About the Walking Route

Enjoy a walk through these two wetlands of the Little Para River, along the section of wetland between Port Wakefield Road and the Northern Connector. It’s a great place for a walk, with talls gums, the river, wetlands and birdlife.

The walk is along well maintained trail (if you skip the last #9 adventurous step in the directions below), but is primarily a cycle path so beware of cyclists, and it is also popular with horseriders.

The main Tapa Martinthi Yala Shared Use Path (which is most of the walk) is suitable for wheelchairs and pram users. During drier times, the end loop around the Whites Road Wetland along Jones Road may be suitable for wheels. The adventurous northern section detailed is not suitable for wheels.

As an aside, the Tapa Martinthi Yala Shared Use Path runs alongside the Northern Connector motorway which opened in 2020. In the north the path connects to the Stuart O’Grady Bikeway (which runs alongside the Northern Expressway). In the south the path connects to the Port River Bikeway which also opened in 2020, the network of the three trails is 43km and is a shared-use bitumen trail, connecting Port Adelaide with Gawler.

Directions

This is not a trail with arrows, so you will need to use the steps below and work out for yourself which trail sections to follow:

1. Start at the OTR (On The Run) service station on Port Wakefield Road at Bolivar. Cross Port Wakefield Road using the pedestrian crossing (newly installed 2020). You could also start in the suburban street of Lovelock Road, Parafield Gardens, in which case skip to Step 3 below, walking left to the follow the path under Port Wakefield Road.
2. On the other side of Port Wakefield Road, turn right and follow the trail, which is the the marked Tapa Martinthi Yala Shared Use Path (Northern Connector)
3. After 350m, the Tapa Martinthi Yala Shared Use Path will cross the Little Para River and meet the Little Para River Trail. Turn right, following the path under Port Wakefield Road
4. Continue following the Tapa Martinthi Yala Shared Use Path through the Little Para Wetland and Whites Road Wetland
5. As you near the Northern Connector, and at the end of Whites Road Wetland, just before the T-junction off to the Dry Creek Trails, turn left and stick to the Wetland, walking anticlockwise around the wetland lake. There are educational signs describing birds that frequent the waterways.
6. Follow Jones Road around past the horses and back east along the river.
7. Cross back over the river (the large powerlines are above you)
8. You can retrace your steps back along the Tapa Martinthi Yala Shared Use Path back to the start (from marker 8A on our map). This would make the walk 6.6km long.
9. Or with a bit of navigation and more adventurous walking, shortly turn left (from marker 8B on our map) and head north off the original bike trail and follow the Jones Road extension around the northern area of wetlands. Follow the river until you get to a spot where the path seems to stop. You can either backtrack a short way (to marker 9 on our map) and cross back to the east side of the river and the bike track, or persevere through the long grass on the west side of the river and walk back to OTR (On The Run) service station beside Port Wakefield Rd. This would make the walk 5.6km long.