Greater protection and more to explore! SA’s new and expanded national parks

Eyes on the ​‘30 by 30’ target

South Australia’s Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment and Water man­ages about 23 mil­lion hectares of nation­al parks and wilder­ness pro­tec­tion areas. That’s about 22% of our state’s land.

The 30 by 30 tar­get is a com­mit­ment by our state and fed­er­al gov­ern­ments, aim­ing to pro­tect 30% of Australia’s land­mass and marine areas by 2030. (Read about the Nation­al 30 by 30 Roadmap here.)

Park expan­sions

In May 2025 around 450 hectares of land was added across three SA parks:

Mur­ray Riv­er Nation­al Park: A pop­u­lar camp­ing loca­tion that pro­vides recre­ation­al activ­i­ties and an oppor­tu­ni­ty for vis­i­tors to inter­act with nature and expe­ri­ence the Riv­er Mur­ray floodplains.

Maize Island Con­ser­va­tion Park: Home to one of the state’s first vil­lage set­tle­ments along the Riv­er Mur­ray, includ­ing ruins of some orig­i­nal dwellings and old hor­ti­cul­tur­al plantings.

Sceale Bay Con­ser­va­tion Park: Sup­ports sig­nif­i­cant wad­ing birds, includ­ing migra­to­ry species – the Aus­tralian pied oys­ter­catch­er, Sander­ling and fairy tern – that are sub­ject to inter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion agree­ments between Aus­tralia, Japan and Chi­na. The park’s area is increas­ing by about a half.

Planned park expansions:

War­ren­ben Con­ser­va­tion Park

In June 2025 almost 1000 hectares was acquired to be added to War­ren­ben Con­ser­va­tion Park.War­ren­ben Con­ser­va­tion Park on Narung­ga coun­try on the south-east Yorke Penin­su­la will grow from 4060 hectares to 5030 hectares. New land has been pro­vid­ed as part of Villa­wood Homes’ sus­tain­abil­i­ty ini­tia­tives. The rich­ly diverse land­scape pro­vides habi­tat for rare flo­ra and fau­na includ­ing the crit­i­cal­ly endan­gered Gold­sack­’s leek-orchid, malleefowl and mallee whipbird.

Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park

In July 2025 addi­tion­al land was acquired to expand Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park by 26,000 hectares. Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park, which was declared a nation­al park in 2021, will expand to a total area of around 91,000 hectares after the South Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment acquired the adja­cent Nilpe­na Sta­tion. The park is trea­sured for its inter­na­tion­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant fos­sils of Earth­’s ear­li­est com­plex ani­mal life, which lived 570 mil­lion to 539 mil­lion years ago. It forms part of a World Her­itage bid for the Flinders Ranges region.

New parks

Worlds End Gorge

In late 2023 a 1000 hectare block of land in Worlds End Gorge, near Bur­ra in the state’s mid north, was trans­ferred to the Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment and Water to cre­ate a new nation­al park. Renew­able ener­gy com­pa­ny Neoen Aus­tralia bought and then trans­ferred land as part of its native veg­e­ta­tion off­set require­ments for the near­by Goy­der Wind Farm project. The land bor­ders Hop­kins Creek Con­ser­va­tion Park and includes per­ma­nent water­holes, habi­tat for threat­ened species, and a scenic gorge with euca­lyp­tus woodlands.

Kauwi-marnir­la ― Field Riv­er Con­ser­va­tion Park

In late 2024 a new 177 hectare con­ser­va­tion park was declared in Adelaide’s south­ern sub­urbs, run­ning along­side the Field Riv­er to the south of Shei­d­ow Park and north of Reynel­la. Kauwi-marnir­la ― Field Riv­er Con­ser­va­tion Park will be a focal point for con­ser­va­tion groups and a com­mu­ni­ty open space. The park will be man­aged by the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice in con­junc­tion with Kau­r­na prac­ti­tion­ers who will help deliv­er land man­age­ment ser­vices that use tra­di­tion­al knowl­edge and practice.

Have your say on future parks expan­sion plans 

The Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment and Water is devel­op­ing a Land-based Pro­tect­ed and Con­served Area Strat­e­gy. This strat­e­gy will dri­ve the expan­sion and enhance­ment of South Australia’s pro­tect­ed and con­served areas, so that bio­di­ver­si­ty can thrive, and places of spe­cial val­ue are protected.

Your feed­back will help ensure a range of ideas and inter­ests are con­sid­ered in shap­ing how our pro­tect­ed and con­served areas are expand­ed and enhanced into the future. Vis­it South Australia’s Land-Based Pro­tect­ed and Con­served Area Strat­e­gy | Your­SAy to find out more, read the Draft Strat­e­gy and com­plete a short sur­vey or make a submission.

Keen to explore more?

Vis­it parks​.sa​.gov​.au to plan your next out­door adven­ture or learn how you can get involved in pro­tect­ing our state’s spec­tac­u­lar nat­ur­al places.