THE COORONG

The Murray River flows just over two and a half thousand kilometres from the highlands of New South Wales and Victoria through South Australia. It pools into the shallows of Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert before its final meander into the Southern Ocean. From its mouth extends a skinny estuary separated from the ocean by the Younghusband Peninsula. A finger of water almost 150 kilometres long - at its widest five kilometres across - at its narrowest down to just 100 metres.

The Ngarrindjeri people called it kyrangh "the long neck" which was interpreted as Coorong. Author Colin Thiele wrote that it is a benediction of the Murray - horizon after horizon insulating the traveler from everything but sea, sky and sand.

The Coorong National Park was declared in 1966 and in the years that followed the Australian Government signed agreements with Japan and China to make the Coorong a wetland of international significance. The waters are protected not only for native birds, but for the migratory birds that fly thousands of kilometres from Europe and Asia to spend the Northern winter in South Australia.

The Coorong's emblem is the Pelican. This is appropriate given that this is Australia's largest, permanent breeding colony. It is actually a string of islands in the middle of the Coorong where pelicans breed.

The Coorong is also home to 37 professional fishermen. They fish the Lakes, the Coorong and the Ocean and earlier this year created a world first by agreeing to a voluntary self management designed to sustain the ecosystem and their livelihoods. In addition to the fishermen, there are cocklers who scrounge the ocean beach taking 400 tonnes a year of cockles to be sold as bait and for eating.

The Coorong's first inhabitants were the Ngarrindjeri and at Raukkan, on the edge of Lake Alexandrina is the grave of one of Australia's most extraordinary men. He was David Unaipon described by one newspaper as "Australia's Leonardo Da Vinci". He was an inventor, writer, poet and activist and his picture appears on the50-dollar note along with pictures of his Coorong home.

For more information on the Coorong and permits contact:
Coorong National Parks on (08) 8575 1200
Coorong Nature Tours (08) 8574 0037 or 0428 714 793 or you can email: cooroong@lm.net.au