Coorong National Park - Coorong National Park visitor guide showing a virtual tour of 'Coorong National Park' linked to an interactive map with local and travel information. 360° panoramas from South Australia.

The Coorong National Park is a long narrow area of sand dunes, wilderness and fragile ecosystems stretching 145 km along the south-eastern coast of South Australia. This is reflected in the name as Coorong is thought to be a Europeanised version of the Aboriginal 'kurangh' (long neck) or 'Coorang' (sand dune).

The northern end of Coorong National Park starts at Murray Mouth near Hindmarsh Island at the entrance to Lake Alexandrina, just south of Goolwa Beach. From here the park stretches southeast along the B1 to Tilley Swamp near Kingston Se. Formed in 1966 and covering 467 km² the park supports coastal dune systems, lagoons and coastal vegetation separated from the Southern Ocean by the Younghusband Peninsula. Small settlements along the edge of the park, where camping permits may be purchased, are Policeman Point, Salt Creek and Tilley Swamp.

The author Colin Thiele describes the Coorong as 'an elemental region, a place of wind and water and vast skies, of sandhill and tussock, lagoon and waterweed, stone and scrub. It is a place of softened contours, muted colours and sea haze - and of glaring saltpans so intense that our brows pucker and our eyes wince. A place of winter storms and summer sunglades, of shorelines soft with sand and sibilant reeds, and of limestone outcrops sharper than teeth. A place to sense the universal in the particular, the infinite in the infinitessimal, the verities of life in blowing seeds and grains of sand.'

Coorong National Park - Tourist Attractions

• Bird Watching - Coorong National Park is a habitat for numerous species of migratory birds, including ducks, swans, cormorants, seagulls, terns, grebes and pelicans.
• Aboriginal Archaeology - with Aboriginal middens, burial sites and evidence of Aboriginal occupation over many thousands of years.
• Pipe Clay Lake - lake near Slat Creek and Deerite Nature Conservation Reserve.
• Chinamans Well - Old well dug by Chinese immigrants in the 1850's.
• Southern Ocean Beach - 140km long beach running along the ocean side of the park.
• Salt Creek - location of the Coorong National Park Information Centre which has suitable maps and information and The Lakes Walk.
• The Lakes Walk - a 30 minute walk at Salt Creek which allows the visitor to experience the full range of flora in the district.
• Old Oil Rig - reconstruction of oil drill built in Salt Creek in 1892 drilling the first, unsuccessful, oil well in Australia.
42 Mile Crossing - road across the lakes and mud flats of Coorong to a car park and further, 4WD suitable only, track over the sand dunes to the Southern Ocean Beach.
• Woods Well - settlement famous for murder surrounding a certain Malachi Martin in the 1860's.
• Policeman's Point - caravan park and a motel and former camping ground for the mounted police.
• Camping and Caravanning - Caravan Parks are located at Policemans Point, Kingston South East and Meningie.
• Boating - boating is permissible in some parts of the park.
• Sunsets - Coorong National Park.

Coorong National Park Information Centre
Salt Creek
South of the River Murray Mouth,
Meningie SA 5264,
Australia
Phone: (08) 8575 7014

Road: Coorong National Park is 180Km south of Adelaide (M1 and B1 roads). It is 266km north of Mount Gambier (B1).