Swan Reach is a river port in South Australia 127 km north-east of Adelaide on the Murray River between Blanchetown and Mannum in South Australia. It is on the left bank of the river. The Swan Reach Ferry is a cable ferry crossing operated by the state government as part of the state's road network. Swan Reach, with all parts below Lock #1, is also one of the lowest parts of the river. It is currently about 1.5 metres below its normal level. At the, Swan Reach had a population of 283.
History
Swan Reach was first settled in the 1850s and was originally the largest of five sheep and cattle stations in the area. It soon became one of the first riverboat ports in South Australia and was a loading port for grain and wool.
Swan Reach has an area school, hotel and bottle shop, general store and post office, an op shop that opens Mondays to Fridays and Saturday mornings, and a fast food take-away shop near the ferry. The tourist boat Proud Mary and paddle-wheeler PS Murray Princess stop at the town once a week. There is a Lutheran church, with regular services, and a Lutheran pastor in residence. Anglican and Roman Catholic services are held monthly. Tourism, agriculture and irrigated horticulture are the main industries, and there is a large almond processing plant 1.5 km from town on the Stott Highway.
The Swan Reach Conservation Park lies in a area which was named the nation's first, and the world's 15th International Dark sky reserve in October 2019, by the International Dark-Sky Association. The "dark sky" title refers to areas where the night sky has a high darkness rating and there are policy controls to ensure light pollution is kept to a minimum, with reserve status only given when both public and private residential land is included. A multi-million-dollar joint project between Silentium Defence and the Western Sydney University to build an observatory to monitor satellites and other objects orbiting the earth was announced in June 2020. The Murray Mallee location and terrain of the land was considered ideal for the purpose. The reserve's official name is the River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve.
