Encounter Marine Park

Open 24 hours a day, sev­en days a week.

Vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion and park management: 

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Vic­tor Har­bour Office
Phone: (+61) 7133 7300
Email: DEW.​FleurieuOnlineBookings@​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 – Emer­gency After Hours Duty Offi­cer (voice mes­sages only, text mes­sages are unavail­able to be received)
Phone: 0427 556 676 

Injured wildlife:

With­in the park
Please con­tact Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Vic­tor Har­bour Officeon (+61) 7133 7300 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on 0427 556 676 (out­side of busi­ness hours)

Out­side of the park
Please con­tact a local wildlife res­cue group

Marine mam­mals
If you find a sick or strand­ed marine mam­mal (includ­ing whales, seals, sea lions and dol­phins), please con­tact Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Vic­tor Har­bour Office on (+61) 7133 7300 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on 0427 556 676 (out­side of busi­ness hours)

Gen­er­al­ly great Bureau of mete­o­rol­o­gy Marine page fore­casts

Encounter Marine Park stretch­es for many kilo­me­ters of coast and has mul­ti­ple access points, try these pop­u­lar locations: 

• Port Noar­lun­ga
• Aldin­ga
• Rapid Bay
• Cape Jervis
• Vic­tor Harbor
• Port Elliot
• Bashams Beach
• Antecham­ber Bay (Kan­ga­roo Island)
• Pen­neshaw (Kan­ga­roo Island)
• Amer­i­can Riv­er (Kan­ga­roo Island)
• Kingscote (Kan­ga­roo Island)

You can also vis­it the marine park via Deep Creek Nation­al Park, New­land Head Con­ser­va­tion Park and Coorong Nation­al Park.

Div­ing sur­veys in the Encounter Marine Park have record­ed hun­dreds of species of fish, inver­te­brate ani­mals and plants and shore­birds. Check out some of these species in theUnder­wa­ter Guide to plants and ani­mals in South Australia. 

If you want more tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion please refer to our base­line reports on Envi­ro Data SA.

There are 13 sanc­tu­ary zones in Encounter Marine Park, each one unique and designed to pro­tect impor­tant habi­tats, marine species, breed­ing grounds or impor­tant refuge areas. These are impor­tant con­ser­va­tion areas where fish­ing and all oth­er extrac­tive activ­i­ties are not allowed.

• Encounter Marine Park map 
• Fish­ing restric­tions in sanc­tu­ary zones
• Sanc­tu­ary zone maps

Port Noar­lun­ga Reef Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This rich reef, pro­tect­ed since 1971, is one of South Australia’s most pop­u­lar scu­ba div­ing and snorkelling loca­tions. A sig­nif­i­cant bar­ri­er reef sys­tem made of lime­stone, it has abun­dant inver­te­brate ani­mal and fish life includ­ing large schools of reef fish, spot­ted wobbe­gongs, blue dev­il fish and dol­phins. Leafy sea drag­ons have also been record­ed here. It also boasts an under­wa­ter div­ing trail! The jet­ty is also pop­u­lar for fish­ing (the end of the jet­ty is with­in the sanc­tu­ary zone and fish­ing is not allowed).

• An Under­wa­ter Guide to plants and ani­mals in South Australia

Onka­paringa Wet­land Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This zone includes part of an impor­tant sam­phire wet­land estu­ary that helps pro­tect fish nurs­eries and bird feed­ing and rest­ing habi­tats. Activ­i­ties include walk­ing, kayak­ing and bird watching.

Aldin­ga Reef Sanc­tu­ary Zone

A huge inter­tidal reef plat­form, exposed at low tide, pro­vides an impor­tant feed­ing area for shore­birds and reveals beau­ti­ful rock-pools, pro­vid­ing for marine edu­ca­tion. Pro­tect­ed since 1971, Aldin­ga Reef includes one of the best scu­ba div­ing sites near Ade­laide – the spec­tac­u­lar ​‘Drop-Off’ at Snap­per Point. 

Car­rick­alin­ga Cliffs Sanc­tu­ary Zone

Spec­tac­u­lar cliffs frame this sanc­tu­ary zone which sup­ports some of the high­est diver­si­ty of reef fish species record­ed any­where in South Aus­tralia. Some of the exten­sive sea­grass mead­ows of Yankalil­la Bay are also con­served with­in this sanc­tu­ary zone. Kayak­ing, boat­ing, snorkelling and scu­ba div­ing are pop­u­lar activities.

Rapid Head Sanc­tu­ary Zone

The cliffs of Rapid Head are sim­ply spec­tac­u­lar. White-bel­lied sea eagles and oth­er birds of prey have been sight­ed here. Below the cliffs, the rocky coast­line is home to a small colony of Aus­tralian sea lions and long-nosed fur seals. Under the water the rocky coast forms beau­ti­ful reef habi­tats sup­port­ing res­i­dent reef fish such as blue dev­ils, har­le­quin fish and blue grop­er. Fur­ther to sea the reefs link with sea­grass­es and sandy plains, con­serv­ing a wide vari­ety of habi­tats. Sci­en­tists con­sid­er this area to be of high con­ser­va­tion impor­tance, a crit­i­cal eco­log­i­cal ​‘step­ping stone’ link­ing species of the low­er gulf with those of the open south­ern ocean coast­line. The for­mer war­ship HMAS Hobart was pur­pose­ly scut­tled to pro­vide one of Australia’s best ship­wreck dives and lies with­in the north­ern part of the sanc­tu­ary zone in 30m of water. Near­by, the Rapid Bay Jet­ty is world renowned for div­ing with the icon­ic leafy sea drag­on, South Australia’s marine emblem.

Encounter Bay Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This zone pro­tects part of the nation­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant Encounter Bay whale aggre­ga­tion area at Bashams Beach. South­ern right whales vis­it this coast­line for annu­al mat­ing and birthing activ­i­ties between May and Sep­tem­ber each year, mak­ing it a great loca­tion to view whales from the shore-based view­ing plat­form. Off­shore, the sanc­tu­ary zone con­serves large areas of deep water reef habitats.

• Enjoy whale watching

Coorong Beach North Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This zone con­serves marine habi­tat of the north­ern Coorong marine ecosys­tems and is cul­tur­al­ly valu­able to the Ngar­rind­jeri people.

Bay of Shoals Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This zone con­serves a region­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant shel­tered embay­ment on Kan­ga­roo Island, har­bour­ing exten­sive sea­grass mead­ows that sup­port the lar­val, juve­nile and adult stages of a num­ber of com­mer­cial­ly and recre­ation­al­ly impor­tant fish species, such as King George whit­ing. The inter­tidal flats are an impor­tant feed­ing ground for migra­to­ry shore­birds. The bay also pro­vides feed­ing and breed­ing habi­tat for a res­i­dent pair of endan­gered osprey.

Pel­i­can Lagoon Sanc­tu­ary Zone

Pel­i­can Lagoon on Kan­ga­roo Island is a region­al­ly unique coastal marine lagoon and is con­sid­ered a hotspot for marine bio­di­ver­si­ty because of its diverse and pro­duc­tive range of habi­tats. There are sponge gar­dens, sandy tidal chan­nels and sea­grass mead­ows that pro­vide nurs­ery areas for fish species, such as King George whit­ing, south­ern garfish and West­ern Aus­tralian salmon. Pro­tect­ed since 1914, Pel­i­can Lagoon is thought to be the old­est marine pro­tect­ed area in South Aus­tralia, and is a pop­u­lar area for bird watch­ing and kayaking.

Sponge Gar­dens Sanc­tu­ary Zone

This zone is locat­ed off the north-east­ern coast of Kan­ga­roo Island, in an area where the cliffs (over 50 m high) drop steeply into deep water. Along the base of the cliffs are fring­ing reefs which are home to a huge diver­si­ty of fish and inver­te­brates. In some areas, the reef extends fur­ther off­shore and forms the only known shal­low water exam­ple of a deep water marine inver­te­brate com­mu­ni­ty in South Aus­tralia. Beyond that is a sec­tion of one of the two known deep water trench­es in South Aus­tralia. Strong tidal cur­rents flow­ing through Back­stairs Pas­sage have scoured out this trench, and in this deep water huge sea sponges grow (up to 1 m in diam­e­ter). This area is regard­ed as a place of nation­al (and poten­tial­ly glob­al) importance.

The Pages Sanc­tu­ary Zone

The North and South Pages Islands are the only off­shore islands with­in the Encounter Marine Park and are an impor­tant exam­ple of an off­shore, exposed, rocky reef ecosys­tem. The islands are home to the largest breed­ing colony of the threat­ened Aus­tralian sea lion in the world, sup­port­ing approx­i­mate­ly one quar­ter of the world pop­u­la­tion. This sanc­tu­ary zone pro­tects the area around the North Pages Island, while the islands them­selves are pro­tect­ed by The Pages Con­ser­va­tion Park.

Port Stan­vac Sanc­tu­ary Zone

Locat­ed to include the remains of the dis­used Mobil facil­i­ty and Port Stan­vac jet­ty, this area has been pro­tect­ed for over 50 years. Declared a sanc­tu­ary zone on the 1^st of Jan­u­ary 2021, this zone boasts some of the high­est bio­di­ver­si­ty on the Fleurieu Penin­su­la. This sanc­tu­ary pro­tects rel­a­tive­ly untouched inter­tidal reef as well as spec­tac­u­lar­ly com­plex sub­ti­dal habi­tats made of nat­ur­al and arti­fi­cial struc­tures. The sub­ti­dal struc­tures house a colour­ful array of sponges and is home to numer­ous reef species such as mag­pie perch, leather­jack­ets and moon­lighters. Large schools of tran­sient fish species such as Aus­tralian salmon also vis­it the area. The break­wall is also a haulout spot for long nose fur seals mak­ing it a unique wildlife haven along the south­ern met­ro­pol­i­tan coastline.

More infor­ma­tion

• Enjoy activ­i­ties in marine parks
• Where are the zones?
• Man­age­ment plan summary
  

Sand­cruis­er — wheel­chair hire 

Offer­ing every­body the oppor­tu­ni­ty to enjoy the plea­sures of pic­turesque Nor­manville beach, there are two beach wheel­chairs avail­able for short term loan. The Sand­cruis­er and Sand­piper wheel­chairs have large bal­loon-like tyres which make for easy access on soft sand and in shal­low water.

Avail­able in adult and child size, the beach wheel­chairs are avail­able free of charge through Nor­manville Surf Life Sav­ing Club. While there is no hire cost, Nor­manville Surf Life Sav­ing Club does incur costs asso­ci­at­ed with man­ag­ing hir­ing arrange­ments. As a reg­is­tered char­i­ty, hir­ers may choose to make a sug­gest­ed dona­tion of $20 to the organ­i­sa­tion to assist Nor­manville SLSC to con­tin­ue to pro­vide this valu­able service.

To book the beach wheel­chair, please email info@​normanvilleslsc.​org.​au

Whale watch­ing

• Whale watch­ing for peo­ple with mobil­i­ty impair­ments around Vic­tor Harbor

Dogs are wel­come in marine parks but please check with the rel­e­vant local coun­cil as by-laws may vary.

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.

Along the shore­line bound­ary of the marine park there are numer­ous, coun­cil and pri­vate­ly owned, facil­i­ties that might be use­ful to marine users espe­cial­ly jet­ties, boat ramps and carparks. 

Jet­ties

• Port Noar­lun­ga
• Nor­manville
• Sec­ond Valley
• Rapid Bay
• Cape Jervis
• The Bluff
• Gran­ite Island (Encounter Bay)
• Kingscote (Kan­ga­roo Island)
• Amer­i­can Riv­er (Kan­ga­roo Island)
• Pen­neshaw (Kan­ga­roo Island)

Dri­ve on beaches

• Moana
• Aldin­ga
• Sel­l­icks
• Gool­wa

Boat ramps

• Map of boat ramp loca­tions in South Australia

• Encounter Marine Park map 
• 5‑Year Sta­tus Report 2012 – 2017 Sum­ma­ry
• Encounter man­age­ment plan sum­ma­ry
• Encounter Marine Park man­age­ment plan
• A Beach Explor­ers Guide to plants and ani­mals in South Australia
• An Under­wa­ter Guide to plants and ani­mals in South Australia
• Nature play — 40 things to do in encounter marine park
• PIR­SA Recre­ation­al fish­ing app

There a num­ber of marine resources devel­oped for teach­ers and stu­dents rang­ing in top­ics from marine parks, Aus­tralian sea lions, sharks and rays and how to teach ocean lit­er­a­cy. Please vis­it Learn­ing in Nature Resources.

Oth­er resources:

• Green Ade­laide teach­ing resources 
• The Rock Pool marine infor­ma­tion hub 
• Expe­ri­enc­ing Marine Sanc­tu­ar­ies schools program 
• The Whale Cen­treEdu­ca­tion Programs 
• Ocean Lit­er­a­cy Australasia 
• A Beach Explor­ers Guide to plants and ani­mals in South Australia
• An Under­wa­ter Guide to plants and ani­mals in South Australia

Activ­i­ty ideas for chil­dren and fam­i­lies please vis­it fam­i­ly adven­tures and tips.

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