Paddling in Murray River National Park

Murray River National Park sits in South Australia's Riverland, roughly between Berri and Loxton, protecting a broad sweep of floodplain and wetland country along the lower Murray.

The paddling here is flatwater — no rapids, no technical whitewater — but the network of creeks, lagoons, and backwaters threading through the park's roughly 14,879 hectares makes for genuinely exploratory paddling that the main river channel alone can't provide.

Katarapko Creek is the heart of it.

Mostly contained within the park, the Katarapko area covers around 9,000 hectares of floodplains and wetlands with approximately 38 kilometres of waterways, including The Splash, Sawmill and Piggy creeks, Horseshoe Lagoon, Katarapko Island swamps, and the Eckert Creek and Ngak Indau wetlands.

Motor boats are rare on Katarapko Creek, which changes the feel of a paddle considerably — quieter water, more wildlife, more room to move slowly.

When flows are higher, the floodplain itself opens up and paddlers can push out across inundated country well beyond the defined creek channels. Eckert Creek and its southern arm extend the wetland paddling further into the park's interior.

Horseshoe Lagoon and the Ral Ral Wide Waters offer calmer, more open water. Gurra Gurra Creek and Yabbi Creek round out the network of smaller channels worth exploring when water levels allow. Water levels govern everything here.

The Murray and its connected wetlands respond to upstream flows and managed environmental watering events — the park actively uses flooding to restore floodplain ecology, and sections of road and campsite access close when that watering is underway.

Check current conditions with the park before you go; closures can affect launch points as much as campsites. BYO boat is the standard — there are no hire operations inside the park itself.

This is a place where the paddling and the conservation work are genuinely intertwined. Environmental watering pulses life back into the creeks and lagoons, and the best paddling often follows those flows.

Timing a visit to coincide with higher water isn't just about access — it's when the park is most itself.