The Yorke Peninsula holds fond memories for singer-songwriter Ronnie Taheny – especially the Edithburgh town jetty and tidal pool.

Taheny, one of 12 children, grew up in Edithburgh and has travelled far and wide with her music career but still loves southern Yorke (“not ‘Yorkes’ as the urbanites are so prone to coin it”), which she says was effectively her childhood backyard. For InDaily Travel’s My Backyard series, she shares her favourite spots and offers some tips for things to see and do.

What do you like about Yorke?

It’s all about the laidback lifestyle. Find a shack, holiday house, caravan or tent spot and you can be as active or inactive as you like. It’s a place to go mad with every aquatic activity you can imagine, curl up with a book in front of a roaring fire in winter, or chill out on the deck in precious little attire with a coldie in summer.

There are hundreds of kilometres of white sandy beaches that you can mostly have all to yourself. And forgetting the wind for a moment, there’s the great Mediterranean climate.

West Cape Beach, Innes National Park. Photo: Adam Bruzzone Photography

Three things visitors must see/do:

• Innes National Park tops the list. It’s got the lot – sea, surf, sand, wildlife, wildflowers, walks and some of the best coastal scenery in the state.
• Fishing. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but you can putter about in the bay in a boat, or cast a line off the jetty or from the beach. And, hey, if you don’t catch anything, there’s any number of places that do a nice class of takeaway fish and chips!
• Take a hike – quite literally, with Walk the Yorke, a trail linking a host of walking paths around the coast. The middle of the year will see the completion of 500km of trails right around the peninsula’s coastal extremities.

Troubridge Island. Photo: Neale Winter / SATC

Where to eat and drink:

Best coffee? Well, if you’re thinking along the lines of French-based movie Chocolat, go no further than the Minlaton Chocolaterie – the best coffee and hot chocolate with a shop full of handmade chocolates to die for made by an authentic Frenchman and his Aussie wife.

For eating out, you can’t beat Tavern on Turton – the view over the bay is a nice backdrop and the food’s pretty good as well (and not a pokie to be heard).

Best-kept local secrets … and local characters:

Me! And my cousin, [comedian] Fiona O’Loughlin!

Troubridge Island – and the fact that you can actually hire the houses and play Robinson Crusoe for a weekend.

The Edithburgh town jetty is important because it was my front yard and formative-year playground. Bananas, lay-backs, bombs, buddhas, suies and assorted other larrikin behaviour was de rigueur. I can still do a perfect swan-dive from the top of the jetty stair rails and find great satisfaction in the act, mainly because it’s illegal.

And the Edithburgh tidal pool (right) is pretty unique. I ran and taught the VacSwim campaign from that mecca for 15 years and, unbelievably, never lost a kid.

Ronnie Taheny, who started out from “humble beginnings as Yorke Peninsula’s first altar girl” has been making music and touring for more than 20 years and is currently working on her eighth album. She also recently launched her own range of “designer Aussie BBQ wear”. You can find out more about her music on her official website.

Ronnie Taheny, second from left, with Fiona O’Loughlin, Emily Taheny and Cookie Baker after their ‘Three Tahenys and a Ball’ show, performed in Warooka earlier this year.

Ronnie wishes to thank her “on-the-ground research scouts”, Jenny Oldland and Sue Hart, for helping with this article.

More My Backyard articles:

Clare Valley – by Good Catholic Girl Wines head girl Julie Barry

Eyre Peninsula – by Boston Bay Wines’ Tony Ford

Kangaroo Island – by artist Janine Mackintosh