South Australia (Riverland)
Blanchetown
BLANCHETOWN, 130km from Adelaide, is the first Riverland town, and with Lock No. 1 completed here in 1922, is the starting point of the Murray’s lock and weir system which helps maintain the river at a constant height between the town and Wentworth in New South Wales. 
Eleven kilometres west of town, Brookfield Conservation Park, a gift to South Australia from the Chicago Zoological Society, is home to the endangered southern hairy-nosed wombat; the creatures also thrive at nearby Portee Station, a two-hundred square kilometre sheep-grazing property where, if you can afford it, you can stay in the 1873 riverfront homestead. Tours include an exploration of the river in a small boat to look at the prolific birdlife, and a 4WD station tour where you’ll see wombats close up.