Exploring the Coorong

Today we drove south along the Coorong, on the Noonameena Loup.    Noonameena is the name of the settlement of holiday houses on the bitumen part of the road.  

Yesterday we drove on the same road, but travelled north, and realised the views would be better if we travelled south,  so we decided to take the tour again.   We also now had the brochures from the council, so could identify landmarks.    That makes quite a difference!

The Coorong is a long strip of partly saline/partly brackish water which lies between the sandhills (called Younghusband Peninsula) on the south and the land on the north.    The Southern Ocean is on the other side of the sandhills.   The Coorong stretches about 140 km from the Murray Mouth to an area known as Chinaman's Well.   

The Coorong is a National Park, and is also a critical wetland habitat supporting hundreds of thousands of native and migratory waterbirds.

The Coorong is also the traditional lands of the Ngarrindjeri People, whose heritage and spiritual connection of the area goes back thousands of years.

A view of Younghusband Peninsula (the sandhills), and the water in-between.    We were travelling on a well maintained gravel road.   

An old church, with a house beside it.   A church in the outback, but perhaps there was a settlement here.
 

Another view of the Coorong.   I think it is mostly quite shallow water.

An old shearing shed, built in 1872, which held dances and events until the 1980s.

The National Parks and Wildlife headquarters are also on the road, but the gate was closed so we did not stop.

After the settlement of holiday houses, rather than continuing onto the main road, we took a track along the edge of the Coorong.

There were numerous camping spots along the track, plus three areas with shelters and toilets.   Permission, plus a fee I guess, must be obtained from the National Parks headquarters in order to use the camping places.

We then entered the land which belongs to the Aboriginal Trust and it is forbidden to camp in this area, however the track is on public land so can be used.

The buildings below were part of an Aboriginal mission which was established in 1876.   A group of Ngarrindjeri people built the stone buildings.

We could have continued driving along the track, until we arrived at the main road, as we have a 4 wheel drive vehicle.  However the track was now barely visible and the thought of being stuck out somewhere without a phone signal put us off somewhat.    So we turned around and drove back the way we came.   Much safer.

Dogs are not allowed in National Parks in Australia, but as we were on the edge of the Coorong, and Piper was in the car, and not getting out, we felt okay.   Not that we had a choice as we could not leave her back in the caravan.