Meningie, South Australia

A fishing and holiday town on the shores of Lake Albert. Modern agricultural methods have ensured the previously unusable soils of the area now support irrigated crops and dairy farms.
Location: 152 km south-east of Adelaide
Origin of name: of Aboriginal origin, said to mean 'mud'.
Brief history: the Ngarrindjeri people were the original occupiers of the land surrounding The Coorong. Violent clashes with white settlers and outbreaks of smallpox saw their numbers fall from 3,200 in 1842 to 511 by 1874. Sheep and cattle overlanders had moved in by the 1840s, a decade in which a coaching route between Adelaide and Melbourne via the area was established.
Natural features: Murray River mouth; Lake Albert; The Coorong; Younghusband Peninsula; Pink Salt Lake; Mundoo, Long, Ewe, Reedy, Mud and Snake Islands; Narruing Narrows; Salt Lagoon Islands Conservation Park (25 km south-east of Goolwa); Yalkuri Sanctuary.
Built features: Trig Hill Lookout; Narrung ferry
Heritage features: Poltalloch Homestead, Narrung (1876); Mundoo Lighthouse, Point Malcolm (the smallest inland lighthouse in Australia, 1878)