Willow Bend is a popular reserve nestled along the River Torrens in Vale Park.

It is accessible from a small carpark off Ascot Avenue. The top of the reserve features two tennis courts and public toilets. As you traverse down the walking track from the carpark and tennis courts, the reserve opens up to beautiful green open space, a footbridge crossing the river, picnic tables and a range of community exercise equipment.

Spanning the Adelaide Plains, the River Torrens is the most significant and important stretch of inland water around Adelaide. The river itself is 85km long, starting in the Adelaide Hills near the impressive Mount Pleasant. From there, it weaves its way across the sprawling Adelaide Plains, through the city centre and into the Gulf St Vincent between Henley Beach South and West Beach.

Karrawirra Parri (red gum forest river) is the Kaurna name for the River Torrens. It is also known as Tarndaparri Red kangaroo river. It was named the Torrens by Colonel William Light after Colonel Robert Torrens.

Karrawirra Parri was a prime camping area for Kaurna people and provided many food and other resources as well as shelter. It was also a travelling corridor between the coast and the foothills and places in between. Early colonist A. H. Davis noted that ‘[a] native track runs on either side of the Torrens, and [it is] pretty well trodden too’. The river banks were a sleeping place where the old people were laid to rest. Many burial places have been located and lost as the river has been disturbed over time.