Denial Bay

Denial Bay (formerly McKenzie) is a small fishing and tourist village that lies on the bay of the same name, only 14 km from Ceduna on the Western Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, facing the Nuyts Archipelago. The town has extensive European history, first built on in 1889, and now hosts a large expanse of oyster farms, one of the largest on the Eyre Peninsula.

History

The bay that the town lies on was initially mapped by Matthew Flinders in 1802, as part of a wider attempt to map South Australia's coastline. Flinders named the inlet "Denial Bay" because of "the deceptive hope we had formed of penetrating by it some distance into the interior of the country".

The first European exploration of the hinterland was in August 1839 by John Hill and Samuel Stephens, using the chartered brig Rapid as a base.

The town was established by William McKenzie in 1889 as the first settlement in what was to become the Ceduna area. McKenzie nearly single handedly set up the town, clearing mallee scrub by axe, building a general store and becoming the local harbour master, postman, blacksmith, butcher, saddler and Justice of the Peace, employing up to 30 people at any one time.