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Walking & Hiking

Alberto Forest

Goolwa

A revegetated forest area on Hindmarsh Island created by community Landcare planting - a quiet bushland walk with birdlife and views to the Murray channel.

A casual beachside cafe on the road into Goolwa Beach, with ocean views, gelato counter and the standard cafe menu - the natural lunch stop after a Goolwa Beach walk.

A working heritage boatshed on Riverside Drive where volunteers restore and build traditional wooden Murray River boats using century-old slipway equipment. Drop in on open days to watch the craft in action.

Goolwa's leading contemporary art gallery on Cadell Street, representing a wide stable of Fleurieu and South Australian artists across paintings, sculpture, ceramics and jewellery.

A Shaw-family Currency Creek estate (with a second cellar door at the Goolwa Wharf) pouring cool-climate Fleurieu reds and whites.

A heritage-listed wetland with small waterfalls, prolific birdlife and Aboriginal scar trees where canoes were once cut.

An award-winning Goolwa cafe on the edge of the Murray River showcasing local produce - Coorong mullet, Goolwa cockles and Fleurieu wines - in a light-filled riverside dining room.

Goolwa's premier riverside park features an award-winning nature playspace built around a 10-metre restored wooden fishing boat, right on the Murray River with BBQs, shelters and a shallow swimming beach.

Guided kayak tours from Hindmarsh Island into the Coorong National Park - a Ramsar-listed wetland system of lagoons, sand dunes and waterbirds.

Walking & Hiking

Coorong National Park

Goolwa

A 130-kilometre lagoon and dune system stretching east from the Murray Mouth - one of Australia's most significant wetlands, reachable from Goolwa via the barrage and across Hindmarsh Island.

Heritage & History

Corio Hotel

Goolwa

Historic stone hotel on Railway Terrace, Goolwa - one of the town's most recognisable 19th-century buildings, with a pub, restaurant and accommodation.

A pioneer cemetery containing the resting place of many 19th-century Murray River paddle-steamer captains.

One of South Australia's tallest historic rail viaducts, a short walk through the creek valley from the Currency Creek Lions Park.

A historic township once considered by William Light as the capital of South Australia, with a Lions Park picnic area beside the spring-fed creek and an 1913 Institute building.

Electric bike rental along the 31km Encounter Bikeway with pickup at Goolwa, Middleton or Port Elliot - self-guided coastal cycling.

Wildlife & Nature

Goolwa Barrage

Goolwa

A 630-metre concrete barrage built in 1940 to keep salt water out of the Lower Lakes, the Goolwa Barrage is a favourite wildlife spot where fur seals, pelicans and cormorants gather and visitors can walk right out over the lock gates.

Beaches

Goolwa Beach

Goolwa

Goolwa Beach is the southern end of an 18-kilometre stretch of wave-pounded Southern Ocean sand running all the way to the Murray Mouth, with a patrolled swimming area and a legendary (and legal) 4WD beach drive.

A 170 m timber boardwalk over the Goolwa dunes to a lookout with panoramas of Sir Richard Peninsula, the Hindmarsh Island Bridge and the Coorong.

An 1853 stone hotel on the corner of Cadell Street, still trading after 170 years, with the salvaged figurehead from the Irish sailing ship Mozambique displayed on its facade.

A State Heritage Area covering 19 historic sites along the Goolwa wharf - paddle steamer, railway, goods sheds, hotels and Little Scotland - the best-preserved 19th-century river port in Australia.

A community market on the Goolwa Wharf with over 80 stalls of fresh produce, crafts, food and music - held on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month.

A European-inspired wine bar and restaurant in a rustic exposed-brick space just off Cadell Street, Goolwa - share plates, natural wines and slow service the way it should be.

Modern Australian restaurant on the Goolwa Wharf with uninterrupted views over the Murray and the PS Oscar W paddle steamer.

Wildlife & Nature

Hindmarsh Island

Goolwa

A large inland river island in the lower Murray near Goolwa, connected to the mainland by the 2001 Hindmarsh Island Bridge - a gateway to the Coorong and Murray Mouth.