River Torrens

If you're from Adelaide, or you've ever visited and paid attention to the river that winds its way through the suburbs and city from east to west, you wouldn't think of the River Torrens as a place to swim.

(As an aside, in South Australia all river names take the form "SpecificName River", like "Onkaparinga River" except in the cases of the River Murray and the River Torrens where "River" comes first. Read all about it on the South Australian Government Website.)

This river, when you see it from the Central Business District, looks more like a lake. It was first dammed by a timber weir, built by the prisoners from the nearby prison, in 1862 to form the lake. This weir was destroyed a decade later by flooding. A replacement structure - the very same one that stands there today, but without the sluice gates which were added in 1929 - was completed in 1881.

Downstream of the weir the river is mostly reedy, shallow, and polluted. If you're downstream of the weir, I would suggest continuing west until you get to the coast to have a dip rather than trying to find a spot in the Torrens.

Upsteam of the lake the river takes on a few different forms as it makes its way through the eastern and north-eastern suburbs. But none of the spots are inviting for a swim either. Shallow and reedy. There are a few smaller weirs along the way to squeeze some hard-engineered lakes and deeper flowing sections out of the river.

Then there is the section further upstream. Between the Gorge Weir and Kangaroo Creek Reservoir. This is where the magic happens.

I'm not going to give exact specifics on where this is, because I'm not 100% sure on the legality of swimming here. But it is magnificent. It's cool, grassy and green, clear and gently flowing. A brief swim upstream allows for a gentle drift back down to the starting spot with the current.