Sounds like a great idea - need to preserve such an awesome place.

So what does it actually mean if Yorkes gets declared a surfing reserve? Does it restrict the amount of new development?

Im on the committee for establishing the surfing reserve down there and will attempt to answer your questions morley.

The aim of the reserve is not to exclude any groups or users but to share a common intent of caring for the environment and waves.

By creating the reserve we hope to be able to improve the area in a sustainable way. Things like building and maintaining access tracks to the waves, working with the council to ensure car parking areas have the needs of surfers considered, applying for grants to remove boxthorn's from the Daly Headland, possibly a toilet for Salmon Hole.

Daly Heads is the focus of the concept for the National Surfing Reserve. We think it is the area of greatest need as it doesnt have the protection of the National Park and has been degraded over the years by a lack of planning and care.

It also has a great concentration of quality waves in a small area.

Hope this gives you an idea of what we are planning maddog!

Sounds good yorkessurfer - as you know the nearest toilet to Salmon Hole is at Baby Daly's but this seems too far for some who would rather do their business on the cliff face overlooking Rockies....so a toilet would at 'the hole' would probably be a good thing. As a side note a toilet at the Tressies carpark might not be a bad idea either.

I know the park is not on your agenda but I was wondering if you knew why they took the toilet away from the Pondie boardwalk. From what i've seen people are now just doing their business in the dunes. Bit of a backward step that one if you ask me. Did the council want to reduce services to the area or did the toilet just get full?

All the best with your proposal yorkessurfer - i think it's a great idea.

The toilet at Pondie boardwalk was removed by the National Park due to the difficulty in emptying and maintaining it. It got to the point where it was considered a health risk and could of polluted the beach/ environment. It is a bummer not having it there but i guess the reasons were valid!

Just on the Daly Heads reunion weekend planned on the 14th January-

Its being held on a nearby farm and we hope any past and present surfers who are interested in the history and future of this iconic surfing area will RSVP their intentions to Ed so we can plan food etc. With live music, old surf film footage of the areas waves, pictures,art, etc. we are hoping its a weekend to remember!

yeh good on you guys thats sound rad,
solid work

Same location as Curly Stock?

You should come down for it Ben! Been a while since you have graced the waters of the Southern Yorke Peninsula? I remember surfing with you down here back in the old days.

Our surf club the B.B.R(Bootleg Board Riders) is known to some as the Balding Board Riders these days- you will fit right in:)haha
Dips

Nah maddog its up on the main road north of the Daly Head turn off. Details will be provided when you RSVP Ed. We hope most people interested will contact us so we can plan the night better!

While I'm from the younger generation I would of loved to make the trek over as well, but I have a wedding back in Adelaide that weekend.

I hope it all goes well!

And regarding taking the toilet from Pondie, if it's a matter of access and pollution, why don't they just build one at the new car park they've built? I don't understand why they built that carpark either. I've got many great memories camping at Surfers and being able to be a short walk from the waves and your camping setup. Was it because of the tics?

Craig

there are 2 toilets built on the left side of the new carpark. i think they got rid of the camping ground as the minority dickhead would cause carnage and ruin it it for the majority. The camp grounds just before the old surfers camp are not bad..gas BBQ ect.

Good work Yorkesurfer on trying to clean up the northern areas.

I haven't been there since 1966, was a kid and we walked over the sand dunes to see the beach, think i'd remember if it was firing. left the dog by mistake, turned back and she was standing in the middle of the road.

Ah yeah, totally forgot about the toilets back at the carpark :/

As Yorkesurfer has pointed out, the Daly Head region does need a lot of work as it is out of the NP and has crap all throughout the sandunes. A simple toilet would suffice, but who would maintain it?

The council maintain the dunnies at Gleesons campground and Baby Daly's but we would need to convince them of the need for one at Salmon Hole. Steps down to Daly Heads are another project we would like to see happen.

By having the National Surfing Reserve status declared in the area we hope it will give us more of a voice to negotiate with them on projects such as this!

We are also planning some working-bee weekends to get groups such as boardriding clubs,(local and from Adelaide)and local school groups to help clean up and improve the area.

To find out more info on the Daly's reunion weekend call me or text on this number- 0403027106. yorkessurfer.

dont forget to tell every body that there is many many sharks , cold freezing water gets wild windy storms all the time cars get broken into need plenty of petrol at $2.20 p/l scary ferrals no life gaurds big currents ,reef and some bad ass locals who live there so dont go there keep it for the hard core

Oh thats right luke. Nearly forgot. What he said.....

yorkes reunion, tim bonython should attend,he was a 70s regular,always travelled solo,and used to charge big west cape on his kneeboard.should be a good gathering, just dont book that silly billy february character for entertainment........

If your coming down the Surfing Reserve/Daly's reunion party is this Sat nite.

We have an old shearing shed to use for the historical surf films and photographic displays. A BBQ will be going, bring your own drinks.

Theres even some old 60's surf wagons we have dug out of back sheds to check out!

Hopefully we can coax a few surf stories from the old timers-did Moose really blow up the suck rock at Salmon Hole with dynamite?

Who were the ferals living on the cliff face at Daly's who used to take pot shots at guys in the lineup when they wanted to clear the water?

Anyone interested can attend. The farm is 2.5km north of the Daly Head turnoff on the right.(on the main road to Corny Point).

I was the National Parks and Wildlife, District Ranger based at Stenhouse Bay on the Bottom End of SYP from 1975 to around 1990. Just another member of the small but diverse cavalcade of surfers who inhabited SYP at that time. But it was an incredible remote and uncrowded place to live and surf over that period. Prior to the Marion Bay subbo being created it was only inhabited full time by a handful of very resilient, resident reef rats. One or two still remain, but things change and most have moved on find their fortunes elsewhere.

As for the salmon Hole suck rock an attempt was made in 1981 to vaporise it on an ultra low dodge tide using diesel soaked nitropril pellets and detcord. We managed to fracture and remove only some of the rock as its a solid little sucker made up of underlying granite. Another attempt using a bigger charge next day was vetoed due to the tide cycle, and that combined with a new swell saw an immediate loss of further interest.

Good luck with the reunion and the reserve. Daley's, Salmon Hole and Dust Bowl never really ever got any decent TLC as far as good land management practice is concerned, and it truly does deserves a bit of care and protection. Love to go to the reunion but i'm living and surfing back at my ancestral home on the southern Goldy these days and doubt I could get to the Bottom End in time.

fergus,remember you well,mate you gotta make the effort to get down there this weekend,cheap flight out of the goldie if i could i would[work commitments] thermals right imagine trying the suck rock thing now,fcuck they would cut ya nuts out. mighty potent herb you used haved down there, remember we named it the stink from hell....???? do you remember falcon man, [owen] chi's hellman...

Owen RIP-Falcon Man Lives! These words were written in wax or tar or something on the rocks on the beach in front of Chinamans a long time ago.

I first saw them 25 years back after a big rain. The porous, wet limestone rock seemed to bring out the words but next time I looked for them it was as though they had dissapeared.

Then about 10 years ago after a big rain I saw those words again. I couldnt believe they were still there. I had to find out who Owen was!

I started asking around and slowly the story came out- A charger out at Chinamans, he loved the place. He was killed out on the Nullabour when his Kombi rolled on the way to Western Australia.

Well Owen-Falcon Man still Lives. Every time theres a big winter swell and raining he is right there at Chinamans with as as we face down our fears!

its ashame this gathering is at such short notice,theres lots that just cannot make it.....rob 'spike' minnican over there at streaky was a early 70s yorkes surf chaser,and has put a lot of effort into enviroment issues at scaeles bay area..would be a great to have some of his input ? spike was also a close friend of owens.. i reckon the bearded clams would play for nicks if you covered there fuel costs...along with owen you cant forget big kev who passed away recently at j bay r.i.p.

Was down there in my teens a couple of times, if anyone finds a tin plate it's mine.

It would be a splendid thing to catch up with you and the rest of the pilgrims Victor, but regretably I just can't crack it in the time remaining. Maybe the next one! But I'm sure there will be plenty who will make it back.

I do recall Owen and he was indeed a hellman when Chi's was firing. Some good soul scratched his memorium into the soft aollian sandstone above the beach at Chi's a few days after his death. It's good to know it's still there and he's still remembered and respected. Same applies to the Keith Sugars who died high in the saddle surfing Richard's. I recollect he had a congenital heart condition and the doc told him that if he kept surfing it could kill him, and that's the way he chose to go out. We hauled him back down the beach from Richard's in the back of an NPWS Toyota 4x4 ute, a man true to his passions.

Sadly your right about the suck rock Ben. The window of opportunity to rid Salmon Hole of the dreaded suck rock closed long ago and the odds are firmly against anyone ever being able to roll that particular dice again.

At the time it was an inspired, but clandestine project, and few people were ever informed. The inspiration came about when unnammed NPWS staff had only just aquired the handy technical skills and resources to blow large inanimate objects to smitherines. We'd blast dead livestock, large rocks, old cars, anything really that was in the way of progress.

At the time we were blasting out a trench through hard limestone for a power supply cable to the radio communications tower on the hill at Stenhouse Bay, and we had some surplus explosives left over which needed to be properly disposed of. This just happened to coincide with a really low dodge tide, a light offshore and very flat conditions. I regret now that we didn't apply at little more effort to the project. These days in the age of risk management and OHS&W awareness, I suspect those abilities are no longer part of the current NPWS ranger skill set.

Some one should make sure Richard Thomas attends the reunion. He keeps a low profile dear old Thommo, so offer him free beer and he might come along. We named Richard's Reef after Thommo and he and I were the only ones living down the bottom end for a long time until Paul Balcerke, Ken Spencer and the rest of Daley's crew moved in. Ken Spencer is long dead now, but you could always rely on him to get consistently well shacked at Chi's. Regardless of that, the red bearded bastard still owes me $350. RIP Ken.

It would be awesome to hear how the weekend goes for those that can't make it. Love the place, and the history that goes with it.
Look foward to hearing about it.

And more classic stories. Love hearing them old time yarns.

anbody know/remember paul wright or "igor", used to live in the trees around cable bay in the late 80's early nineties i think? i remember seeing him out chinamans on an old beat up single fin taking off in the barrel on his knees and getting tubed

yeah he was a couple years ahead of me at high school and I remember he did an awesome painting of a pitching lip at pipeline for his major work in yr 12. its in an old high school year book ive got at home along with a poem that he wrote about surfing being his saviour

Great idea, but notice is a touch short.

Richard Thomas and Richard's reef, brings back great memories from the sixties and seventies when Richard, his brothers, Mike and Graham and I used to go to Yorkes on a regular basis. Talking about sharks though, never saw one. the March flies were the biggest problem and the ferrils with guns.
Richard's a great guy and I hope he's been invited.

Ponde nice but small today..swell looks to be on the slide..Ben?

thermal, sunday at ethels,mate you will in no fit state to surf sunday..back to the short notice- henry from the goldie who lived at corny with flop early 80s would of attended with a month or two notice.his surfing blew some minds at the hole and pm.s, wicked guitar player too...........

checked Ethels on the way out today..winds were fine..swell a bit big, but def potential when it drops a bit. will try to get there on Sat night be good to catch up again.

how did the reunion go fellas ? no posts yet ,to seedy, drop a few names of who showed up......owen was watching, looking down at all those scoobs getting rolled....did ethels turn it on ?

did any of the nesbitt bros from pt mac show up? what about NEVCAT....

A great night was had by all at the reunion and I can tell that Richard Thomas did show as well as some of the original Yorkes surfers.

Dave Dare who is well into his 70's was a tractor salesman in the early 60's and convinced his boss to throw his board in when they went on a sales run down the bottom end. He was the first guy to surf the area and had some stories about the era and the guys who pioneered surfing in South Oz.

He had a classic tale about John Arnold(who started up the first surf shop in Adelaide) meeting Starsky and Hutch from the famous TV show of the same name. There were these woolen jackets that one of them wore on the show and John found out that they were imported from Mexico. He ordered a huge shipment in and they were they coolest thing going around for a while. John Arnold is still alive and living in Dubai apparently! That blew me away!

Sorry i couldnt make it..classic tale YS..use to fequent that surf shop a bit as a kid..i think it was called "On & IN" and yes we all hassled our folks for S & Hutch Jacket.

Is it true that there use to be a road direct to tressies, but the local farmer blocked it after loosing lifestock and hence the name of the break?.

Give us more..Ben you got any others from the night?

Yeah the road down to Tressies is still shown on maps but it goes right by the farm and you cant use it. Why? Well if you see Tim the farmers son....he is about 7 feet tall and built like a Mack truck! They still chase you if you drive down it nowdays. I quite like the walk down there anyway.

What a wonderful read. Yorke's remains one of the most enjoyable locale's on offer. Great to see some effort put into the care and management of the place. As much as I enjoy the waves on offer daily and surf at the doorstep here on the Northern Beaches SA has, and will remain, an important link to our desire to surf alone or, by choice, with a mate or two in tow.

I appreciated all the work you did Fergus when I was a wee lad too. Cheers, (P.S> Ben, would love to see some photos).