By now you’ve all heard about what’s happening with the Murray River’s flow, but did you know this is actually great news for one of Australia’s most environmentally significant areas, the Coorong National Park?

The sustained flow is set to push through the Coorong’s lagoons in the coming months, restoring the ecosystem from the Lower Lakes to the Murray Mouth.

This natural event will help to flush the high levels of salinity and reverse the environmental degradation brought from the millennium drought.

There’ll be an increase of mulloway, mullet, and bream in the Coorong. And of course, more fresh water means more fish – and what likes to eat fish? Birds of course! You must be curious about what this will look like?

On Coorong Wildside Tours’ Seabirds and Seals experience, you’ll have the opportunity to get up close and personal with the natural splendour of the Coorong (or as many know it – ‘Storm Boy Country’) with their very own ‘Wildman of the Coorong’, Glen.

He’s the ideal tour guide having been a fisherman here for over 30 years. With his easy-going personality and expertise in estuarine life, Glen provides a unique perspective on this part of the region and will show you some of the hidden gems that only a lifetime local knows about.

If you’re a keen bird watcher, love authentic wild animal encounters, want to practice photography, or simply love Colin Thiele’s Storm Boy, to the Coorong is the place for you.

This wetland ecosystem supports a wide variety of native animals and plants, which means you don’t have to be in the right place at the right time. Wildlife abounds the park, and you’ll get to see a range of animals feeding, foraging, lazing, or playing on land, in water or up above.

Keep your eyes open for kangaroos, emus, seals, lizards, snakes, and frogs.

The Coorong is home to nesting sites and breeding grounds for a range of native and international shorebirds and waders (some travel from as far away as Alaska and Siberia!). You might see stilts, sandpipers, plovers, grey teal and Australian shelducks, the rare fairy tern, and more.

In true Storm Boy country style, you can expect countless pelicans thanks to the abundance of fish drawing them in. Black swans and cygnets (baby swans) are a significant icon in the local Ngarrindjeri culture and have already increased in population from increased water plants.

In a matter of hours, you can squeeze in nature’s rugged beauty with a small intimate group of up to seven.

The tour departs from the Long Point jetty (near Meningie) in Coorong Wildside’s special boat – custom made for touring and fishing. They’ll take you along the Coorong’s long lagoons, flanked by sand dunes of the Younghusband Peninsula with the untouched ocean beach on the other side.

You’ll get to see the Tauwitchere Barrage by the Murray Mouth, where freshwater Lake Alexandrina is separated from the salt water of the Coorong. Often seals lounge around on the wooden structures.

After some time here, you’ll be brought to the foot of some sand dunes for morning tea. This is a perfect chance to have a chat with Glen and ask any burning questions (and he loves a good chat).

Before the tour ends, you’ll get to see inside their processing factory in Meningie, where you’ll get a behind-the-scenes tour and Glen will give you a demonstration on how to perfectly fillet your fish.

They won’t let you leave hungry either. All guests can sit down for a tasting of the freshest seafood you’ll have. And if you like anything you’ve tried, they offer packs to purchase and take home.

We can’t wait to have you join us at one of South Australia’s favourite national parks.

Book your tour here.