The Coorong stretches 130 kilometres along South Australia's southern coast, a narrow lagoon system separated from the Southern Ocean by the Younghusband Peninsula's dune fields. For more than 30,000 years, the Ngarrindjeri people have harvested cockles from these shallows, woven rush baskets on its banks, and navigated its channels in bark canoes. The waterway's ecological significance earned it Ramsar Convention protection in 1985, recognizing wetlands that support 240 bird species, including the migratory sharp-tailed sandpiper and the endangered orange-bellied parrot. Goolwa Wharf, where coorong cruises from goolwa depart, sits at the terminus of the Murray River—Australia's longest river system, draining one-seventh of the continent before meeting the ocean at Murray Mouth. The barrage system, completed in 1940 across five channels, regulates freshwater flow and prevents seawater intrusion into Lake Alexandrina. This engineered threshold creates a stark transition: freshwater reeds give way to salt-tolerant samphire within metres. The Murray Mouth itself shifts constantly, requiring dredging operations since 2002 to maintain the channel's 500-metre width and prevent the estuary from closing entirely during drought. The landscape that unfolds on Coorong boat tours is deceptively flat—vast salt pans, brackish lagoons, and shallow waterways rarely exceeding two metres in depth. Pelicans gather in rafts of several hundred, their wingspan reaching 2.5 metres. Black swans, the Ngarrindjeri totem, nest in reed beds during winter months. The Younghusong Peninsula's seaward dunes rise to 30 metres, sculpted by prevailing westerlies and anchored by coastal wattle and spinifex. Storm Boy author Colin Thiele immortalized this shoreline in 1964, describing a boy and his pelican against the Coorong's isolating beauty. Modern cruises navigate channels once travelled by paddle steamers carrying wool bales to Goolwa's port. The PS Oscar W, built in 1908, ran aground near Parnka Point in 1968 and remains visible at low tide, its ribs protruding from the sand as a navigation marker. Operators hold permits to traverse Ngarrindjeri Country, with cultural commentary provided by guides trained in the wetland's layered history. Departure frequency peaks during spring and autumn, when water levels stabilize and migratory species return from Arctic breeding grounds.