Lake Torrens Colonel Robert Torrens who was one of the founders of the South Australian colony. The lake filled in 1897 and again in April 1989. The 1989 filling resulted in the lake outflowing through the Pirie-Torrens Corridor to the Spencer Gulf, suggesting it likely did so in 1897 as well. It has a thin salt crust with red-brown clays beneath, which are soft and boggy. The area around the lake is sparsely vegetated with samphire, saltbush and bluebush. In April 2013, the full extent of Lake Torrens was gazetted by the Government of South Australia as a locality with the name
River Torrens Park through which the creek flows. First, Second and Third Creeks have been particularly heavily modified. Some sections have been converted to concrete channels; others run through landscaped private gardens and some run in underground pipes. Much of the original vegetation has disappeared from the creeks, particularly those closest to the city. Introduced species including Olives, bamboo, boxthorn, watsonia and blackberries have displaced native flora. The largest catchment of the Torrens is Sixth Creek in the Adelaide Hills, which joins the Torrens at Castambul on Gorge Road. At the time of European settlement the river was a summertime chain of