Your guide to visiting Coorong National Park

Your guide to visiting Coorong National Park



Are you a Storm Boy’ fan? See the movie scenes for your­self on your next Coorong trip, start­ing with these places.


If you know South Australia’s Coorong like the back of your hand, or you’re keen to explore some­where new, why not take some inspi­ra­tion for your next vis­it from the new Storm Boy’ movie, which was filmed at this stun­ning location.

While the icon­ic Aus­tralian nov­el was orig­i­nal­ly made into a movie in 1976, a con­tem­po­rary reimag­in­ing of the orig­i­nal movie was released last month.

The sto­ry fea­tures the vast beach­es, bird-life and sand dunes of Coorong Nation­al Park, which is locat­ed approx­i­mate­ly 100 kilo­me­tres south-east of Adelaide.

It fol­lows the jour­ney of Mike, a young boy nick­named Storm Boy’, who has a spe­cial con­nec­tion with three orphaned pel­i­cans. It’s a sto­ry about friend­ship, Abo­rig­i­nal cul­ture and grow­ing up in the iso­lat­ed wilder­ness of the Coorong.

If see­ing the movie has inspired you to vis­it, here’s how to make the most of it when you get there:

1. See the spots where Storm Boy was filmed

The Storm Boy movies were shot through­out Coorong Nation­al Park, with film­ing loca­tions for the 2019 movie includ­ing Nine­ty Mile Beach, which is acces­si­ble by four-wheel-dri­ve only, and Godfrey’s Land­ing, acces­si­ble by boat or kayak.

If you don’t have a boat, kayak or 4WD though, don’t despair. You can still dis­cov­er the stun­ning wilder­ness of Storm Boy coun­try with a tour com­pa­ny.

Plus, there are heaps of walk­ing trails and camp­sites to explore beyond these film­ing loca­tions, as well as more than 150 km of lagoon and coast­line to dis­cov­er in a kayak.

Your guide to visiting Coorong National Park

2. Learn about Abo­rig­i­nal culture

Coorong Nation­al Park is of enor­mous cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance to the Ngar­rind­jeri Peo­ple, the land’s Tra­di­tion­al Own­ers, with ancient mounds of dis­card­ed shells (or mid­dens’) through­out the park reveal­ing archae­o­log­i­cal evi­dence of Abo­rig­i­nal camp­sites over thou­sands of years.

Many of these sig­nif­i­cant loca­tions are sign-post­ed, but some aren’t, so if you’re out walk­ing make sure you stick to the tracks.

Before your vis­it to the Coorong, learn more about the Ngar­rind­jeri Peo­ple and their liv­ing cul­ture from the Ngar­rind­jeri Region­al Author­i­ty.

Inter­est­ing fact: Kurangk’, mean­ing long nar­row neck’, is the Ngar­rind­jeri word for Coorong. The word Coorong’ is an Angli­cised adap­ta­tion of the Ngar­rind­jeri word named for that stretch of land and waters.

Your guide to visiting Coorong National Park

3. Find your own Mr Percival’

The Coorong sup­ports many sig­nif­i­cant and endan­gered flo­ra and fau­na species. The wet­land sys­tem is famous for its abun­dant birdlife, espe­cial­ly Aus­tralian pel­i­cans like the movie’s Mr Percival’.

Although you can see pelican’s all-over Coorong Nation­al Park, Jack Point is the best spot to see the bird’s breed­ing colony. To get there, fol­low the Princes High­way until you reach the Jack Point turn-off. From the carpark, it’s a 10-minute walk to the bird view­ing area, which over­looks a clus­ter of small islands where pel­i­cans, terns and seag­ulls have estab­lished breed­ing colonies.

As this is a nat­ur­al habi­tat, the birds come and go as they please. For your best chance of see­ing a large array of birds vis­it dur­ing spring.

Make sure you read the signs along the walk to learn about the plants that grow here. Many of them are impor­tant in Ngar­rind­jeri Cul­ture for things like food, med­i­cine or basket-weaving.

Top tip: Down­load a map of the park before you go, and don’t for­get your binoculars!

Your guide to visiting Coorong National Park

More Storm Boy inspiration

If you’re keen to learn more about the movie or teach your kids about it, the Aus­tralian Teach­ers of Media has pub­lished a study guide for the new Storm Boy movie designed for stu­dents in Years 3 – 9.

Can’t get enough? You might also like to:

Won­der­ing which oth­er nation­al parks to vis­it in SA? Get inspired with our list ofparks with bril­liant viewsorbreath-tak­ing nat­ur­al won­ders.

Main image: From the movie Storm Boy (2019)


This con­tent was pro­duced in part­ner­ship with  Good Living