Experience the Call of the Wild in South Australia

If you and your family enjoy wildlife and nature, and want to experience the real thing - whether it's hearing an exotic bird singing, discovering wild flora or marvelling at bats in flight - you can experience all these and much more in South Australia. The State offers several different natural areas inhabited by a wide variety of wild birds and animals.

Cleland Wildlife Park

This is as good as it gets when you have a chance to cuddle a koala at the Cleland Wildlife Park. Nestled in a natural bush land setting is an opportunity to wander freely amongst kangaroos, wallabies, emus and water birds, dingos, Tasmanian devils, wombats and koalas. Discover the mystery of the nocturnal world on guided night walks in their natural habitat.

Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary

Being just 25 minutes from Adelaide, the multi-award-winning Warrawong Sanctuary located in Adelaide Hills allows you to see Australian native fauna roaming free in their natural habitat. Warrawong is a safe haven for rare and endangered species. The animals hardly know you’re there in their natural habitat, especially on the nocturnal tours.

Flinders Chase National Park

The park is located at the western end of Kangaroo Island and features some of the stunning coastal landscapes, vast areas of wilderness and diversity of wildlife. Besotting to the eyes are Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch - two amazing forces of nature. The impressive Remarkable Rocks form what appear to be a cluster of precariously balanced boulders. You can see seals frolicking in the waters or resting on the rocks.

Seal Bay

On Kangaroo Island you can visit Seal Bay, where a guided tour will take you onto a beach full of sun-baking sea-lions. Because of its isolation from native and introduced predators, the island is teeming with wildlife, and many species extinct on the mainland continue to thrive. Flinders Chase National Park is home to a variety of native wildlife and, if you're lucky, you might spot a platypus at Rocky River. The island also has a population of about 6,000 New Zealand Fur Seals, best seen at Cape du Couedic.

Penguin Parade

The ever-popular Penguin Walks continue to be a favourite with visitors to Granite Island, accessible from Victor Harbor on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The tours commence at dusk nightly, and begin with a viewing of the Penguin Centre. Participants then form small groups and accompany by a professionally trained guide to view the penguins as they come ashore after a day of fishing. The penguin’s make their way to their burrows where they can be seen displaying various behaviours, depending on the time of year. These behaviours may include feeding chicks, nest building, courting and mating. You can also visit Penneshaw and Kingscote on Kangaroo Island where you'll see hundreds of little penguins making their way home after a hard day's fishing as night falls.

Whale Watching

Each year, from June to October, southern right whales migrate to South Australian waters to give birth and care for their young. They can be seen off the coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula blowing into Encounter Bay or at the Head of Bight. In recent years up to 100 whales have been seen in the Great Australian Bight Marine Park during the winter months, and the new viewing platform overlooking the breeding grounds makes whale watching a breeze.

Banrock Station Wine and Wetland Centre

An interesting place where you can taste a range of wines while helping to save the earth. Where the proceeds of every Banrock Station bottle and cask sold is donated to land care projects around the country. At the Wine and Wetland Centre, you can learn more about conservation programs and see the Banrock Station wetlands that are being rejuvenated and are once more attracting bird life back to the area. Take in the stunning views from the centre’s observation deck of vineyards, wetlands and river.

Naracoorte Caves

One of only 14 sites in Australia to receive a World Heritage listing, the conservation park consists of 26 caves - many open for self-guided and guided walks. Located in the Limestone Coast town of Naracoorte, spare at least a few hours to experience all the park has to offer - from the Wonambi Fossil Centre and its great exhibition of huge extinct animals to the Bat Cave and its 300,000 winged creatures. The park's major caves are Alexandra Cave and Blanche Cave, featuring stalactites and stalagmites, with some still growing, the Wet Cave and the Victoria Fossil Cave; the centre of research activity for the area.

Murraylands

You can find exotic wildlife in 1,000 hectare open range sanctuary of Monarto Zoological Park or get off the beaten track for bushwalking, bird watching and four-wheel-driving through Mallee conservation parks. Lose yourself and find rare birds, flora and fauna on a bushwalking journey through the Ngarkat Group of Conservation Parks. These four adjoining parks, deep in South Australia's Mallee, cover a combined area of 270,000 hectares and are home to a spectacular array of animals including echidnas, pygmy-possums and the endangered Mallee fowl. Walking trails will also lead you to ruins and ancient Aboriginal sites. There are night-eco tours where you can climb aboard a wagon to see kangaroos, hairy-nosed wombats and other native animals as they go about their nightly business.

Coorong National Park

The Coorong National Park lies adjacent to the mouth of the River Murray and consists of a string of long, shallow, saline lagoons more than 100 kilometres in length, separated from the Southern Ocean by the sand dunes of the Younghusband Peninsula. The Coorong is renowned as an area of national and international biological and historical significance. It is a habitat for numerous species of migratory birds and provides refuge for ducks, swans, cormorants, seagulls, terns, grebes and pelicans. The park is also an archaeological site of national importance with middens and burial sites, evidence of Aboriginal occupation over many thousands of years.

Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary

Winner of South Australia's Major Tourist Attraction and best Ecotourism Product Awards in 2005, Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is a travel destination you just can't miss. Be blown by some of Australia's most spectacular and arid mountain landscapes in the area as Arkaroola sits at the heart of South Australia's rugged Northern Flinders Ranges. From a comfortable base, visitors need only travel short distances to experience the profound silences of outback Australia or observe the beautiful yellow-footed rock wallaby in its natural habitat. Arkaroola's visitors can wander through a landscape of deep time in which human intrusions are minimal, taking short two wheel drive vehicle tracks to secluded waterholes, or more challenging four wheel drive vehicle tracks across rugged mountains to spine-tingling lookouts.

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