I drove along the South Australian-Victorian border yesterday to see what the hard border looks like in South East SA (thread)

I begun on the coast near Piccaninnie Ponds, the closest road to the beach. I thought I might be able to walk up on the sand to the border to see where it meets the ocean (pictured: the wrong border watch for my purposes)

Looking south, you can see in the distance the curve of Victoria’s Discovery Bay Coastal Park

Alas, it wasn’t to be, with the Ponds outlet channel proving too big a hurdle to get onto the sand (it’s deeper than it looks!)

I *can* recommend a walk through the Ponds conservation park now though

The most southerly SA border police checkpoint is on the Glenelg River road, a couple of minutes drive from the Victorian town of Nelson

Stand there for a few minutes and you’re bound to see a logging truck rattle past. SE SA and SW Victorian communities are entwined as two parts of the Green Triangle forest region.

Relevant side note- there was once a push to combine the two regions and separate from South Australia and Victoria (back in the 1860s). Read former ABC South East SA reporter Kate Hill’s story on “Princeland” https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/7558092

Heading north along Border Rd, I came swiftly to the community of Donovans which looks out onto the small section of the Glenelg River that South Australia claims

A lookout at Donovans shows South Australian shacks on one side the river. On the other side, the Glenelg National Park sprawls for as far as the eye can see (almost entirely Victorian).

At the Dry Creek boat ramp there’s a sign indicating where the state border cuts the river

The police checkpoint on one of the major roads into Mount Gambier- the Princes Hwy- has now been set up much closer to the border, amidst plantations. Over the last few weeks, the checkpoint was located on the city’s eastern fringe.

Heading north, the checkpoints at Mingbool Rd and Casterton Rd were surrounded by farmland

The Edenhope Rd checkpoint was located right on the border

Heading north towards Naracoorte, I drove through the Wrattonbully region

On the Wimmera Hwy at Hynam I met locals John and Sonja Pallant who said they’ve been donating firewood to police at that checkpoint since April

Further north I stopped off to check out a curious footnote to this border story- Mullinger Swamp. The swamp is cut in half by the border.

Not Mullinger Swamp’s first (border) rodeo

For more on the (historical) legal battle between South Australia and Victoria over the border line, you can read this article, again reported by Kate Hill
https://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2014/10/03/4099668.htm

A 39m tall tree stands on the (South Australian) side of the swamp- it was declared the winner of a competition by the ABC and Greening Australia in the 90s to find SE SA’s largest living red gum

The road past Mullinger Swamp into Victoria is closed to traffic

The checkpoint at the small town of Frances was stationed on High St, out the front of the bowls club. Locals have been bringing police officers food, coffee and firewood.