By Discover the Riverland · · 4 min read
Pelicans, regent parrots and river red gums: the Riverland’s wetlands are a birdwatcher’s paradise and a conservation frontline.
Beyond the orchards and vineyards lies the real wealth of the Riverland: its wetlands. Where the Murray spreads across its floodplain, a tangle of creeks, lagoons and billabongs creates habitat so rich that parts of it are protected under the international Ramsar convention.
A bird in every reed
The birdlife is the headline act. Pelicans glide in formation, spoonbills sweep the shallows, darters dry their wings on dead branches and the threatened regent parrot flashes through the gums. At Hart Lagoon near Waikerie, a walking trail and bird hide look out over reedy shallows where the variety on a single morning can be astonishing. The Katarapko and Bulyong sections of the Murray River National Park, and Morgan Conservation Park further north, offer the same abundance with the bonus of a canoe paddle.
Forests of red gum
The river red gum is the keystone of this landscape - vast, gnarled trees that depend on periodic flooding to survive. Walk among them and you understand how the whole system breathes with the river’s rise and fall. Echidnas shuffle through the leaf litter, goannas climb the trunks, and after dark the floodplain comes alive, as the spotlighting tours at Big Bend reveal.
A working balance
These wetlands are also a conservation frontline, managed with carefully timed environmental water to mimic natural floods after years of drought. Visiting them - quietly, by foot or paddle - is the best way to appreciate what’s at stake, and to see the Riverland at its wild and beautiful best.
