘home.’
Text by Mandy Edwards. Photos by Steve Edwards.
We have chosen The East Walk (also known as the John Eyre walk). Kim and Tony Pammer, caretakers.
We arrived here at Eyre at the end of April 2024 and were very keen to get out and explore as soon as we could.
Without a doubt, our favourite walk quickly became the East Walk. With the variety of environments that it offers, the mallee, dunes and the beach, as well as the views, you get a bit of everything. So, we were disappointed to hear it was going to be closed due to the ‘march of the dunes’ (the sand dunes move approximately a metre a year) swallowing everything in their path. This included the previous track markers and there was concern that guests may get lost.
Heading off from the observatory’s main intersection, you very quickly find yourself in the Mallee bushland where you follow an undulating track marked with orange markers hanging from the trees, as well as fishing buoys. The bush is alive with birds, sounds, moss and flowering gums. Take some time to stop at our newly built lookout platform along the way which offers great views over the observatory, ocean and the Roe plain.
After a couple of km you enter the sand dunes. The route is now marked by vertical poles with fishing buoys on top and you could almost imagine yourself following the snow pole lines in the alpine country. One young person commented on how they look like ‘chupa chup’ lollipops. The dunes are spectacular with their shapes carved out by the wind and they are constantly changing in the light. It is like they are alive. If you are lucky, you may also see groups of major Mitchell’s flying through the dunes calling as they go.
As you enter the calcrete (limestone formed over time by the cementation of soil, sand, gravel and shells) you come to a junction. All the junctions now are marked with a number you can reference with the new map we have developed on the mapping app Gaia GPS. Here you can either head directly back to the observatory (4.2km total) or turn left towards the beach (5.2km total distance).
The beach route takes you past the larger and equally stunning dunes further east before crossing the last sand dune out onto the beach. Here you can meander back to the beach/Eyre exit marked by the big red buoy
We are so excited to have reopened this walk and over the 3 months I think we have probably walked the East track nearly 30 times, each time experiencing something new. Personally, I just can’t get enough of it, so I am going to finish here and head out and walk it again right now.
Kim and Tony Pammer, Caretakers. Photos by Kim Pammer.