Chowilla Game Reserve

Open 24 hours a day, sev­en days a week.

This park is closed on days of Cat­a­stroph­ic Fire Dan­ger and may be closed on days of Extreme Fire Dan­ger. The park may also be closed dur­ing high rain­fall events when roads and camp­sites become slip­pery and bog­gy, as well as times when there are high water lev­els in the wet­lands. Please con­tact us if you are unsure.

Lis­ten to the local area radio sta­tion for the lat­est dai­ly weath­er updates and infor­ma­tion on fire safety.

• CFS web­site
• CFS Hot­line: 1300 362 361

Vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion, book­ings and park management:

Nation­al Parks Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia River­land and Mur­ray­lands Region­al Office
28 Vaugh­an Tce, Berri

Phone: (+61 8) 8595 2111
Email: rm.​npws@​sa.​gov.​au

Book­ing enquiries please email
DEW.​RMOnlineBookings@​sa.​gov.​au

Emer­gency contacts:

Med­ical, fire (includ­ing bush­fire) and police emer­gency situations

Phone: Triple Zero (000)

Police Assis­tance

Phone: 131 444 for non-urgent police assistance

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice SA – After-hours duty offi­cer
Phone: 0417 192 335

Injured Wildlife:

With­in the park

Please con­tact the River­land and Mur­ray­lands Region­al Office on (08) 8595 2111 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on 0417 192 335 (out­side of busi­ness hours).

Out­side of the park

Please con­tact a local wildlife res­cue group

Chow­illa campsites

Chow­illa Game Reserve is locat­ed 305km north­east of Ade­laide. Access is via Old Went­worth Road north of Ren­mark ﴾48km﴿. Please take care dri­ving on the Old Went­worth road as there are many kan­ga­roos and the road sur­face may have loose grav­el or pot holes.

Bor­der Cliff campground

The Bor­der Cliffs Camp­ground is locat­ed 294km north­east of Ade­laide via Murtho Road, or 30.5km north­east of Paringa.

• Park map

Your dog is allowed in Chow­illa Game Reserve (with­in the area south of the Wentworth/​Renmark Road to the Riv­er) and includ­ing the Bor­der Cliffs camp­ground, pro­vid­ing it is on a lead not exceed­ing three metres in length, or con­fined in a motor vehi­cle, trail­er or ves­sel (refer to map).

Please ensure you:

• Keep your dog under con­trol and on a lead no more than two metres in length.
• Stick to des­ig­nat­ed walk­ing trails.
• Bring dis­pos­able bags to clean up your dog’s fae­ces (please be aware there are no bins in nation­al parks).

Dogs are not per­mit­ted in oth­er areas of the park.

Dis­cov­er oth­er parks you can walk your dog in on our find a park tool or read 12 dog-friend­ly walks in Ade­laide Parks by Good Liv­ing for inspiration.

Assis­tance dogs are per­mit­ted in most pub­lic places and are there­fore wel­come in South Australia’s parks and reserves. Assis­tance dogs must be appro­pri­ate­ly restrained on a lead and remain under your effec­tive con­trol at all times while in a park or reserve.

As per the dogs in parks and reserves pol­i­cy, if the dog is not an accred­it­ed assis­tance dog, they must be trained to assist a per­son with a dis­abil­i­ty to alle­vi­ate that dis­abil­i­ty and meet stan­dards of hygiene and behav­iour appro­pri­ate for a dog in a pub­lic place. How­ev­er, refusal may be giv­en if the per­son with the dis­abil­i­ty is unable to pro­duce evi­dence the dog is an assis­tance dog with the appro­pri­ate training.

Before tak­ing your assis­tance dog into a park that does not nor­mal­ly allow dogs, it is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed that you con­tact us so we can pro­vide you with the lat­est infor­ma­tion on any poten­tial haz­ards with­in spe­cif­ic parks that may affect your dog. Please con­tact the park via the con­tact details pro­vid­ed under the con­tact tab or con­tact the vis­i­tor ser­vice cen­tre via email or on Face­book.

There are pic­nic areas, car­a­van and camp sites avail­able in this park. Toi­lets are locat­ed near Lit­tle Gums camp­site, and at the Bor­der Cliffs campground.

• The Liv­ing Mur­ray Chow­illa Flood­plain Icon Site
• Camp­ing safety
• Parks man­age­ment plans
• Trails SA
• SA Marine Parks
• Impor­tant: Col­lec­tion of fire­wood with­in Nation­al Parks is pro­hib­it­ed. Dead wood plays a vital role in pro­vid­ing shel­ter for many ani­mals and is essen­tial for adding nutri­ents to the soil for oth­er native plants when rot­ting down
• Mobile phone cov­er­age can be patchy and unre­li­able in this park, espe­cial­ly if you are in low‐​lying areas

Chow­illa Game Reserve con­tains flood plain and wet­land envi­ron­ments, and is one of the last areas of the low­er Mur­ray that has kept much of its nat­ur­al char­ac­ter. It con­tains the largest remain­ing nat­ur­al riv­er red gum for­est in the low­er Murray.

With age, riv­er red gums (Euca­lyp­tus camal­d­u­len­sis) form hol­lows or holes in their trunks or branch­es. These hol­lows pro­vide shel­ter and nest­ing sites for a great vari­ety of ani­mals includ­ing par­rots, bats, pos­sums, snakes and insects. The nation­al­ly vul­ner­a­ble regent par­rot (Poly­telis anthope­plus) will only breed in hol­lows in riv­er red gums along the Mur­ray Riv­er, so these trees are high­ly sig­nif­i­cant for the regent parrot’s survival.

Flo­ra and fau­na species lists

To down­load flo­ra (plants) and fau­na (ani­mals) species lists for this park, use the ​‘Cre­ate Sim­ple Species List’ tab under ​‘Flo­ra Tools’ or ​‘Fau­na Tools’ in NatureMaps.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples have occu­pied, enjoyed and man­aged the lands and waters of this State for thou­sands of gen­er­a­tions. For Abo­rig­i­nal first nations, cre­ation ances­tors laid down the laws of the Coun­try and bestowed a range of cus­tom­ary rights and oblig­a­tions to the many Abo­rig­i­nal Nations across our state. 

There are many places across the State that have great spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cance to Abo­rig­i­nal first nations. At some of these places Abo­rig­i­nal cul­tur­al pro­to­cols, such as restrict­ed access, are pro­mot­ed and vis­i­tors are asked to respect the wish­es of Tra­di­tion­al Owners.

In places where pro­to­cols are not pro­mot­ed vis­i­tors are asked to show respect by not touch­ing or remov­ing any­thing, and make sure you take all your rub­bish with you when you leave.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples con­tin­ue to play an active role in car­ing for their Coun­try, includ­ing in parks across South Australia. 

• DEW Park management
• DEW Abo­rig­i­nal partnerships

Cli­mat­i­cal­ly and sceni­cal­ly, autumn and spring are the best times to vis­it River­land parks. How­ev­er, the cli­mate of the River­land makes it suit­able for vis­it­ing parks most of the year. The sum­mer months of Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary can be hot.

Roads along the flood plain are gen­er­al­ly unsuit­able for dri­ving on imme­di­ate­ly after heavy rains. This, and oth­er haz­ards such as bush fire, can force the tem­po­rary clo­sure of some sec­tions of the park. Keep your eye on this web­site for up to date information.