Murray River National Park

Open 24 hours a day, sev­en days a week.

This park is closed on days of Cat­a­stroph­ic Fire Dan­ger and may be closed on days of Extreme Fire Dan­ger. The park may also be closed dur­ing high rain­fall events when roads and camp­sites become slip­pery and bog­gy, as well as times when there are high water lev­els in the wet­lands. Roads may also be closed at time dur­ing con­struc­tion of new reg­u­la­tors which will enable future flood­ing of the flood­plain. Please con­tact us if you are unsure.

Lis­ten to the local area radio sta­tion for the lat­est dai­ly weath­er updates and infor­ma­tion on fire safety.

• CFS web­site
• CFS Hot­line: 1300 362 361

Each area of Mur­ray Riv­er Nation­al Park has dif­fer­ent access points and dri­ve times from Ade­laide via the Sturt Highway:

• Park maps

Katara­p­ko (220 km, 2 hrs 50 min)

Lock 4 entrance 

Entry is via Drap­er Road from Berri town­ship (395m to park entrance). 

Eckert’s Creek Section

Entry is via Migga Road and Low­er Winkie Road, off the Old Sturt High­way (4.7 km to park entrance).

Katara­p­ko Creek Section

Access the Katara­p­ko entrance via the Old Sturt High­way. Turn off between Glos­sop and Berri and fol­low the signs (10km to park entrance). Entry is via Winkie Road and Katara­p­ko Crescent.

Lyrup Flats (250 km, 3 hrs 10 min)

Lyrup Flats is sit­u­at­ed between the Sturt High­way and the riv­er, between the towns of Ren­mark and Berri (on the north­ern side of the riv­er direct­ly oppo­site Lyrup).

Paringa Pad­dock (262kms, 3 hours 1 min)

Paringa Pad­dock is sit­u­at­ed between the town­ships of Ren­mark and Paringa. Trav­el through Ren­mark turn­ing right at the large round about and head towards Paringa. Paringa Pad­dock is locat­ed on the right hand side (if trav­el­ling from Ren­mark) pri­or to cross­ing the Paringa Bridge. 

Kingston-on-Mur­ray (218km, 2hrs 30min)

Kingston-on-Mur­ray sec­tion is locat­ed on the riv­er front of the Kingston-on-Mur­ray town­ship. Turn left at Kingston Estate Wines and fol­low Petersen Road to turn right onto Holmes Road. Fol­low this to the Park entrance. 

Buly­ong Island (300 km, 3 hrs 15 min)

Buly­ong Island is north of Ren­mark and can only be accessed by boat.

Vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion, book­ings and park management: 

Nation­al Parks Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia River­land and Mur­ray­lands Region­al Office
28 Vaugh­an Tce, Berri

Phone: (+61 8) 8595 2111
Email: rm.​npws@​sa.​gov.​au

Book­ing enquiries please email
DEW.​RMOnlineBookings@​sa.​gov.​au

Emer­gency contacts:

Med­ical, fire (includ­ing bush­fire) and police emer­gency situations

Phone: Triple Zero (000)

Police Assis­tance

Phone: 131 444 for non-urgent police assistance

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice SA – After-hours duty offi­cer
Phone: 0417 192 335

Injured Wildlife:

With­in the park

Please con­tact the River­land and Mur­ray­lands Region­al Office on (08) 8595 2111 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on 0417 192 335 (out­side of busi­ness hours).

Out­side of the park

Please con­tact a local wildlife res­cue group

Cli­mat­i­cal­ly and sceni­cal­ly, autumn and spring are the best times to vis­it River­land parks. How­ev­er, the cli­mate of the River­land makes it suit­able for vis­it­ing parks most of the year. The sum­mer months of Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary can be hot.

Roads along the flood plain are gen­er­al­ly unsuit­able for dri­ving on imme­di­ate­ly after heavy rains. This, and oth­er haz­ards such as bush­fire, can force the tem­po­rary clo­sure of some sec­tions of the park. Keep your eye on this web­site for up to date information.

Sec­tions of the park will, at times, be inun­dat­ed by envi­ron­men­tal water to improve the health and resilience of the flood­plain trees, your patience will be required as your vis­it may be impact­ed by oper­a­tions and main­te­nance of the new infra­struc­ture and access to some areas.

Watch the Katara­p­ko Flood­plain project film to fol­low the jour­ney of the pro­gram which includes many key stake­hold­ers that have been involved in the pro­gram, the need for the envi­ron­men­tal infra­struc­ture which will be able to pro­vide much need­ed water to a sig­nif­i­cant area of the Katara­p­ko Flood­plain, and the long term expect­ed benefits.

You and your dog can enjoy the Lyrup Flats, Paringa Pad­dock, Kingston-on-Mur­ray and the Old Rodeo Grounds sec­tion of Katara­p­ko. only. 

Please ensure you:

• Keep your dog under con­trol and on a lead no more than two metres in length.
• Stick to des­ig­nat­ed walk­ing trails.
• Bring dis­pos­able bags to clean up your dog’s fae­ces (please be aware there are no bins in nation­al parks).

Dogs are not per­mit­ted in oth­er areas of the park.

Dis­cov­er oth­er parks you can walk your dog in on our find a park tool or read 12 dog-friend­ly walks in Ade­laide Parks by Good Liv­ing for inspiration.

Assis­tance dogs are per­mit­ted in most pub­lic places and are there­fore wel­come in South Australia’s parks and reserves. Assis­tance dogs must be appro­pri­ate­ly restrained on a lead and remain under your effec­tive con­trol at all times while in a park or reserve.

As per the dogs in parks and reserves pol­i­cy, if the dog is not an accred­it­ed assis­tance dog, they must be trained to assist a per­son with a dis­abil­i­ty to alle­vi­ate that dis­abil­i­ty and meet stan­dards of hygiene and behav­iour appro­pri­ate for a dog in a pub­lic place. How­ev­er, refusal may be giv­en if the per­son with the dis­abil­i­ty is unable to pro­duce evi­dence the dog is an assis­tance dog with the appro­pri­ate training.

Before tak­ing your assis­tance dog into a park that does not nor­mal­ly allow dogs, it is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed that you con­tact us so we can pro­vide you with the lat­est infor­ma­tion on any poten­tial haz­ards with­in spe­cif­ic parks that may affect your dog. Please con­tact the park via the con­tact details pro­vid­ed under the con­tact tab or con­tact the vis­i­tor ser­vice cen­tre via email or on Face­book.

There are pic­nic areas, camp­fire areas, toi­lets, camp­ing sites and car­a­van sites avail­able in this park.

• Read about the 5 trea­sures of Mur­ray Riv­er Park on the Good Liv­ing blog. 
• Read the Insid­er Guide: Mur­ray Riv­er Nation­al Park on the Good Liv­ing blog.
• Explore what oth­er nature and out­door activ­i­ties are avail­able in this area on the South Aus­tralia Tourism website. 
• Mobile phone cov­er­age can be patchy and unre­li­able in this park, espe­cial­ly if you are in low-lying areas.
• Keep the kids enter­tained with the Mur­ray Riv­er adven­ture activ­i­ties sheet. 
• Camp­ing safety
• Parks man­age­ment plans
• Trails SA
• SA Marine Parks
• Impor­tant: Col­lec­tion of fire­wood with­in Nation­al Parks is pro­hib­it­ed. Dead wood plays a vital role in pro­vid­ing shel­ter for many ani­mals and is essen­tial for adding nutri­ents to the soil for oth­er native plants when rot­ting down.

The Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice has been busy with flood recov­ery fol­low­ing the Mur­ray Riv­er floods in ²⁰²²⁄₂₃. An assess­ment of trails and infra­struc­ture will occur over the next few months and more detailed acces­si­bil­i­ty infor­ma­tion will be avail­able on this site soon. 

The park and riv­er can be accessed along the net­work of roads (refer to park maps).

Plants

The Mur­ray Riv­er Nation­al Park is home to native plants such as Black Box, Riv­er Red Gums and under­storey like Lignum, the Spiny Daisy, Swamp Daisy and Prick­ly Bottlebrush.

The Murray‐​Darling Basin region is home to an extra­or­di­nar­i­ly diverse range of native veg­e­ta­tion ﴾flo­ra﴿, with over 2,000 species record­ed. Native veg­e­ta­tion refers to any nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring local plant species which are indige­nous to Aus­tralia, from small ground cov­ers and native grass­es to large trees and water plants.

About 50% of the region is cov­ered by native veg­e­ta­tion, with around 45% of this con­tained with­in nation­al parks, reserves and her­itage agree­ments. How­ev­er, a quar­ter of all the plants record­ed in South Aus­tralia are con­sid­ered to be threat­ened, and less than 30% of native veg­e­ta­tion remains in the agri­cul­tur­al areas, with some areas low­er than 10%. 

Ani­mals

The three sep­a­rate areas that make up Mur­ray Riv­er Nation­al Park ‐ Katara­p­ko, Lyrup Flats and Buly­ong Island cov­er more than 14,925 hectares and con­serve the ver­dant Mur­ray wet­lands that flow through the park.

The over­all area is home to around 8 species of native frogs such as south­ern bell frog and the ban­jo frog, and sev­er­al species of native fish includ­ing mur­ray cod and gold­en perch (cal­lop). Up to 23 species of rep­tiles may be found includ­ing the car­pet python, broad-shelled tor­toise and east­ern tiger snake. There are also many species of birds and mam­mals ‐ regent par­rots, emus, kan­ga­roos, black swans, ducks, bats, rest­less fly­catch­ers and pel­i­cans just to name a few!

The Katara­p­ko area fea­tures flood­plains and sev­er­al wet­lands. The area is an impor­tant breed­ing area for native wildlife, includ­ing water­birds, and is an ide­al place for birdwatching.

Lyrup Flats encom­pass­es 2,000 hectares along the flood­plain on the north­ern side of the riv­er and pro­vides won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ties for bird­watch­ing and fishing.

Buly­ong Island is only acces­si­ble by boat. The island is home to a num­ber of wildlife species, such as west­ern grey kan­ga­roos, emus, pel­i­cans, king­fish­ers and parrots.

Flo­ra and fau­na species lists

To down­load flo­ra (plants) and fau­na (ani­mals) species lists for this park, use the ​‘Cre­ate Sim­ple Species List’ tab under ​‘Flo­ra Tools’ or ​‘Fau­na Tools’ in NatureMaps.

This area is the tra­di­tion­al home to the Erwirung peo­ple, a rel­a­tive­ly small Abo­rig­i­nal group that lived on the fer­tile plains of the Mur­ray. Cul­tur­al sites exist in the park in the form of graves, mid­dens and canoe trees. Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple have strong affil­i­a­tions to Coun­try and these cul­tur­al val­ues and sites must be respect­ed and conserved.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples have occu­pied, enjoyed and man­aged the lands and waters of this State for thou­sands of gen­er­a­tions. For Abo­rig­i­nal first nations, cre­ation ances­tors laid down the laws of the Coun­try and bestowed a range of cus­tom­ary rights and oblig­a­tions to the many Abo­rig­i­nal Nations across our state. 

There are many places across the State that have great spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cance to Abo­rig­i­nal first nations. At some of these places Abo­rig­i­nal cul­tur­al pro­to­cols, such as restrict­ed access, are pro­mot­ed and vis­i­tors are asked to respect the wish­es of Tra­di­tion­al Owners.

In places where pro­to­cols are not pro­mot­ed vis­i­tors are asked to show respect by not touch­ing or remov­ing any­thing, and make sure you take all your rub­bish with you when you leave.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples con­tin­ue to play an active role in car­ing for their Coun­try, includ­ing in parks across South Australia. 

• DEW Park management
• DEW Abo­rig­i­nal partnerships

Charles Sturt, in 1830, was the first Euro­pean to explore the riv­er. Row­ing with a par­ty of sev­en in a whale­boat from its junc­tion with the Mur­rumbidgee down the length of the riv­er to the riv­er mouth below Lake Alexandrina.

Pad­dle steam­ers began ply­ing the riv­er in the 1850’s, trans­port­ing stock and pro­duce for the bur­geon­ing pas­toral industry.

The riv­er trade reached a peak in the 1880’s, to be replaced by rail and road trans­port. In 1887, after the found­ing of Ren­mark, vines and fruit trees were estab­lished with the help of irri­ga­tion schemes. Sol­dier set­tle­ment schemes after both world wars saw more irri­gat­ed farm­land developed.

In the late 1960s con­ser­va­tion parks were pro­claimed to pro­tect some of the islands; in 1991 three areas of the riv­er were incor­po­rat­ed in Mur­ray Riv­er Nation­al Park.