Swan Reach Conservation 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.

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

• CFS web­site
• CFS Hot­line: 1800 362 361

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

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

Although this park is great to vis­it at any time of year, were com­mend vis­it­ing in autumn to see the mallee birds at their most active. 

Locat­ed around 125 kilo­me­tres from Ade­laide and approx­i­mate­ly 15 kilo­me­tres west of the town of Swan Reach, along the Sedan to Swan Reach Road(Stott High­way), you will find sign posts to the North­ern Park Boundary.

Dogs are not per­mit­ted in this park.

Dis­cov­er which 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 no facil­i­ties in the park. Please ensure you car­ry suf­fi­cient water, food and sup­plies for your entire vis­it. It is also a good idea to let a respon­si­ble per­son know of your intend­ed move­ments and when you expect to return.

• 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 ani­mals and adding nutri­ents to the soil.

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.

At the time of Euro­pean arrival, the Nga­iawang Abo­rig­i­nal Peo­ple occu­pied an area of approx­i­mate­ly 388,000 hectares on the West­ern Mur­ray Plains, in which the park is sit­u­at­ed. With­in this area, the riv­er was the main focus of activ­i­ty, pro­vid­ing a per­ma­nent water source and a con­tin­u­ous food sup­ply. Fish were caught in nets and stone traps, one of which is still pre­served in the north­ern end of McBeans Pound. The riv­er was also a major com­mu­ni­ca­tion and trans­port route. Bark canoes were obtained from large riv­er red gums, and sev­er­al of these canoe trees can still be seen near Blanchetown. The riv­er became the nucle­us of set­tle­ment as it pro­vid­ed for most needs.

Please refer to the South Aus­tralian Muse­um pub­li­ca­tion Nga­iawang Folk Province (1977) for fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the Nga­iawang People.

First Nations peo­ples have occu­pied, enjoyed and man­aged the lands and waters of this state for thou­sands of gen­er­a­tions. For First Nations peo­ples, 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 First Nations peo­ples. 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.

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

• DEW Park management
• DEW Abo­rig­i­nal partnerships

The Swan Reach dis­trict was occu­pied in the last decades of the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry. The town­ship of Swan Reach was estab­lished in 1896, large­ly to cater for the small farms which were being devel­oped in the sur­round­ing dis­trict. This land was less than favourable, and required clear­ing and sink­ing of bores to pro­vide addi­tion­al water. Many of the small farm­ers, espe­cial­ly those grow­ing crops, bare­ly eked out a liv­ing and were des­tined to hard­ships and despair, as the many ruined farm­hous­es tes­ti­fy. Suc­ces­sive droughts, rab­bits and over­graz­ing cre­at­ed in places a des­o­late, unpro­duc­tive land­scape capa­ble of sup­port­ing only a few sheep per hectare. The sub­di­vi­sion of land neigh­bour­ing the park, cou­pled with the altered nature of the land­scape under pas­toral­ism and agri­cul­ture, makes it imper­a­tive that an area of com­par­a­tive­ly untouched mallee such as Swan Reach Con­ser­va­tion Park remains untouched.