Cape Hardy is a high, dune-capped granite headland on the eastern coast of

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

and which protrudes into

Spencer Gulf The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe and ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It is located between the towns of

Port Neill Port Neill (formerly Carrow) is a small coastal town on the eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula, in South Australia about 3 km off the Lincoln Highway between the major towns of Whyalla and Port Lincoln. It is 576 km by road from Adelaid ...

and

Tumby Bay Tumby Bay is a coastal town situated on the Spencer Gulf, on the eastern coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, north of Port Lincoln. The town of Tumby Bay is the major population centre of the District Council of Tumby Bay, and the cen ...

, north-northeast of

Lipson Cove Lipson Cove is a tranquil sandy bay in the Australian state of South Australia on the east coast of Eyre Peninsula overlooking Spencer Gulf. It features in the 2012 book ''101 Best Australian Beaches'' by Andy Short and Brad Farmer. Location ...

Geography and geology

The cape is generally barren of vegetation other than low scrub. To the north and south of the cape are a series of low headland-bound white sandy beaches, backed by low dunes and farmland. Public access is limited to the Cape Hardy track and there are currently no facilities present. The surrounding beaches tend to face east to southeast and usually receive low swell and wind waves less than high.

Early history

Cape Hardy is named after surveyor Alfred Hardy (1813–1870). The first European to explore this coastline, in 1802, was the British navigator

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

, but, although he named many features, he did not name this cape. Later in 1802 the French navigator

Nicolas Baudin Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. Biography Early career Born a comm ...

also sailed past, giving it the name ''Cap Portalis'', honouring the French

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

Jean-Étienne-Marie Portalis Jean-Étienne-Marie Portalis (1 April 1746 – 25 August 1807) was a French jurist and politician in the time of the French Revolution and the First Empire. His son, Joseph Marie Portalis, was a diplomat and statesman. Biography Early years Port ...

, but that name was not used. The first land-based exploration by Europeans was in April 1840, at which time the cape was named after Alfred Hardy, then being the aide-de-camp to Governor

George Gawler Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler, KH, (21 July 1795 – 7 May 1869) was the second Governor of South Australia, at the same time serving as Resident Commissioner, from 17 October 1838 until 15 May 1841. Biography Early life Gawler, born on 2 ...

. Gawler was leading an expedition along this coast accompanied by explorer

John Hill John Hill may refer to: Business * John Henry Hill (1791–1882), American businessman, educator and missionary * John Hill (planter) (1824–1910), Scottish-born American industrialist and planter * John Hill (businessman) (1847–1926), Austral ...

and Deputy Surveyor General

Thomas Burr Thomas Burr (1813–1866), surveyor and mine manager, was a British explorer and Deputy Surveyor General of South Australia 1839–46. Early life in England Born 1813 in England, probably at Kent, Thomas Burr's father was George Dominicus Burr ...

. The vice-regal party was supported at sea by the brig ''Porter'' and the government cutter , both under the command of Thomas Lipson.

Pastoralism, farming, and fishing

In 1898, A. Poynton and

William Tennant Mortlock William Tennant Mortlock (1858 – 17 August 1913) was a South Australian grazier and politician. Mortlock was born near Port Lincoln, the son of William Ranson Mortlock. He was educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide and Jesus College, Camb ...

, the members for the South Australian electorate of

Flinders Flinders may refer to: Places Antarctica * Flinders Peak, near the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula Australia New South Wales * Flinders County, New South Wales * Shellharbour Junction railway station, Shellharbour * Flinders, New South Wa ...

presented a petition to the Commissioner of Crown Lands (Hon. L. O'Loughlin) requesting the consideration of the establishment of a dog fence running west across Eyre Peninsula from Cape Hardy to Mount Misery. The petition was drafted in response to pastoralists' struggles to manage vermin in the Lower Eyre Peninsula region. In April 1932, a piece of

flotsam In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are specific kinds of shipwreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A shipwreck is defined as the rema ...

believed to be a hatch-cover from the missing

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

''Vivid'' was found near Cape Hardy by Captain E. S. Hipkins of the ketch ''Nelcebee''. ''Vivid ''was last seen departing

on 9 April 1932. As of 2014, the ship's fate and that of its crew remain a mystery.

Proposed export port

In December 2012, Cape Hardy was announced as the location for a prospective

deep water port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

development. The port is planned to serve the export interests of mining company Iron Road and the development of the Central Eyre Iron Project. It received Major Project Status from the

Government of South Australia The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

in August 2013. In November 2015, Iron Road announced that an Environmental Impact Statement and Mining Lease application had been lodged with the South Australian Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, which includes the port proposal. As of 2018, the project has received environmental and planning approval but construction is yet to commence. Iron Road remains committed to the project.

Alternatives

Another prospective iron ore mining company,

Centrex Metals Centrex Metals Limited is an Australian resources exploration and mining company. History Founded in 2001, Centrex Metals was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2006 with the aim of developing several iron ore projects on the Eyre ...

, proposed to construct an alternative port known as Port Spencer. Its site was located 9 km southwest of Cape Hardy, adjacent to

. That proposal was sunk in 2016, with this site being sold in 2019 by Centrex Metals to Peninsula Ports, which intends to develop Port Spencer as a grain-only deep-water port.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cape Hardy Hardy Eyre Peninsula Spencer Gulf