Adelaide Canoe Club: Canoeing among the Mangroves in the Adelaide Coast region of South Australia

On a midweek morning we're on the North Arm of the Port River making straight for the mangroves. And as you approach an opening in the vegetation it's strange to think that Gepps Cross and Pooraka are just a few kilometres beyond this tangled web as David Mallett, the President of the Adelaide Canoe Club explains:

“This channel will take us through to the salt fields which are out on Main North Road. And you can follow channels like this in these sorts of boats. The tinnies and the powerboats won't and can't get in.”

Cruising under your own power in kayaks and canoes you can lose yourself in the shallows of an area deep in mystery.

“There are numerous creeks like this throughout the whole mangroves area. These are known as grey mangroves. They're self-propagated. They don't have seeds - they actually drop a compete tree which then floats along and then digs in and grows which we'll see on one of the wrecks later on.”

Once the tree takes hold, its roots pierce the layers of mud. These are the lungs of the Mangrove system. A mangrove tree doesn't breathe through its leaves. Instead, exposed spikes suck in oxygen during low tide. Soon I'm doing the same as these guys set a cracking pace heading towards a ships' graveyard. In the distance, the skeleton of the Santiago comes into view. Built in 1856 in Scotland, she first worked the trading routes between Britain and South America. At the turn of the century she made her way to Australia and was used to transport coal. She was finally scuttled here in 1945.

“It's the oldest wreck in the twenty four wrecks around this area. She’s starting to break up too - the stern section has dropped away.”

So on a muddy bank in the North Arm, a rusting hulk approaches it's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. It's also a resting-place for David Mallett, who at 69 years of age will still canoe anywhere.

“Last year we paddled the Whitsundays and another group of us paddled from Katherine up the Katherine Gorge. I think what gets me in about canoeing is coming out on days like this and being among all this and watching the dolphins jumping out of the water.

“The Adelaide Canoe Club was formed in the mid seventies and over about thirty years these people have been everywhere. Every backwater, every inland lake, every river, every Strait and every Gulf in south Australia. And a few around the rest of the country as well.”

The beauty of this tour is that you're paddling through the very heart of South Australian maritime history. At one stage we’re paddling over the keel of the Dorothy H Sterling.

“The Dorothy H Sterling was built in the USA in Portland, Oregon. And Oregon being Oregon. That's the wood that you can see that made up the ship.”

Back in the depths of the Great Depression others paddled out here to strip the Dorothy H Sterling of her precious Oregon hull. They were in desperate need of firewood - now nature is slowly stripping away what remains.

“We were talking earlier about mangroves sort of making their own way and they're like triffids they've moved into the ship.”

“Yes, a lot of them have moved and the mangroves have started to colonise the vessel.”

“That's right. They will and gradually they'll fill it up with earth and this will be all mangroves in due course.”

Not for a long time yet. So there's still plenty of time to visit the Garden Island Ship's Graveyard. It's a regular haunt for the enthusiasts who make up the Adelaide Canoe Club who have a range of activities planned for the remainder of Canoe Month in March. You can contact them on 8240 3294. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au