Murray Mouth - SA

Information

This is final journey for Australia’s longest River System, the Murray River. Starting over 2500 kilometres away, high in the Australian Alps, the Murray winds its way through New South Wales and Victoria before entering South Australia before pushing south to finally meet the waters of the Southern Ocean. The first recorded European to discover the Murray Mouth was Captain Collett Barker on the 30th April 1831. Swimming from one side of the mouth to the other, Barker was never seen again by his party. It was in later years revealed that he was speared to death by local Aboriginals, who feared he was a whaler coming to take their women and his body thrown into the Southern Ocean.
Access to the mouth is via a designated track exiting left of the carpark at Goolwa beach. A 12 km drive along the sand brings you to the river mouth and the dredging operation. Best done at low tide as at high tide there's not much sand left to drive on.