Why bringing the platypus back to the Torrens is what Adelaide needs
South Australians are starving for a genuine, uplifting environmental victory. It could be found in the River Torrens, writes James Johnston.
Between the devastating ecological toll of the toxic algal bloom choking South Australia’s coast and the unsettling arrival of H5 bird flu on local shores, South Australians could be forgiven for feeling ecologically exhausted.
Add to that the bitter, gridlocked debates over urban developments like the controversial South Park Lands golf course redesign, and our local news cycle feels like an unrelenting stream of environmental distress.
Every time our local landscape makes the headlines, it seems accompanied by a warning, a mass die-off, or a fight over how much remaining green space we are willing to surrender.
We are starving for a genuine, uplifting environmental victory. But more than that, the River Torrens – Karrawirra Parri, the literal lifeblood and soul of our city – is starving for one vital missing piece of its ecological identity: the reintroduction of the iconic platypus.
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It is easy to forget that long before concrete banks, urban runoff and heavy industrial pollution transformed the river, platypuses paddled through the Torrens. Historical records show they were once common in Karrawirra Parri. But by the late 19th century, land clearing, water degradation and invasive predators drove them out, declaring them functionally extinct across mainland South Australia by the mid-20th century.
When you strip an apex species from a waterway, the whole aquatic system falters. Platypuses are ‘umbrella species’ and vital bio-indicators. As bottom-dwellers, they spend hours sifting through riverbeds for macroinvertebrates – shrimp, aquatic larvae and bugs – aerating sediment and keeping waterbed nutrients circulating.
If the Torrens can support a wild platypus, it means the entire food chain – from water quality and bank vegetation to native fish and rakali (water rats) – is thriving.
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Reclaiming the platypus goes far deeper than wildlife biology; it is a vital step in healing our relationship with place. For the Kaurna people, the Traditional Custodians of the Adelaide Plains, Karrawirra Parri (‘red gum forest river’) was a rich cultural landscape long before European settlement damaged its waterways. Returning a native species that once belonged to this river system honours First Nations cultural heritage and supports the broader effort of healing Country.
This isn’t an idle fantasy. Thanks to decades of community effort, habitat restoration at places like Breakout Creek, and Green Adelaide’s rewilding strategy, recent ecological scoping studies revealed exciting news: the River Torrens actually has the macroinvertebrate food supply and water quality necessary to support a returning platypus population.
Yes, the final push will require focused ambition – securing dedicated environmental flows to keep the river running clean year-round, alongside translocating healthy platypus stock from thriving populations in New South Wales. It means finishing the job on predator control and bank restoration. But isn’t an ambitious conservation triumph precisely what Adelaide needs right now?
Instead of feeling powerless against coastal algal blooms or arguing over tarmac in parklands, returning the platypus to the Torrens gives Adelaide a tangible, inspiring objective. It converts passive ecological grief into collective action.
Picture a calm morning along the Torrens near Linear Park or Elder Park. A soft ripple breaks the surface, and a small, leathery bill breaks through the water before diving down into the riverbed.
It would be a triumph for local conservation, a gift to our children, and proof that a modern capital city can actively repair its relationship with the natural world.
We have spent too long watching our local ecosystems endure one setback after another. It is time to give Adelaide something to celebrate. Let’s finish the job on Karrawirra Parri and bring the platypus back home.
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