Looking for trails open after the bushfires?
5 Feb 2020: Kangaroo Island was devasted by bushfire in January 2020. Some parks and trails remain closed. View our article of 13 walking trails open post-bushfire.
- Distance
- 4 km return
- Duration
- 1.5 hours return
- Suitable for
- Walking, Hiking, Trail Running
- Moderate
- Terrain
- Undulating
- Region
- Kangaroo Island
- Download maps & GPS files
- 1 map PDF
- 2 GPS files
- Photos
- 10 photosJump to Photos section
- Travel options
- Car
About the Walking Trail
A trail through the scrub to the ruins of a fish cannery built in the late 1890s. The trail begins at the carpark and trailhead at the end of Scenic Drive, opposite Wattle Avenue and where the dirt road Lierich Drive begins. The American River Progress Association keeps the brochures at the trailhead stocked, or download the brochure now. The trail is 3km return, 1.5 hours return from the end of Scenic Drive.
An easy, meandering walk through the bush, with birds in abundance, and native shrubs and orchids in flowering season. Along the way Glossy-Black Cockatoos can often be seen and heard feeding. At the end of the trail the remains of a fish cannery can be seen. If you wander back along the beach, many seabirds and waders can be observed.
You can also begin this hike from The Corner, at the intersection of Buick Drive, Scenic Drive, Redbanks Road and Tangara Drive. There is a pleasant 1.3km walking path that begins here and follows alongside the road.
Photos
Walking out to the headland along the Fish Cannery Walking Trail
The Beach, Birds & Bush Walking Trail in American River
Sign at the trailhead of the Fish Cannery Walking Trail (also known as the Beach, Birds & Bush Walking Trail)
Walking the Fish Cannery Walking Trail
Trailhead sign which includes a short history of the cannery and gymsum works at Ballast head
The Fish Cannery Walking Trail follows the coast, up and down some gullies out to the former cannery site
The site of the fish cannery at American River, on the Beach, Birds & Bush (Fish Cannery Walking Trail)
There are maps of the Beach, Birds & Bush Trail (Fish Cannery Walking Trail) available from the trailhead
Interpretive signage of the Glossy Black-Cockatoo habitat on the Fish Cannery Walking Trail. Much of the Glossy Black-Cockatoo habitat on the western end of the island wads ravaged by the January 2020 Ravine/Kangaroo Island Bushfire, but this habitat on the trail near American River remains untouched.