Locks back in business for River Murray boat traffic

Boat users can once again safely navigate South Australia’s network of locks and weirs along the River Murray, with the structures reopening following their temporary closure during the peak of the floods.

Rising river levels saw SA Water last year close the lock chambers from Blanchetown’s Lock One up to Lock Six in Murtho, with people instead able to freely pass across the top of the adjacent weir structure without the need to access the lock chamber.

SA Water’s Senior Manager of River Murray Operations Garry Fyfe said it’s now back to business as usual for the team of local lock coordinators.

“With all of our locks and weirs affected by floodwaters coming down the river system, taking early action to close the lock chambers and remove stop logs from each of our nine sites along the Murray ensured we could best protect the infrastructure from any damage, while still maintaining a safe channel for boaties,” Garry said.

“We have continued to monitor the decreasing river level to help assess when it was safe for our crews to access our lock sites again and undertake necessary mechanical and electrical testing, and thankfully, we are now at a point where we can safely reopen our lock chambers for normal passage.

“Locks 8 and 9 interstate have also been reopened for normal use, and we estimate that the chamber at Lock 7 will be reopened over the coming weeks.

“We thank everyone for doing the right thing and keeping outside the temporary buoy markings and abiding by speed restrictions put in place around locks and weirs throughout this rare natural event.

“Our team of ‘lockies’ have missed the chance to chat with locals and travelers visiting our locks over the usually busy summer period, and we can’t wait to welcome back all keen boaties who pass through!

“If you have any questions or want to know how to safely pass through a lock, you can touch base with our team by calling the individual site in advance.”

On behalf of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, SA Water manages Locks One to Six in South Australia as well as Lock Seven at Rufus River and Lock Eight at Wangumma in New South Wales, and Lock Nine at Kulnine in Victoria. The utility also operates barrages at Goolwa, Mundoo, Boundary Creek, Ewe Island and Tauwitchere.

For more information on SA Water's management of locks and weirs, as well as contact numbers for each location, visit sawater.com.au.

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