Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Coffin Bay SA

Coffin Bay

Postcode: 5607

Coffin Bay is a town at the southern extremity of the Eyre Peninsula, which is a wheat growing area of South Australia.

The town is situated on the western side of the southern tip of Eyre Peninsula about 46 km from Port Lincoln. The town has a permanent population of about 430 people, but swells during holiday seasons to more than 2,000 people due to its proximity to the Coffin Bay National Park.

It is a popular location for boating, sailing, swimming, water-skiing, skindiving and wind-surfing, as well as fishing (rock, surf, angling and boat). Oyster farming is conducted in the quiet waters of Coffin Bay. Coffin Bay is in the District Council of Lower Eyre Peninsula local government area, the state electoral district of Flinders and the federal Division of Grey.

The Parnkalla people occupied the area prior to white settlement in the 1830s.

British naval explorer Matthew Flinders named the bay on 16 February 1802 in honour of his friend Sir Isaac Coffin, who was Resident Naval Commissioner at Sheerness, where the Investigator was fitted out.