Port Julia

Port Julia is what the east coast was like before the holiday crowds: a handful of shacks above a curve of clear water, an old jetty, and not much else — which is precisely its charm. The bay was first known as Curramulka Harbour, the sea outlet for farmers around Curramulka, with ketches calling from around 1878 to load bagged grain.

The first jetty here was built privately in 1895 by farmer John Kerr; the present jetty replaced it in 1913, and together with the old goods shed — which doubled as the community hall — it is now heritage listed. In the late 1920s barley stacking sheds drew up to eight ketches into the bay at a time, but road transport and bulk handling slowly strangled the trade, and the port closed altogether in 1972.

Today Port Julia belongs to anglers and campers who prize its quiet: tommies and squid off the jetty, crabs on the flats, and sunrises over a gulf with nobody on it. Port Vincent, ten minutes south, has the shops and the pub.