Waikerie translates its name as "anything that flies" — and between the gliders, the regent parrots and the painted rain moth on the silos, the town delivers. How to spend 48 hours on the Riverland's western cliffs.
Friday: cliffs at golden hour
Waikerie likes to translate its name as "anything that flies", and the town delivers on the promise — gliders riding the thermals, regent parrots flashing between river gums, pelicans patrolling the pool below the cliffs. It is the Riverland's western anchor, two and a half hours from Adelaide, and it rewards a full weekend.
Arrive in time for the late light and go straight up. The Waikerie Rotary Clifftop Walk runs 3.6 kilometres along the ochre cliff line on a route settlers used from the 1890s, and its lookouts catch the river at its most flattering hour. You will pass the town's signature on the way: the Waikerie Silo Art, twin silos painted on both sides by Jimmy DVate and Garry Duncan with regent parrots, a giant yabby and the rain moth of the town's name.
Dinner is easy — the pub or the clubs in town — and accommodation runs from riverfront caravan parks to motels and houseboats.
Saturday: wings, wetlands and fruit
Morning belongs to the birds. Hart Lagoon, just north of town, is one of the Riverland's most reliable wetlands — give it the first two hours with binoculars. Then swap feathers for fibreglass: Waikerie's gliding club is one of the most famous soaring sites in the country, and on flying days the sky over the fruit blocks fills with silent wings.
The afternoon is for the river itself. The Waikerie ferry shuttles across the Murray for free, as it has in one form or another for over a century — ride it across and back for the cheapest river cruise in Australia, and a look at the cliffs from water level. Back in town, the Waikerie riverfront lawns are made for a long, lazy picnic; the bakery and the fruit stands on the way in will provision it. Almond fanciers should detour to The Almond Hut east of town.
Sunday: slow water, slow exit
Check out, then drive five minutes west to Ramco Point, where grassy free camps line a wide, slow bend — the right place for a final swim, a fish, or simply a chair in the shade while the river slides past. If you are heading downstream towards Adelaide, break the trip at Lock 2's pool country or push on to Morgan; upstream, Banrock Station's wine and wetland centre is forty minutes east.
Waikerie is what the Riverland looks like when nobody is performing for visitors: working fruit country, big cliffs, big sky, and a river that sets the pace. For the upstream version of this weekend, see a weekend in Renmark.
