Coorong National Park


The Coorong National Park is a protected area located in South Australia about southeast of Adelaide and that predominantly covers a lagoon ecosystem officially known as the Coorong and the Younghusband Peninsula on the Coorong's southern side.

Etymology

Its name is thought to be a corruption of the local Aboriginal people's word kurangh, which means "long neck"; a reference to the shape of the lagoon system. The name is also thought to be from the Aboriginal word Coorang, "sand dune", a reference to the sand dunes that form the Younghusband Peninsula.

Description

The western end of the Coorong lagoon is at the Murray Mouth near Hindmarsh Island and the Sir Richard Peninsula, and it extends about southeast. The national park area includes the Coorong itself, and Younghusband Peninsula which separates the Coorong from Encounter Bay in the Southern Ocean. The Coorong has been cut off from Lake Alexandrina by the construction of the Goolwa Barrages from Goolwa to Pelican Point during the late 1930s.
The national park was formed in 1967 as a sanctuary for many species of birds, animals and fish. It attracts many migratory species. It provides refuge for these animals during some of Australia's regular droughts. The also supports coastal dune systems, lagoons and coastal vegetation.
One of the unique aspects of the Coorong is the interaction of water along its length, with sea water and Murray River water meeting rainfall and groundwater. The freshwater supports the fauna of the area while the sea water is the habitat for much of the birdlife.
The waters of the Coorong are a popular venue for recreational and commercial fishers. The popular 'Coorong Mullet' and 'school mulloway' are the main species. The region was the setting of the popular 1977 film Storm Boy.

History

The Coorong National Park was proclaimed on 9 November 1967 under the National Parks Act 1966 in respect to land in sections 17 and 60 in the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Glyde and section 6 in the Hundred of Santo.
At the commencement of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 on 27 April 1972, the national park consisted of land in sections 17, 59 and 60 in the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Glyde and sections 6, 43 and 52 in the Hundred of Santo.
The Coorong Game Reserve which was purchased by the Government of South Australia in 1968 was abolished on 14 January 1993 and its lands was added to the national park. The game reserve occupied part of the Coorong lagoon to the immediate west of Salt Creek and had an area of as of May 1982.

Ecology

The wetlands within the part of the national park containing the Coorong Lagoon form a complex of freshwater, estuarine, and hypersaline waterbodies with a unique diversity of habitats for plants and animals. The coastal lagoons are considered critically endangered due to the loss of freshwater flows, local extinction of characteristic submerged plants and subsequent loss of habitat diversity.

Birds

The Coorong National Park has been recognised by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area. It has supported the chestnut teal, Australian shelduck, sharp-tailed sandpiper, red-necked stint, banded stilt, red-necked avocet, pied oystercatcher and red-capped plover. Australasian bitterns have been recorded. It has also supported significant numbers of orange-bellied parrots, fairy terns and hooded plovers, although their usage of the site has declined from reduced freshwater inflows.

Notable events

In February 2013, a lifeboat from MS Oliva, that foundered in the South Atlantic during 2011, washed up on a beach in the national park.
The 2019 movie Storm Boy, starring Michael Kingley is set in the Coorong National Park and portrays the bond of a young boy who rescues and raises an extraordinary orphaned pelican, named Mr Percival.

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