South Australia’s Spencer Gulf Prawn Fishery (SGPF) has been recognized as one of the best managed fisheries in the world, and was the first prawn fishery in the South-Pacific to be accredited by the Marine Stewardship Council. Production has been sustained throughout its history, where annual landings have generally ranged from 1,600-2,400 t, with no discernible trend. From the fishery’s inception in 1968, trawling effort increased steeply to a historic peak of ~45,800 h in 1979/80, and then steadily declined by 60% to 18,000 h, where it has stabilized over the last decade. The area of Spencer Gulf trawled has also reduced, with the northern, more ecologically-sensitive areas, now largely avoided. Local, small closure areas protect key habitats and nursery areas for important commercial species. Maintaining stable annual catches with less fishing effort is the result of technological advances, an effective harvest strategy underpinned by three fishery-independent surveys each season, real-time and spatial management, a high level of resource stewardship, and co-management that reflects a strong collaboration among industry, fisheries managers, scientists and eNGOs. Faced with relatively new challenges over the past few years (e.g. high fuel prices, increasing competition from imported prawns, minimizing the impact of trawling on other species), the SGPF has adapted further by engaging in a number of research projects that collectively aim to optimize biological and economic sustainability (e.g. bio-economic model, harvest optimization model), while also being proactive in minimizing its impact on the benthic ecosystem (e.g. development of ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) performance indicators).