SA’s Best Kept Secret?

BY DION HAYMAN

Famous for its Oysterfest that lures 5,000 devotees annually, Ceduna might have also earned the moniker as the ‘Pleasantly Surprised’ Capital of Australia.

It’s a backhanded compliment David Carr hears repeatedly from first-time visitors, who find both the Ceduna Foreshore Hotel Motel and its environs delivering beyond their wildest dreams.

David has been CEO of Ceduna’s waterfront hotel since 1995 and braces himself on any given morning he wonders through the bistro as hotel visitors enjoy a free continental breakfast.

“I have so many tourists who come through and say Ceduna’s a lot nicer than they thought it was or ‘I can’t believe you’ve got this hotel here’,” David said.

“And I say, ‘I have to put up with this every day!’”

The admiration is no surprise to David who dusts himself down with picture postcard views across Murat Bay on call.

It’s got a bit to do with his longevity at the 57-room beacon of the famous road stop between Australia’s west and east coasts.

That and his fervour for giving back to the town and its people.

Community Owned

The Foreshore has been a community-owned hotel since 1949 and also runs the adjacent caravan park.

“It’s very fulfilling, I’m very proud and passionate about the hotel and its position as a community benefactor,” he said.

Every dollar spent is used to underwrite local projects, sponsor sporting teams or is reinvested in the hotel.

“I say to people, ‘it’s not my hotel, it’s our hotel’.

“And the more they frequent our hotel, the more funds will be available for sponsorship and improvements.

“I look at all the organisations, how else are they going to get funding?

“We can help a lot of them so they don’t have to spend their time fundraising which improves the quality of life for everyone living in Ceduna.”

For example, the hotel put $200,000 towards building the new modern playground on the Ceduna foreshore.

It sponsors the New Year’s Eve fireworks and assists local sporting clubs, including tennis, cricket, bowling, athletics and junior dancing.

The Foreshore also commits $50,000 a year to the Western Eyre Football League and $30,000 to the Netball Association.

Oysterfest Sponsorship

By far its biggest annual sponsorship is the $75,000 it outlays on the Oysterfest, held each year since 1991 on the October long weekend.

It’s a festival which more than doubles Ceduna’s population of around 3500, as around 24,000 of the bivalve molluscs are shucked and served in a multitude of ways. David takes a long-term view about the Foreshore’s decision to back the festival.

“We acknowledge that the Oysterfest is the single largest advertisement for Ceduna,” he said.

“We promote it and the benefit for us, after you take the sponsorship out, is less than break even but it’s such a large focal point for the town.”

The hotel bargains on return business to justify its spend, as well as the desire to support and maintain the prestige of Ceduna’s unofficial title.

“We all hang our hats on the ‘Oyster Capital of Australia’. I think (we have it) because our council jumped on that name first.”

It is one which some rival west coast and interstate towns may dispute but David is adamant it is deserved.

“I would think the volumes of oysters between Smoky Bay and Ceduna would exceed the volumes out of Coffin Bay.”

But neither man nor country town can survive on oysters alone – there are a multitude of reasons people visit Ceduna.

“Most tourists are passing through, probably 80 per cent of them.

“But we do have a group who go to the caravan park every year who come to fish and stay for six to eight weeks.

“Quite a few people will go mulloway fishing and camping out west.

David Carr with grandson.  

“There’s the whale watching at the head of the Bight, some come on their way to see the WA wildflowers.

“And there’s a 4WD track called Googs Track which attracts a lot of people.

“But the local people pay the bills. We rely on them. The tourists are the ones who fill up the business and are the cream on top.”

Staffing

Like the visitors, many of David’s staff are just passing through.

New arrivals are offered short-term accomodation (up to three months) in a house owned by the hotel until they find something more permanent.

“We’re just starting to see a few more backpackers come through (post Covid) but it’s still slow at the moment,” he said.

There are stayers too. David has 14 full-timers on his books, with 40 of his 95 staff having worked at the Foreshore steadily for more than five years.

They’ve witnessed consolidation in the town. There is no less farming land but neighbour buyouts have seen fewer farmers owning more property.

Wheat, salt and gypsum continue to sustain Ceduna.

Iluka Resources’ opening of the zircon-rich Jacinth-Ambrosia mine in 2009, 200km northwest of the town, has also added a new dynamic to the region.

Pub Improvements

The Hotel Motel has also evolved in David’s time and includes the bottle shop rebuild in 1999.

The old hotel was demolished in 2006 to make way for today’s grand establishment.

Superior accomodation suites, including one spa room, made for a second storey in 2013 with a new function room completed in 2020.

The spa room proves extremely popular at a price point of around $200 per night and is normally booked out up to four months in advance.

“A lot of corporates come through now and they plan well and truly ahead,” David said.

“We had 80 per cent occupancy last year across the hotel which was excellent, especially when you consider where we are.”

It’s a far cry from the Covid crunch which was felt as hard as anywhere by businesses relying on tourism in Ceduna.

View from the hotel balcony.  

“We are on the end of the road (out of South Australia) and they closed the WA border.

“So whilst the Riverland and Port Lincoln may have been busy, we weren’t.”

It’s Ceduna’s remoteness which David admits also makes it difficult to keep abreast of the newest fads.

“I don’t get to Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Melbourne or Sydney to see what the latest trends are – if there’s a particular type of liquor or food or ambience that we should get ready for.”

Although he insists he’s a good listener.

“We rely a bit more on people mentioning stuff …”

But with nearly three decades at the helm, David is clearly doing something right.

“There’s been about three times where they’ve had a change of management and I was demoted three times as they tried a different organisational structure but I’m currently the CEO again and have been for 10 years.”

Now almost 62, the former banker can’t imagine working anywhere else.

“I’ve looked at retiring a couple of times but I thought, ‘what else am I gonna do?’

“There’s no such thing as a dull day here at the hotel and we have the benefit of supporting the community.”

What's Next?

Contributing to the building of a new indoor stadium for Ceduna’s kids is on the Foreshore’s list of projects slated for action.

“The basketball stadium closed down 20-odd years ago and two generations of kids have missed out on playing basketball and indoor sports,” he said.

“I would like to think we can assist the town in getting a serious indoor complex.

“Also to reinvigorate some of the foreshore with lighting and there’s Alexander’s Beach – trying to upgrade that.”

So there’s no reason to ever leave, according to David, a camping and fishing fanatic born and raised in Tumby Bay who has worked almost exclusively up and down the Eyre Peninsula.

“I’m a country lifestyle person. The casual country living. I leave home at 8.25, get to work at 8.30 and go home for lunch if I want.

“I can do anything I want to do here.”