South Australia (Southeast Region)

The Coorong National Park and Game Reserve is one of the state's most important areas of wetlands and of world-wide biological significance. It is the habitat of over 400 species of birds including spoonbills, black swans, gannets and plovers.

Coorong National Park also offers some special and beautiful camping locations, often well away from main roads and noise. Permits are needed from the park's headquarters, and they allow camping in a good range of designated spots.

Sailing is a great way to explore the Coorong; its quiet waters are safe and still. Landlubbers will find the Coorong equally enjoyable. There are plenty of walking trails; it's best to obtain information from the Meningie Park Ranger Headquarters before setting out.

From Taleim Bend, the Princes Highway skirts Lake Alexandrina and freshwater Lake Albert, where MENINGIE is a popular fishing centre, before passing the edge of the Coorong National Park. The coastal saline lagoon system of the Coorong (from the Aboriginal Karangk meaning long neck) is separated from the sea for over 100km by the high sand dunes of the Younghusband Peninsula: the famous Australian children’s film Storm Boy, about a boy and his friendship with a pelican, was filmed here. 

The state’s most prolific pelican breeding ground is an excellent place to observe these awkward yet graceful birds – at Jacks Point, 3km north of Policemans Point on the Princes Highway, there’s a shelter with seating and a telescope focused on the small islands where some birds breed. Without your own transport, one way to see the Coorong is to head off in a 4WD with a local naturalist from Coorong Nature Tours (tel & fax 08/8574 0037; day-tour $110 from Meningie, $160 from Adelaide; half-day option $60 from Meningie only; longer two- and three-day trips available). You can also get to the park on a cruise from Goolwa.

There are several designated camping areas with shelters, barbecues, toilets, running water (but no showers) and marked walking trails. The Coorong is also good for beach camping: with a permit you can camp anywhere along the beach between high and low watermark, but cars must be parked in designated places, and you must bring your own drinking water which can be collected outside the seldom-manned Salt Creek NPWS ranger station on the edge of the park about 60km south of Meningie. Elsewhere, information and camping permits ($5 per car) and maps of the park and campsites can be obtained at the national park headquarters at 34 Main St, Meningie (Mon–Fri 9.30am–5pm; tel 08/8575 1200), the Melaleuca Information Centre, 76 Princes Highway (daily 9am–5pm; tel 08/8575 1259), the Caltex Roadhouse, 75 Princes Highway, or Salt Creek’s Shell Petrol Station, which has an outside notice board and a café serving delicious grilled Coorong Mullet. Permits can also be bought from the Coorong Caravan Park at Policemans Point, at all roadhouses in Kingston SE and at the Signal Point Interpretative Centre in Goolwa. If you want to stay in more comfort, there are plenty of motels at Meningie.

Camp Coorong, run by the Ngarrindjeri Lands and Progress Association, is 10km south of Meningie, and 3km from another stretch of the Coorong National Park. This cultural centre attempts to explain the heritage and culture of the Ngarrindjeri Aborigines who were one of the largest groups in South Australia, occupying the land around the Coorong and the lower Murray River and lakes. There’s a museum (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, open some weekends; donation), and you can camp here or stay in the well-outfitted cabins.