Patawalonga River
The Patawalonga River is a river located in the western suburbs of the Adelaide metropolitan area, in the Australian state of South Australia. It drains an area of flat, swampy lands formerly known as the Cowandilla Plains or The Reedbeds, which in the mid-20th century were drained by engineering works, enabling the establishment of Adelaide Airport and the development of residential housing. Its catchment area is in the western Adelaide Hills, and it drains into Gulf St Vincent south of Glenelg. The Barcoo Outlet was completed in 2001 to divert dirty stormwater from the river mouth and out to sea and creating a small lake or lagoon at the river mouth instead. There was a large flood in 2003, which flooded homes in the vicinity. Its name is derived from the Kaurna language, meaning "the place of the swamp gum". Course and features The Patawalonga River, sometimes called Patawalonga Creek, and known to local residents as the Pat, is a short river of roughly in length that was, before European settlement, a tidal estuary. The river drains a catchment area of metropolitan Adelaide, south of the River Torrens catchment, and the western side of the Adelaide Hills escarpment, with its