Goolwa

Goolwa, town, southeastern South Australia, near the mouth of the Murray River, 40 miles (65 km) southeast of Adelaide. It is located on the Goolwa Channel, which is crossed by a barrage (1939) to prevent tidal inflow and to control water draining from the estuarine Lake Alexandrina to the sea. Once (1836) considered as a possible site for the state capital, it had by the 1850s become an important river port, with large shipbuilding and brewing facilities, and had earned the name “New Orleans of Australia.” Goolwa declined, however, when the railways reached towns on the Murray and river transport died out. The town has since become a centre for tourism and for beef and dairy cattle, sheep, and wheat growing. Goolwa is also the site of a bridge across the Murray to Hindmarsh Island. Construction of the bridge was the focus of great public controversy in the 1990s because of the significance of the site in Aboriginal tradition. Goolwa is an Aboriginal term for “elbow,” referring to a nearby bend in the Murray. Pop. (2006) 2,112; (2011) gazetted locality, 2,201.