What to explore in 2024

Did you know its sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly-proven that we are hap­pi­er, health­i­er and smarter when we engage with nature? So do your­self a favour — make it your New Year’s res­o­lu­tion to get out and expe­ri­ence South Australia’s breath-tak­ing environment.

To help get you start­ed, we’ve come up with 24 things to explore in 2024.

Keep read­ing to learn more about what you can explore.

1. Explore … a sto­ry that pre-dates the dinosaurs

Have you vis­it­ed South Aus­trali­a’s newest nation­al park? Explore the sto­ry of the Edi­acaran fos­sils in South Aus­trali­a’s remote Out­back. You can see the fos­sils come to life in a way you could nev­er have imagined.

2. Explore … the mighty Riv­er Murray

The mighty Riv­er Mur­ray swelled to lev­els not seen for more than 65 years in 2022 – 23. The rare flood­ing event has boost­ed pre­cious ecosys­tems and pro­vid­ed ben­e­fits for ani­mals, plants and fish from the bor­der to the Mur­ray Mouth. Now is the per­fect time to explore the nation’s largest riv­er system.

3. Explore … Adelaide’s Riv­er Torrens

Hop on your bicy­cle or put on your sneak­ers and head to the west­ern end of the Tor­rens Lin­ear Track. The arti­fi­cial chan­nel that runs from Tap­leys Hill Road to the Tor­rens Out­let at West Beach is being trans­formed into a nat­ur­al flow­ing and healthy riv­er sys­tem. The over­haul of this sec­tion will help cre­ate a nature area that serves as both a recre­ation­al spot and a habi­tat for native birds, threat­ened fish and oth­er animals.

4. Explore … hap­py and healthy wildlife

When was the last time you vis­it­ed Cle­land Wildlife Park? It is always worth a vis­it, par­tic­u­lar­ly for fam­i­lies. Most of Cleland’s ani­mals live in nat­ur­al habi­tat mean­ing you can get up close for great pho­tos and even have a pat. So be sure to buy a pack of pel­lets and feed the kangaroos!

5. Explore … a nature won­der­land for kids

Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta is one of the biggest nature play spaces in South Aus­tralia. It fea­tures 3 slides, see­saw, spin­ner, fos­sil dig area, Kau­r­na carv­ings and sculp­tures. There is also rope and log climb­ing ele­ments, a pen­du­lum swing, cub­by build­ing, and a 25m long fly­ing fox.

6. Explore … world-renowned landscapes

Why not explore a region ear­marked to join glob­al land­marks as a Word Her­itage site. The fos­sil-rich Flinders Ranges already has ten­ta­tive list­ing by UNESCO. You can also vis­it the Brachi­na Geo­log­i­cal Trail, which pass­es through a gorge that is an impor­tant refuge for the yel­low foot­ed rock wal­la­by, as well as many species of birds and reptiles.

7. Explore … high-adren­a­line moun­tain bike trails

If you’re seek­ing a thrilling adven­ture that takes you off the beat­en path and into the heart of nature, we have some excit­ing news for you. The 38km Epic Moun­tain Bike Trail weaves through Mount Remark­able Nation­al Park in the South­ern Flinders Ranges and includes a total of 1500m of climb­ing ele­va­tion and a near con­tin­u­ous 6km descent.

8. Explore … an inter­na­tion­al tourism drawcard

The Kan­ga­roo Island Wilder­ness Trail is again open to every­one after it was sig­nif­i­cant­ly dam­aged dur­ing the dev­as­tat­ing 2019 – 2020 bush­fires. If under­ground adven­ture is more to your lik­ing, the Kel­ly Hills Caves, with an new improved vis­i­tor expe­ri­ence is open. Dur­ing the first half of 2024, vis­i­tors to Kan­ga­roo Island will be also able to vis­it the rebuilt Flinders Chase Vis­i­tor Cen­tre, and plan their adven­tures on the island from there.

9. Explore … the Coorong

Have you vis­it­ed the Coorong late­ly? If not, you are miss­ing out, because vast amounts of water flow­ing from the Riv­er Mur­ray flood into the Coorong, Low­er Lakes and Mur­ray Mouth have pro­vid­ed a much-need­ed, short-term boost to the Ram­sar-list­ed wet­land. This means many plants, fish and birds are thriv­ing for the first time since the Mil­len­ni­um drought.

10. Explore …con­tem­po­rary art in the tran­quil­li­ty of the garden

The world’s most cel­e­brat­ed con­tem­po­rary glass artist, Dale Chi­hu­ly, has cho­sen the Ade­laide Botan­ic Gar­den for his first major out­door exhi­bi­tion in Aus­tralia and the wider south­ern hemi­sphere. Chi­hu­ly will present a curat­ed selec­tion of large-scale instal­la­tions and sculp­tures from Sep­tem­ber 2024 through to April 2025.

11. Explore… world-class wine regions

South Aus­tralia is the his­toric heart of Aus­tralian wine, home to world-famous regions and labels. The con­tin­ued suc­cess of our wine regions relies on access to secure, afford­able and fit-for-pur­pose water. That’s why DEW has recent­ly finalised a water secu­ri­ty strat­e­gy for the Barossa Valley. 

12. Explore … cit­i­zen sci­ence projects

Do you like get­ting your hands dirty or are you enthralled by how the nat­ur­al world works? SA has launched its first-ever Cit­i­zen Sci­ence strat­e­gy, mean­ing school chil­dren, uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents, retirees, and any­one keen to con­tribute to the greater under­stand­ing of our envi­ron­ment will have even more oppor­tu­ni­ties to get involved.

13. Explore… the wel­come return of migra­to­ry birds

Recent flood­wa­ters, com­bined with the deliv­ery of ​‘water for the envi­ron­ment’ brought vital fresh­wa­ter to the Low­er Lakes and Coorong. The flows have cre­at­ed more food and habi­tat that’s seen the return of many species of migra­to­ry birds – from cor­morants and pel­i­cans through to great crest­ed grebes and terns.

14. Explore … pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment with friends

What is more reward­ing than con­tribut­ing to con­ser­va­tion with a group of mates? Friends of Parks work close­ly with the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice to con­serve and man­age our parks and reserves. You can join a group and get involved in activ­i­ties from tree plant­i­ng and wildlife mon­i­tor­ing through to habi­tat man­age­ment and her­itage restoration. 

15. Explore … the night sky

Enjoy stargaz­ing? Head to the Riv­er Mur­ray Dark Sky Reserve for the best and bright­est view of the stars above SA. It is Aus­trali­a’s first Dark Sky Reserve and one of only 15 in the world join­ing an elite group of remark­able dark places.

16. Explore … the bio­di­ver­si­ty of Nuyts Archipelago

It’s a haven for bio­di­ver­si­ty. The Nuyts Arch­i­pel­ago islands on SA’s west coast is home to an amaz­ing 500 species of native flo­ra and 100 species of native fau­na – many of which are rare or endangered.

17. Explore … what is underground

Have you ever been to South Australia’s only World Her­itage site? Just 3½ hours from Ade­laide, you will find Nara­coorte Caves, part of the 800,000-year-old Nara­coorte East Range and one of the world’s most impor­tant fos­sil sites.

18. Explore … her­itage by the water

South Aus­tralia has 17 her­itage-list­ed areas. Why not check out those near the water like the Cape Jaf­fa Light­house in the south­east or his­toric Port Ade­laide and Gool­wa, where you can explore some of the fea­tures and build­ings that helped shape SA’s ear­ly colo­nial trade routes.

19. Explore … her­itage below the water

About 800 ves­sels are known to have been wrecked along South Australia’s coast and inland waters. Grab your snorkel and get up close to the 70 ves­sels that end­ed their days in 19 iden­ti­fied ships’ graveyards.

20. Explore … Tra­di­tion­al Own­ers con­nec­tion to Country

Our nation­al parks pro­tect and con­serve the lands of the Tra­di­tion­al Own­ers and we pay respect to their Elders, past, present and emerg­ing. That is why we are putting up sig­nage at sites of cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance with­in SA’s parks to edu­cate vis­i­tors about the site’s deep spir­i­tu­al con­nec­tion to First Nations people.

21. Explore … some­thing eerie

Why not vis­it the 180-year-old Ade­laide Gaol, where the spir­its of past occu­pants are said to roam. Or, for the more faint-heart­ed, vis­it dur­ing the day to dis­cov­er sto­ries and arti­facts from some of the site’s most famous prisoners.

22. Explore …a colour­ful con­gre­ga­tion of cuttlefish

Every win­ter thou­sands of giant Aus­tralian cut­tle­fish con­gre­gate to mate along the coast in the Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park near Whyal­la. As part of the breed­ing process, male cut­tle­fish make it a point to look absolute­ly stun­ning, putting on a spec­tac­u­lar dis­play of colours and shapeshift­ing to attract and keep a mate. Kind of like a dance-off!

23. Explore … Adelaide’s ear­ly colo­nial charm

Ayers House is a grand state­ly man­sion of Vic­to­ri­an opu­lence, beau­ti­ful­ly restored to mod­ern vin­tage style. Every­thing here is on a grand scale, the dri­ve­way sweeps, the chan­de­liers illu­mi­nate, and the cel­e­bra­tions are legendary.

24. Explore … some­thing a lit­tle scary look­ing yet has an amaz­ing life story

Native lam­prey – the toothy, eel-like crea­ture – make an annu­al migra­tion across the south­ern Mur­ray-Dar­ling Basin as part of their breed­ing cycle. SA Gov­ern­ment sci­en­tists have tagged them to see just how far up the sys­tem they go. In 2023, one par­tic­u­lar lam­prey trav­elled about 825km over 2 months, which is no small feat for a 50cm fish.

So what are you wait­ing for? Get exploring….!!