Southern Spencer Gulf Marine Park

Open 24 hours a day, sev­en days a week.

Vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion, book­ings and park management:

Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park — Vis­i­tor Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre
Phone: (+61 8) 8854 3200
Email: DEWInnesNationalPark@​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 – Duty offi­cer
Phone: 0417 883 678

Injured wildlife:

With­in the park
Please con­tact Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park — Vis­i­tor Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre on (08) 8854 3200 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on 0417 883 678 (out­side of busi­ness hours)

Out­side of the park
Please con­tact a local wildlife res­cue group

Marine mam­mals
If you find a sick or strand­ed marine mam­mal (includ­ing whales, seals, sea lions and dol­phins), please con­tact Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park — Vis­i­tor Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre on (08) 8854 3200 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on 0417 883 678.

Bureau of mete­o­rol­o­gy Marine page fore­casts.

South­ern Spencer Gulf Marine Park stretch­es for many kilo­me­tres of coast and has mul­ti­ple access points, try these pop­u­lar locations: 

• Hard­wicke Bay

• Point Turton

• Corny Point

• Gleeson’s Landing

• Dai­ly Head

• Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park (Browns beach, Pon­dalowie Bay and Sten­house Bay- entry per­mit required)

• Mar­i­on Bay

• West­ern Riv­er Cove (Kan­ga­roo Island)

Div­ing sur­veys in the South­ern Spencer Gulf Marine Park have record­ed hun­dreds of species of fish, inver­te­brate ani­mals and plants and shore­birds. Check out some of these species in anUnder­wa­ter Guide to plants and ani­mals in South Australia. 

If you want more tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion please refer to our base­line reports on Envi­ro Data SA.

There are four Sanc­tu­ary Zones and one Rock Lob­ster Sanc­tu­ary in South­ern Spencer Gulf Marine Park, each one unique and designed to pro­tect impor­tant habi­tats, marine species, breed­ing grounds or refuge areas. These are impor­tant con­ser­va­tion areas where fish­ing and all oth­er extrac­tive activ­i­ties are not allowed.

• Fish­ing restric­tions in sanc­tu­ary zones

• Sanc­tu­ary zone maps

Gleesons Land­ing Rock Lob­ster Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This sanc­tu­ary zone was estab­lished to pro­tect rock lob­sters by PIR­SA fisheries.

• Loca­tion map

Chi­na­mans Hat Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This sanc­tu­ary zone extends off the Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park shore­line past the dis­tinc­tive Chi­na­mans Hat Island and beyond Seal Island into Inves­ti­ga­tor strait. Shore based line fish­ing is still allowed from Chi­na­mans Hat beach, how­ev­er beyond cast­ing dis­tance all marine life is pro­tect­ed. In the bay behind the island, the water con­di­tions are often calm enough to enjoy a snorkel or dive. Div­ing in this zone will reveal a mix of habi­tats from sea­grass beds, to large lime­stone caves. The bot­tom is cov­ered with low pro­file reefs, dis­persed with sand, sea­grass and kelp beds, habi­tat for a wide vari­ety of marine life, includ­ing the charis­mat­ic blue grop­er and his harem of green females. You will often be joined by ocean sweep and see Red­fish dart­ing behind boul­ders, and if you look under ledges you might see an iri­des­cent Blue Dev­il fish, while less than a foot long they can live for over 30 years. In the shal­lows it is com­mon to see schools of fish or a stingray search­ing the sand for food and if you are lucky a leafy sea drag­on sway­ing amongst the kelp.

Orcades Banks Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This sanc­tu­ary zone lies in the mid­dle of Inves­ti­ga­tor strait, near­ly 10 nau­ti­cal miles off the coast and will only be reached in large boats. It is an area of deep water where whit­ing spawn­ing has been reported.

Water­fall Creek Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This is a very small sanc­tu­ary on the north coast of the remote west­ern end of Kan­ga­roo Island. Large blue grop­er are known to live in this zone.

Dogs are wel­come in marine parks but please check with the rel­e­vant local coun­cil as by-laws may vary.

Along the shore­line bound­ary of the marine park there are numer­ous, coun­cil and pri­vate­ly owned, facil­i­ties that might be use­ful to marine users espe­cial­ly jet­ties, boat ramps and carparks. 

Jet­ties

• Point Tur­ton
• Sten­house Bay
• Mar­i­on Bay

Boat ramps

• Map of boat ramp loca­tions in South Australia

• South­ern Spencer Gulf Marine Park man­age­ment plan sum­ma­ry 2012 (pdf)
• South­ern Spencer Gulf Marine Park man­age­ment plan 2012 (pdf)
• Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park
• Nat­ur­al Resources North­ern and Yorke — Coast and marine program
• South Aus­tralian Marine Parks
• A Beach Explor­ers Guide to plants and ani­mals in South Australia
• An Under­wa­ter Guide to plants and ani­mals in South Australia
• PIR­SA Recre­ation­al fish­ing app
• Expe­ri­enc­ing Marine Sanctuaries
• Bureau of Meteorology

The Narung­ga peo­ple have lived on Yorke Penin­su­la for many thou­sands of years and they know the land inti­mate­ly – its phys­i­cal fea­tures, ani­mal and plant life and water resources. The Narung­ga nation was made up of four clans: the Kurnara in the north of the penin­su­la; Windera in the east; Wari in the west; and Dil­pa in the south. Today, the Narung­ga peo­ple con­tin­ue to main­tain strong cul­tur­al links to the region.

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. 

• Co-man­age­ment of nation­al parks with tra­di­tion­al owners