Donovans Landing

Where the river meets the border

About 26 kilometres south-east of Mount Gambier, the road runs out at Donovans — a handful of shacks and sheds strung along the South Australian bank of the Glenelg River, right where the state border meets the water. Across the river rise the forested slopes of Victoria's Lower Glenelg country, and the whole place moves at the speed of the current.

The landing itself has a boat ramp, picnic tables, barbecue shelters and toilets, making it the easiest launch point on the SA side for a day on the river. Anglers chase bream and mulloway in the deep tea-coloured water, water-skiers use the broader reaches nearby, and canoeists can paddle into the spectacular river gorge downstream.

The settlement takes its name from Thomas John Donovan, locally famous as the man who in 1895 shot the mysterious beast known as the Tantanoola Tiger. On the way back to the coast, the springs and reed beds of Piccaninnie Ponds make a worthy detour.