Shane Mensforth takes an in-depth look at one of his favourite South Aussie fishing/holiday destinations.

My first real experience with Tumby Bay came back in 1977 during my tenure as a teacher in Whyalla. I had arranged a four-day school excursion, to be based at the Thuruna campsite, about 25km south of Tumby, and had planned to buy our groceries en route at the local supermarket. We had 50-odd kids on board a rather well aged charter bus, all of whom were primed and ready to go. I had another teacher and two parents with me to keep the whole camp running and the kids under control, and the mood was pretty upbeat as we rolled out of Whyalla for the 200km trip southward along the Lincoln Highway.

I had phoned ahead to let the supermarket know we were coming and to provide a grocery list we hoped they could fill. I had briefly met the supermarket proprietor, Tom Tierney, a year or so earlier during a fishing weekend in Tumby, and looked forward to catching up again. Tom had already amassed an impressive reputation as a ‘gun’ local angler, and I knew we’d have plenty to chat about during our Tumby Bay stop-over.

It must have taken an hour in Tumby to load the old bus with the groceries needed to feed the kids for four days, and when we eventually got everything and everybody back on board, the first of several mechanical problems reared its head. According to our driver, who was a similar age to the bus, the alternator light had been flashing for much of the trip down from Whyalla. Despite a couple of minutes of cranking, the engine refused to restart, and pretty soon the battery died completely.

With no suitable replacement battery available in Tumby, we were stuck. The local mechanic tried to help out with jumper leads, but the old battery was obviously too far gone to accept the charge, so he suggested we push start the bus! I thought he was joking, of course, but within a couple of minutes we had assembled enough local bodies to have a crack at what seemed a ludicrous solution to a potentially crippling problem. The driver jumped in, selected a low gear, and we all put our backs into what I was sure would be a waste of time.