Lock 5 & the Bunyip Barge

Two kilometres downstream of the Paringa Bridge, Lock 5 is the Riverland's most visitor-friendly piece of working river infrastructure. Completed in 1927, the lock and weir hold the upstream pool at about 16 metres above sea level — the steady, navigable river that houseboats and irrigators depend on. When a vessel arrives, the gates swing, the chamber fills or empties, and the boat steps up or down the Murray while you watch from metres away.

The setting is a genuine bonus: lawns, big shade trees, barbecues, picnic tables and toilets make it one of the better free stops around Renmark and Paringa. Information boards explain how the lock works, and the retired river barge Bunyip, launched in 1962, sits on display as a reminder of the working boats that once crowded this reach.

One caution locals take seriously: the sandbar downstream of the weir looks inviting on a hot day, but the currents around the structure are treacherous and people have drowned here. Enjoy the river from the bank, and read more about how these structures remade the Murray in the locks that tamed the Murray.