Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park

Open 24 hours a day, sev­en days a week.

Vis­i­tor Infor­ma­tion and Park Management:

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Port Lin­coln Office (for Eyre Peninsula/​Whyalla por­tion of the marine park)
Phone: (+61 8) 8688 3111

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Clare Office (Yorke Penin­su­la and Mid North/​Port Augus­ta & Port Pirie por­tion)
Phone: (+61 8) 8841 3400 

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: 08 8688 3223 (Eyre Penin­su­la) or 0417 883 678 (Yorke and Mid North)

Injured Wildlife

With­in the park
Please con­tact Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Port Lin­coln Office on (08) 8688 3111 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on (08) 8688 3223 (Eyre Penin­su­la) or the Clare Office on (+61 8) 8841 3400 or the after hours duty offi­cer on 0417 883 678 (York Penin­su­la and Mid North) 

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 Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Port Lin­coln Office on (08) 8688 3111 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on (08) 8688 3223 or the Clare Office on (+61 8) 8841 3400 or the after hours duty offi­cer on 0417 883 678 (York Penin­su­la and Mid North)

Gen­er­al­ly any­time is great depend­ing on your cho­sen activ­i­ty — check out the Bureau of mete­o­rol­o­gy Marine page fore­casts. May to August — A high­light of the marine park is the sea­son­al aggre­ga­tion of Giant Aus­tralian Cut­tle­fish who vis­it the Point Low­ly coast­line near Whyal­la in their hun­dreds of thou­sands each year to breed. It is a world renowned, unique event to this marine park. Check out the Cut­tle­fest Fes­ti­val pro­gram with a host of activ­i­ties cel­e­brat­ing the cuttlefish. 

Sci­en­tif­ic sur­veys in the Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park have record­ed hun­dreds of species of fish, inver­te­brate ani­mals and plants and shore­birds. The most well known is the Giant Aus­tralian Cut­tle­fish and the Bot­tlenose Dolphin. 

Check out some of these species in an Under­wa­ter 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 8 sanc­tu­ary zones in Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park, each one unique and designed to pro­tect impor­tant habi­tats, marine species, breed­ing grounds or impor­tant 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

Cowleds Land­ing Sanc­tu­ary Zone

An eco­log­i­cal­ly impor­tant site for salt­marsh, man­grove and estu­ary habi­tats as well as shel­tered beach, mud­flats and sea­grass. This zone pro­vides an impor­tant nurs­ery area for species such as blue swim­mer crab, snap­per and whit­ing as well as being an impor­tant shore­bird feed­ing ground. The 8 Mile Creek site is becom­ing an out­door class­room for local schools. To learn more watch the short film Secrets of the Salt­marsh, or head to the Eyre Penin­su­la Land­scapes Board Salt­marsh Threat Abate­ment and Recov­ery Page or down­load the Sam­phires of the Eyre Penin­su­la Guide.

Fair­way Bank Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This zone pro­tects off­shore, sub­ti­dal sea­grass and sand habi­tat, rep­re­sent­ing those habi­tats types in the cen­tre of the Gulf. It sup­ports a nursey area for snap­per and pro­vides habi­tat for pipefish and sea­horse species. 

Cut­tle­fish Coast Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This zone pro­tects part of the inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised breed­ing site for the Giant Aus­tralian Cut­tle­fish who aggre­gate in the area between May and August each year. Hump­back Whales are also reg­u­lar vis­i­tors to this coast­line dur­ing the cool­er months. The boul­der reef and macroal­gae habi­tat found with­in the zone rep­re­sents some of the only reef habi­tat found in the Upper Spencer Gulf and is also impor­tant to pur­ple sea urchin, reef fish and south­ern cala­mari. This rocky coast­line is in the form of boul­ders or shin­gle ridges, a rare geo­log­i­cal phe­nom­e­na over 5000 years old and a rem­nant of the last ice age. The area is of cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance to the Barn­gar­la peo­ple. You can take a vir­tu­al tour with the cuttlefish. 

• Enjoy whale watching
• Learn more about pro­tect­ing inter­tidal reefs

Blanche Har­bour Sanc­tu­ary Zone

The Blanche Har­bour Sanc­tu­ary Zone pro­tects man­groves, inter­tidal sand and sea­grass envi­ron­ments which pro­vide impor­tant nurs­ery habi­tats for many species. It also include the unique mega-rip­ple or sand wave envi­ron­ment in the mid­dle of the gulf, sea sponge gar­dens as well as habi­tat for sea pens and the Pot-bel­lied Seahorse . 

Yala­ta Har­bour Sanc­tu­ary Zone

The salt­marsh, man­grove and sand/​mud flat habi­tats pro­vide impor­tant nest­ing and feed­ing grounds for res­i­dent shore­birds, while migra­to­ry shore­birds, whose habi­tats are pro­tect­ed under inter­na­tion­al treaties, use the area for feeding.

The man­grove-sea­grass habi­tats with­in the zone are known nurs­ery areas for species such as King George whit­ing, yel­low fin whit­ing, blue swim­mer crab and west­ern king prawn. It over­lays part of the Win­ni­nowie Con­ser­va­tion Park, estab­lish­ing a pro­tect­ed cor­ri­dor between the land and sea

Win­ni­nowie Sanc­tu­ary Zone

The area is char­ac­terised by a sys­tem of tidal creeks bor­dered by man­groves and sand and mud flats backed by salt­marsh habi­tats and is an impor­tant nurs­ery site and feed­ing ground for shore­birds. This Sanc­tu­ary Zone con­tains six sea­grass species (four of which have warm water ori­gins due to the high sum­mer water tem­per­a­tures only found in the upper reach­es of the gulf). It over­lays part of the Win­ni­nowie Con­ser­va­tion Park, estab­lish­ing a pro­tect­ed cor­ri­dor between the land and sea. The large tidal range and extremes of water tem­per­a­ture around the Win­ni­nowie Con­ser­va­tion Park have report­ed­ly result­ed in the rich­est and most diverse coastal flo­ra in the state and rem­nant nat­ur­al habi­tat of high bio­di­ver­si­ty val­ue with one the largest undis­turbed stands of man­groves remain­ing in South Aus­tralia. There are large com­mu­ni­ties of razor­fish and ham­mer oys­ters with­in the zone.

Head of Gulf Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This zone found at the very top of the Gulf pro­tects the most saline waters and the high­est tidal move­ment (3m) envi­ron­ments with­in the Gulf. This shel­tered coast­line includes salt­marsh habi­tats front­ed by man­groves and tidal sand and mud flats, pro­vid­ing and impor­tant nurs­ery to many species. 

Port Davis Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This zone con­serves region­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant shel­tered envi­ron­ments such as salt­marsh, man­grove, tidal creek and sea­grass habi­tats which pro­vide a nurs­ery area for species such as King George whit­ing, yel­low fin whit­ing, snap­per, blue swim­mer crab and west­ern king prawn. Man­grove forests in this zone are report­ed to be used by the spawn­ing adults and post lar­vae of mud cock­les. The area is also an impor­tant dol­phin feed­ing site.

More infor­ma­tion

• Enjoy activ­i­ties in marine parks
• Where are the zones?
• Man­age­ment plan summary

Whyal­la Fore­shore — Acces­si­ble Beach Program

Offer­ing every­body the oppor­tu­ni­ty to enjoy the plea­sures of pic­turesque Whyal­la Fore­shore beach, there are three beach wheel chairs avail­able for short term loan and a beach mat. The Sand­cruis­er and Sand­piper wheel­chairs have large bal­loon-like tyres which make for easy access on soft sand. 

Beach mats are avail­able on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day between Octo­ber and East­er each year. Mat roll out is sub­ject to tide times, weath­er con­di­tions and resources! Beach wheel­chairs are avail­able for free use from 9.00am till 1.00pm Sat­ur­day & Sun­day, from Octo­ber to East­er. Avail­able chairs are Sand­piper (chil­dren) & the Sand­cruis­er (adults).

Please note: these beach wheel­chairs are not avail­able for use in water. Beach wheel­chairs can be picked up from the Whyal­la Surf Life­sav­ing Club, look for the Acces­si­ble Beach Ambas­sadors on duty, they will be wear­ing a blue hi-vis vest. Beach wheel­chair book­ings are rec­om­mend­ed but not essential!

If you would like to use the chairs out­side of the pro­gram hours please con­tact the Whyal­la City Coun­cil to make this happen.

You can book a chair by email­ing customer.​service@​whyalla.​sa.​gov.​au, or by call­ing 8640 3444. 

• Wheel­chair Acces­si­ble Beach in Whyal­la Foreshore

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

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.

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 

• Whyal­la
• Port Augus­ta
• Port Ger­mein
• Port Pirie

Boat ramps

• Map of boat ramp loca­tions in South Australia

There is some vehi­cle access on beach­es avail­able in the park, how­ev­er due to the shel­tered waters, the mud and sand found on the beach­es is very soft, so take extreme care.

• 5‑Year Sta­tus Report 2012 – 2017 Sum­ma­ry (pdf)
• Upper Spencer Gulf man­age­ment plan sum­ma­ry (pdf)
• Upper Spencer Gulf man­age­ment plan (pdf)
• Base­line and pre­dict­ed changes for the Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park (pdf)
• Marine Park fact­sheet (pdf)
• Sum­ma­ry of State Her­itage Place (pdf)
• Salt­marsh Threat Abate­ment and Recov­ery Project (STAR Project) 
• Sam­phires of the Eyre Penin­su­la (pdf)
• An Under­wa­ter Guide to plants and ani­mals in South Australia
• Snorkelling guide (pdf)
• PIR­SA Recre­ation­al fish­ing app
• Cut­tle­fest
• Great South­ern Reef 

Be part of an inven­tion con­ven­tion about marine parks in South Aus­tralian waters — Pri­ma­ry School Teach­ers Resource (Years 5 & 6)

Dive into marine sci­ence in your class­room and inspire your stu­dents to design a sci­en­tif­ic tech­nique to mon­i­tor or sur­vey ani­mals, plants and the envi­ron­ment in South Australia’s marine parks. This cur­ricu­lum-linked, Pri­ma­ry School (Years 5 & 6) resource is designed to sup­port teach­ers in schools imple­ment teach­ing and learn­ing pro­grams about marine parks in South Aus­tralian waters through STEM and inte­grat­ing the Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Cross Cur­ricu­lum Pri­or­i­ties and Gen­er­al Capabilities.

Under­stand­ing more about marine parks in South Aus­tralian waters – Sec­ondary School Teacher Resource (Years 7 – 10)

Explore the con­nec­tions that we have with the ocean and inspire your stu­dents to design a new eco­tourism ven­ture in your local marine park. This cur­ricu­lum-linked, Sec­ondary School resource is designed to sup­port teach­ers in schools imple­ment teach­ing and learn­ing pro­grams about marine parks in South Aus­tralian waters through Geog­ra­phy, Tech­nolo­gies, Sci­ence and Work Stud­ies and inte­grat­ing the Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Cross Cur­ricu­lum Pri­or­i­ties and Gen­er­al Capabilities.

Exot­ic aquat­ic ani­mals and plants (par­tic­u­lar­ly nox­ious species) can dam­age the nat­ur­al bal­ance of our envi­ron­ment. Aquat­ic pests threat­en South Australia’s fish­eries, aqua­cul­ture, recre­ation, nav­i­ga­tion, and tourism industries.

Aquat­ic pests:

• are exot­ic (non-native) species that have, or pose the risk of hav­ing, impacts
• can be fish, aquat­ic plants and ani­mals (crabs, mol­luscs invertebrates)
• com­pete with native species impor­tant to our econ­o­my and conservation
• dam­age aquat­ic envi­ron­ments reduc­ing attrac­tive­ness and social enjoy­ment of aquat­ic areas
• foul aqua­cul­ture and indus­tri­al infrastructure
• pose health risks
• can be found in fresh­wa­ter, estu­ar­ies and marine environments.

Marine pest loca­tions and data can be found using the Nation­al Intro­duced Marine Pest Infor­ma­tion System.

Report­ing sus­pect­ed exot­ic species

Ear­ly detec­tion is impor­tant to stop the estab­lish­ment and spread of aquat­ic pests. If you see an unusu­al fresh­wa­ter or marine crea­ture report it straight away:

• call Fish­watch 24 hour hot­line on 1800 065 522
• report via the free SA Fish­ing App
• Depart­ment of Pri­ma­ry Indus­tries and Regions

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 (https://​www​.parks​.sa​.gov​.au/​p​a​r​k​-​m​a​n​a​g​ement)

DEW Abo­rig­i­nal part­ner­ships (https://​www​.parks​.sa​.gov​.au/​p​a​r​k​-​m​a​n​a​g​e​m​e​n​t​/​c​o​-​m​a​n​a​g​e​m​e​n​t​-​o​f​-​parks)

The Nukunu, Kujani, Kokatha, Andya­man­thanha and Barn­gar­la Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple have tra­di­tion­al asso­ci­a­tions with (includ­ing Abo­rig­i­nal tra­di­tion­al fish­ing) in the Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park. Exam­ples of this include Abo­rig­i­nal camp­sites in Win­ni­nowie Con­ser­va­tion Park and fish traps in Fits­ger­ald Bay. There are also sto­ries of the tra­di­tion of singing to the sharks and dol­phins to bring fish in at Point Low­ly. For more infor­ma­tion head to Coast of Dreams and Plen­ty.

The Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park was pro­claimed in 2009 and became ful­ly oper­a­tional on Octo­ber 1 2014.

The Whyal­la-Cowleds Land­ing, Blanche Har­bour-Dou­glas and Yata­la Har­bour-Upper Spencer Gulf Aquat­ic Reserves are now includ­ed in the rel­e­vant sanc­tu­ary zones and their Aquat­ic Reserve sta­tus has been repealed.