Wildlife & Nature
Wetlands, river red gums and big skies
The best wildlife & nature in Blanchetown
Ramsar-listed wetlands, towering sandstone cliffs and floodplain forest alive with pelicans, regent parrots and the occasional echidna. This is some of the richest river habitat in the country.
The Riverland is wetland country at its richest. Where the Murray winds through South Australia it spills into a maze of lagoons, anabranch creeks and red-gum floodplains that rank among the most important inland wildlife habitats in the country — including the internationally recognised Riverland Ramsar wetland.
Paddle the canoe trails of Loch Luna or Katarapko Creek, watch waterbirds at restored Hart Lagoon, or lose yourself in the vast red-gum wilderness of Chowilla. Serious birders make the pilgrimage to Gluepot Reserve for malleefowl and rare mallee parrots.
Then there are the cliffs — sheer walls of ochre limestone glowing gold at dusk, like those above Headings Lookout and along the river's grandest bends. Combine wildlife with walking trails and you have endless ways to slow down and let this ancient floodplain reveal itself one quiet bend at a time.
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3 places
Brookfield Conservation Park
FreeThe wombat reserve a Chicago zoo gave to South Australia
A 5,515-hectare conservation park west of Blanchetown, bought by the Chicago Zoological Society in 1971 to protect the southern hairy-nosed wombat and gifted to South Australia in 1977. Wombats, western grey kangaroos and mallee birds.
Lock 1 Blanchetown
FreeThe first weir and lock built on the River Murray, a working piece of river engineering you can watch in action.
Lock 1 Weir Walk, Blanchetown
FreeThe first lock built on the Murray, where you can watch the navigation and fishway up close.