Heritage & History

A clifftop vantage over the longest stretch of unbroken river cliffs in the southern hemisphere.

A Riverland Big Thing

One of Australia’s classic roadside Big Things - a giant orange celebrating the Riverland’s citrus heritage near Berri.

A beautifully preserved Art Deco picture theatre in the heart of Barmera, now a community events venue with occasional film screenings.

Where South Australia taxed the river trade

The 1884 customs house at Port Murthoo, built to collect duties from paddle steamers crossing the border. A walking trail and quiet river reach mark one of the Murray's oddest historic outposts.

A free Murray River cable ferry

A free cable ferry crossing the Murray at the small fruit-growing town of Cadell.

Where Bluebird flew across Lake Bonney

A foreshore monument marking Donald Campbell's 1964 world water speed record attempt on Lake Bonney, when Bluebird K7 hit 347 km/h on the Riverland's inland sea.

The first weir and lock built on the River Murray, a working piece of river engineering you can watch in action.

Boats, big lawns and river history at Overland Corner

A working Murray lock near Overland Corner with a broad grassed viewing area - picnic on the bank and watch houseboats step through the chamber.

A working lock on the quiet reach between Berri and Loxton

The Murray's Lock 4 sits at Bookpurnong, a few minutes from Berri towards Loxton - free barbecues, a picnic area, a boat ramp and a front-row seat as vessels lock through.

Watch boats step up the Murray in a riverside park

A 1927 lock and weir just downstream of the Paringa Bridge, set in lawned parkland with picnic tables, barbecues and the retired river barge Bunyip on display.

Australia's largest WWII internment camp, six kilometres from Barmera

From 1941, the Loveday camps held over 5,000 German, Italian and Japanese internees on the flats south of Barmera. Ruins and a heritage precinct remain, with a permanent collection at the Barmera Visitor Information Centre.

A pioneer village brought back to life

A re-created pioneer settlement of more than 45 buildings on the Loxton riverfront, staffed and furnished as it was a century ago.

Riverside walks and flood-height history

Loxton’s leafy riverfront, home to the Tree of Knowledge marking historic flood heights and easy riverside walking trails.

A shady riverside walking trail linking Loxton's historical village and the Tree of Knowledge.

A giant river red gum on the Loxton riverfront painted with the heights of historic Murray floods.

The tree that marks where a town got its name

A gnarled old peppercorn tree on the Loxton riverbank, marking the site of the 1878 boundary rider's hut from which the town took its name.

A free ferry linking Lyrup to the Berri road

A free cable ferry at the old river port of Morgan

A railway-and-river museum telling the story of the colony's busiest inland port.

Shady riverfront lawns beneath the historic Morgan wharf, with picnic spots and river views.

A grand relic of the river-trade boom

The towering timber wharf at Morgan, a monument to the days when this was one of South Australia’s busiest inland ports.

Walk the boomtown that rivalled Port Adelaide

A self-guided heritage walk around Morgan's port precinct - the towering 1877 wharf, the railway station turned museum, customs house and courthouse from the days when Morgan was SA's second-busiest port.

A grand old riverboat moored at Loxton, a reminder of the Murray's paddle-steamer heyday.

The Chaffey homestead where irrigated Australia began

The 1889 log homestead of Charles Chaffey, whose family founded Australia's first irrigation colony at Renmark. Now a National Trust museum set in an olive grove.