Sturt River
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The Sturt River, also known as the Sturt Creek and ''Warri Parri'' (''Warriparri'') in the
Kaurna language Kaurna ( or ) is a Pama-Nyungan language historically spoken by the Kaurna peoples of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. The Kaurna peoples are made up of various tribal clan groups, each with their own ''parnkarra'' district of land and ...
, is a river located in the
Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
region of the Australian state of
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
.


Course and features

The Sturt River rises in Upper Sturt in the
Adelaide Hills The Adelaide Hills region is located in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges east of the city of Adelaide in the state of South Australia. The largest town in the area, Mount Barker, South Australia, Mount Barker, is one of Australia's fastest-growi ...
, it flows through Coromandel Valley, the
Sturt Gorge Recreation Park The Sturt Gorge Recreation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the suburbs of Bellevue Heights, Craigburn Farm and Flagstaff Hill within the Adelaide metropolitan area about south of the Adelaide ce ...
,
Marion Marion or MARION may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Marion (band), a British alternative rock group * ''Marion'' (miniseries), a 1974 miniseries * ''Marion'' (1920 film), an Italian silent film * ''Marion'' (2024 film), a UK short People a ...
and
Morphettville Morphettville is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Marion. The northern part of the suburb is bounded by the Glenelg tram line, and fully occupied by the Morphettville Racecourse (horseracing track). The tram barn storage an ...
, before meeting the
Patawalonga River The Patawalonga River is a river located in the western suburbs of the Adelaide metropolitan area, in the Australian state of South Australia. It drains an area of flat, swampy lands formerly known as the Cowandilla Plains or The Reedbeds (Adela ...
in
Glenelg North Glenelg North is a seaside suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in both the City of Holdfast Bay and the City of West Torrens. Demographics The 2011 Census by the Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 5,699 persons in Glenelg N ...
. Along with
Brown Hill Creek Brown Hill Creek, also known as ''Willawilla'' in the Kaurna language, is a watercourse flowing from the Adelaide Hills through in the inner south suburbs of the Adelaide metropolitan area, in the Australian state of South Australia. It is part ...
, it is one of the Patawalonga's most important tributaries. It is considered a significant urban waterway, and was used by the
indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...
Kaurna The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kau ...
people as a link between the hills and the sea. The Sturt River
catchment area A catchment area in human geography, is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...
extends over , from Heathfield in the
Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and d ...
, to Glenelg North. The river descends over its
course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
.


History

The first inhabitants of the greater Adelaide area, the Kaurna people, referred to Sturt River as ''Warri Parri'', or 'the windy place by the river'. They used it as a movement corridor between the Adelaide Hills and the sea. The river is also significant in Kaurna Dreaming, especially the area known as
Warriparinga Warriparinga, also spelt Warriparingga (meaning ''Windy Place'' in the local Kaurna language), is a nature reserve comprising in the metropolitan suburb of Bedford Park, South Australia, Bedford Park, in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, South ...
, where the river leaves its gorge to cross the Adelaide Plains. Other important Kaurna campsites were located south of the Sturt-Patawalonga
confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...
, and at Chambers Gully in Coromandel Valley. In April 1831, Captain Collet Barker a British Military Officer named the river after fellow officer and the explorer
Charles Sturt Charles Napier Sturt (28 April 1795 – 16 June 1869) was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European land exploration of Australia, European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the ...
. In the early days of British settlement, the new colony appointed Colonel
William Light William Light (27 April 1786 – 6 October 1839) was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He was the first Surveyor General of South Australia, Surveyor-General of the History of South Australia#British preparation for est ...
as Surveyor General; one of his tasks was to find a suitable location for the colony's capital. Light's first rough sketch, made in 1836, placed the city on the Sturt River, where the suburb of Marion is now located. He later changed his plans to locate the city on the
River Torrens The River Torrens (Karrawirra Parri / Karrawirraparri) is the most significant river of the Adelaide Plains. It was one of the main reasons for the siting of the city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It flows from its source in the Ad ...
instead. The river is lined with many buildings of historic and cultural value, especially in the Coromandel Valley and Craigburn Farm areas, which mostly date back to the 1850s. The first bridge to be built over the river is Horner's Bridge, constructed in 1866 in Coromandel Valley. In 1879, flood mitigation works were carried out to prevent damage to properties in Glenelg, and to the
Morphettville Racecourse Morphettville Racecourse is the main horse racing Race track, course for the Australia, Australian state of South Australia, incorporating two separate tracks. Home to the South Australian Jockey Club, it is situated in the Adelaide suburb of ...
. A trapezoidal concrete channel was constructed to line the river from Sturt Road to the Patawalonga Basin in 1965. A flood control
dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...
was also constructed in 1965, in the part of the Sturt Gorge Recreation Park which falls in Flagstaff Hill.


Present day

The river begins in Upper Sturt, continuing through the semi-rural
suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
of Ironbank and Coromandel East. Due to steep terrain and dense vegetation, the river is largely inaccessible in this section. It then flows through the residential suburbs of Coromandel Valley and Craigburn Farm, before reaching the Sturt Gorge Recreation Park, which extends along the suburbs of Craigburn Farm, Flagstaff Hill and Bellevue Heights. It leaves the gorge and continues along the Adelaide Plains at
South Road South Road and its southern section as Main South Road outside of Adelaide is a major north–south conduit connecting Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula, in South Australia. It is one of Adelaide's most important arterial and bypass roads. A ...
, through urban and residential settings. It forms the northern boundary to the
City of Onkaparinga The City of Onkaparinga () is a local government area (LGA) located on the southern fringe of Adelaide, South Australia. It is named after the Onkaparinga River, whose name comes from ''Ngangkiparinga'', a Kaurna word meaning women's river. It ...
with the
City of Mitcham The City of Mitcham is a local government area in the foothills of southern Adelaide, South Australia. Within its bounds is Flinders University, South Australia's third largest, and the notable, affluent suburb of Springfield which contains som ...
. Due to urbanisation and agriculture, the Sturt River has suffered a degradation in
water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...
,
biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...
and visual and recreational value. In 2005, the Patawalonga Catchment Water Management Board, part of the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board, commenced the development of the Sturt River Linear Park Master Plan. This plan involves the establishment of a continuous open public space along the river, between Glenelg North and Coromandel Valley, and improving the environmental condition of the river. The plan also includes the possibility of forming connections between the proposed Linear Park and Belair National Park, via Minno Creek. Waterwatch Adelaide, a
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
organisation which involves
primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
children in the monitoring of water, considers the water quality of the river to be "generally good", with low
salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...
,
turbidity Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of both water clarity and wa ...
,
phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...
and
nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...
levels, and a medium pH.


Shared path

A sealed pedestrian and bicycle path runs along the Sturt River between the Southern Expressway and Glenelg, linking at its Southern end to the Adelaide Southern Veloway which, with the
Coast to Vines rail trail The Coast to Vines rail trail is a rail trail in the Australian state of South Australia following the course of the disused Willunga railway line in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. It is open to pedestrians and cyclists, and runs for 34  ...
, provides an almost non-stop bicycle route between Glenelg and Willunga.


See also

*


References

{{Rivers of South Australia, state=autocollapse Rivers of Adelaide Cycling in South Australia