Eat, drink and enjoy the view at the Goolwa Wharf Precinct
Where the mighty River Murray ends its journey into the sea, a final bend lent itself to the creation of a town. It’s named after the unique course of the river: ‘Goolwa’, in the local Ngarrindjeri language means ‘Elbow.’ This town became Australia’s first inland port, and for half a century flourished as a principal player in the nation’s river trade.
Goolwa today is a very different domain, primarily reliant upon tourism. The town has survived numerous assaults on its industry, infrastructure and lifeblood - most recently, the coupled misfortune of the nation’s worst drought coinciding with the global financial crisis. The great river was reduced to a stream, the town lost half
