Paddling in Gunbower National Park

Gunbower National Park sits on Gunbower Island in northern Victoria, a large river island formed by the Murray River on one side and Gunbower Creek on the other.

The water here is flatwater — slow-moving channels, seasonal wetlands, and the broad Murray itself — and the paddling is about immersion in a floodplain ecosystem rather than any kind of technical challenge.

Gunbower Creek and the Murray River are the two waters that define the island and anchor any multi-day paddling through the park.

The Murray forms the island's northern boundary; basic bush camping is available alongside both the Murray and Gunbower Creek, making overnight river trips genuinely viable.

A fishing licence is required on the Murray River — check current requirements before you launch. The most developed paddling route in the area is the Gunbower Island Canoe Trail at Safes Lagoon, near Koondrook.

It runs approximately 5 km as a return trip and takes around two hours to complete.

The trail is considered suitable to paddle at any time of year, which matters in a region where seasonal flooding can dramatically change what's accessible elsewhere on the island.

This is quiet, close-reading water — the kind where you're watching the surface as much as the banks.

The broader Murray River Adventure Trail, a proposed network of canoe and kayak launches connecting Barmah National Park through to this reach, points toward how Parks Victoria is thinking about the corridor.

Launches and pedestrian links are part of that plan, though paddlers should check current infrastructure at the park before relying on specific put-ins. What changes inside the national park boundary is the expectation you bring to the water.

This is protected floodplain country, and the paddling reflects that — unhurried, low-impact, and worth treating that way.