Swan Reach is a river port in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

127 km north-east of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

on the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest ...

between

Blanchetown Blanchetown is a small township in South Australia, on the (west) bank of the Murray River, northeast of Adelaide. The Blanchetown Bridge is the westernmost (and farthest downstream) of the four crossings of the Sturt Highway over the Murray R ...

and

Mannum Mannum is a historic town on the west bank of the Murray River in South Australia, east of Adelaide. At the 2016 census, the urban area of Mannum had a population of 2,398. Mannum is the seat of the Mid Murray Council, and is situated in the ...

. It is on the

left bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terra ...

of the river. The Swan Reach Ferry is a

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the terms chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

crossing operated by the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

as part of the state's road network. Swan Reach, with all parts below Lock #1, is also one of the lowest parts of the river. It is currently (2009–2010) about 1.5 metres below its normal level. At the , Swan Reach had a population of 283.

History

Swan Reach was first settled in the 1850s and was originally the largest of five sheep and cattle stations in the area. It soon became one of the first riverboat ports in South Australia and was a loading port for grain and wool. Swan Reach Mission was established by the

United Aborigines Mission The United Aborigines Mission (UAM) (also known as UAM Ministries, United Aborigines' Mission (Australia), and United Aborigines' Mission of Australia) was one of the largest missions in Australia, having dozens of missionaries and stations, and ...

(UAM) in 1926 to provide a Christian education to Aboriginal children. It was closed in 1946 due to frequent flooding of the area, and the UAM opened the Gerard Mission near Loxton. Some residents were transferred to the new

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

, but some, including the parents of singer-songwriter Ruby Hunter, moved elsewhere for work. Children of the mission became part of the

Stolen Generation The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church mis ...

, later provided with some compensation through the National Redress Scheme.

Around the town

Swan Reach has an area school, hotel and bottle shop, general store and post office, an op shop that opens Mondays to Fridays and Saturday mornings, and a fast food take-away shop near the ferry. The tourist boat ''Proud Mary'' and paddle-wheeler PS ''Murray Princess'' stop at the town once a week. There is a Lutheran church, with regular services, and a Lutheran pastor in residence. Anglican and Roman Catholic services are held monthly. Tourism, agriculture and irrigated horticulture are the main industries, and there is a large almond processing plant 1.5 km from town on the

Stott Highway The Stott Highway is the road from Angaston through Sedan and Swan Reach to Loxton in South Australia. It was named after Tom Stott Tom Cleave Stott CBE (6 June 1899 – 21 October 1976) spent 37 years as an independent member of the Sout ...

River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve

The Swan Reach Conservation Park lies in a area which was named the nation's first, and the world's 15th International Dark sky reserve in October 2019, by the

International Dark-Sky Association The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) is a United States-based non-profit organization incorporated in 1988 by founders David Crawford, a professional astronomer, and Tim Hunter, a physician/amateur astronomer. The mission of the IDA is " ...

. The "dark sky" title refers to areas where the night sky has a high darkness rating and there are policy controls to ensure

light pollution Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive use of artificial lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting, during the day or night. Light po ...

is kept to a minimum, with reserve status only given when both public and private residential land is included. A multi-million-dollar joint project between

Silentium Defence Silentium is a Finnish gothic metal band. The band was formed in 1995 and it originates from Jämsänkoski, Finland. Keyboardist Sami Boman and original vocalist Matti Aikio created Silentium by adding violin player Jani Laaksonen, guitar pla ...

and the

Western Sydney University Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network ...

to build a space domain awareness

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. ...

to monitor

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

s and other objects orbiting the earth was announced in June 2020. The

Murray Mallee The Murray Mallee is the grain-growing and sheep-farming area of South Australia bounded to the north and west by the Murray River (in South Australia, "River Murray"), to the east by the Victorian border, and extending about 50 km sout ...

location and terrain of the land was considered ideal for the purpose.The Oculus

passive radar Passive radar systems (also referred to as passive coherent location, passive surveillance systems, and passive covert radar) encompass a class of radar systems that detect and track objects by processing reflections from non-cooperative sources of ...

observatory opened in December 2021. The reserve's official name is the

River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve Swan Reach is a river port in South Australia 127 km north-east of Adelaide on the Murray River between Blanchetown and Mannum in South Australia. It is on the left bank of the river. The Swan Reach Ferry is a cable ferry crossing operat ...

Notes and references

External links

Township of Swan Reach South Australia - swanreach.sa.au

Swan Reach Area School

{{authority control Towns in South Australia Tourist attractions in South Australia Populated places on the Murray River

History

Around the town

River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve

See also

Notes and references

External links