7 family-friendly walks to enjoy in Ikara-Flinders Ranges

These walks are all with­in the Ikara-Flinders Ranges Nation­al Park, and can all be enjoyed from a hol­i­day base at Wilpe­na Pound Resort or Camp­ground. The fur­thest begins about an hour’s dri­ve away, and oth­ers can be start­ed on foot from the Wilpe­na Pound Vis­i­tor Infor­ma­tion Centre.

Boom and Bust Trail

Dis­tance: 3.0km, 1.5 — 2 hours

Keen to learn more about the local plants and ani­mals? The Boom and Bust trail exam­ines how native flo­ra and fau­na have adapt­ed to the cycles of rain and drought in this beau­ti­ful but some­times unfor­giv­ing land­scape. Start near the Wilpe­na Pound Vis­i­tor Cen­tre and take the main route along Wilpe­na Creek through the Pound Gap, which is the nat­ur­al entrance into the ancient moun­tain­ous enclo­sure of Wilpe­na Pound. Take the turnoff onto the Boom and Bust loop trail and fol­low the inter­pre­tive signs. The Mount Ohlssen Bagge hike also starts here (a longer and steep­er walk), but the Boom and Bust trail loops back. You’re guar­an­teed to return with a keen eye for spot­ting nat­ur­al liv­ing won­ders from the grand to the miniscule.

The walk is most­ly shady and flat, with some uneven ground, and suit­able for most fit­ness lev­els. It’s par­tic­u­lar­ly love­ly in spring when wild­flow­ers bloom.

Hills Home­stead Walk

Dis­tance: 6.6km, 2 hours

Ear­ly white set­tlers thought that Wilpe­na Pound, with its nat­u­ral­ly enclosed bound­ary of moun­tains, would be ide­al for farm­ing stock and crops. But Moth­er Nature had oth­er ideas, as you’ll learn on this walk. 

Start­ing from the Wilpe­na Pound Vis­i­tor Cen­tre, take the main track along Wilpe­na Creek through Pound Gap, into Wilpe­na Pound itself. The walk along the creek, which is usu­al­ly run­ning with at least a small amount of water, is pleas­ant­ly shady and full of native veg­e­ta­tion includ­ing tow­er­ing Riv­er Red Gums. Once you reach the point where the shut­tle bus drops peo­ple off, you can choose from two ways to reach Hills Homestead:

Via Slid­ing Rock: the flat­ter and shadier option is to walk between the creek and a large slab of quartzite rock.

Via Top Track: climb up this track for some views of the peaks of the Pound.

Either way, you’ll end up at Hills Home­stead, a mod­est stone cot­tage which has been pre­served and restored, with signs telling the his­to­ry of the ill-fat­ed farm­ing ven­ture inside Wilpe­na Pound. Toi­lets and pic­nic tables make this a great place to stop for a rest and a snack before head­ing back. How­ev­er if there’s still life in your legs, you can head up the Wan­gara Look­out trail (below). This is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed for more agile walk­ers, because the views are magnificent.

Wan­gara Look­out Hike

Dis­tance: 600m, steep (full walk is 7.8km return from Wilpe­na Pound Vis­i­tor Centre)

Start behind the Hills Home­stead inside Wilpe­na Pound, after walk­ing in through Pound Gap (see Hills Home­stead Walk above). 

There are actu­al­ly two look­outs, both fac­ing the same direc­tion across the Pound and offer­ing spec­tac­u­lar views. The sec­ond one has the advan­tage of extra height. 

The low­er look­out is about 300m of mod­er­ate­ly hard climb but well worth it for the views. The sec­ond look­out is about anoth­er 300m up. Whether you stop at the first or make it to the top, you’ll gain a great per­spec­tive on the immense size and crater-like shape of the Pound. You’ll be reward­ed with views that you’d oth­er­wise only find at the peak of a much longer and more chal­leng­ing climb. Look around and see if you can iden­ti­fy the high­est point, Ngar­ri Mud­lan­ha-St Mary Peak.

Liv­ing with Land Walk, Old Wilpe­na Pound Station

Dis­tance: 3.2km, 2 hour loop or short­er 1km loop

This is a flat, easy walk tak­ing in ear­ly white set­tler his­to­ry, well-pre­served his­toric build­ings and the involve­ment of First Nations peo­ple in work­ing the land.

If you’re based near the Wilpe­na Pound Vis­i­tor Cen­tre, this walk is off in the oppo­site direc­tion to the Pound itself. Dri­ve around 2.9km to Old Wilpe­na Sta­tion Home­stead, where the walk begins, via the Hawk­er-Wilpe­na Road. The Liv­ing With Land inter­pre­tive trail explores the sur­round­ings of the old Home­stead, which ceased being a work­ing farm in 1985.

The trail will take you to sev­er­al small­er his­toric build­ings includ­ing the Blacksmith’s Work­shop, Bookkeeper’s Hut and a ​‘pug and pine’ build­ing con­struct­ed from the local native cypress pine and mud. You’ll learn about self-suf­fi­cien­cy, impro­vi­sa­tion and sur­vival, and the shared his­to­ry of Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple and Euro­pean set­tlers who came to farm the land. First Nations knowl­edge of the land­scape, and skills of track­ing and hunt­ing, were crit­i­cal to the sur­vival of white set­tler enter­pris­es in the outback.

This is a relaxed stroll in a very pho­to­genic land­scape, with plen­ty to keep all the fam­i­ly interested.

Sacred Canyon Walk

(avail­able as guid­ed tour only)

Dis­tance: 2km walk after 30 min drive

This site has great cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance to the Adnya­math­anha peo­ple and may only be vis­it­ed by book­ing a tour with a First Nations guide. 

The walk will lead you along a tree-lined creek to the site of ancient engrav­ings on sheer rock walls. Through enter­tain­ing and infor­ma­tive sto­ry­telling, your guide will explain how the images were made, what they rep­re­sent, and the Adnya­math­anha beliefs sur­round­ing these evoca­tive mark­ings. In the midst of an ancient land­scape, you’ll deep­en your under­stand­ing of the con­nec­tion between Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple and coun­try, stretch­ing back tens of thou­sands of years and still alive today.

Bun­yeroo Gorge Hike

Dis­tance: 7.5km, 3 hours 30 mins

Bun­yeroo Gorge is a wide, peace­ful gum-lined gorge framed by rugged rock for­ma­tions. The hike is fair­ly flat but you will need to cross the creek in sev­er­al places. The rel­a­tive­ly shel­tered land­scape with abun­dant veg­e­ta­tion and reli­able water sup­ply makes this a great spot to observe native wildlife.

The gorge is around an hour’s dri­ve north of the Wilpe­na Pound Vis­i­tor Cen­tre. It is reached by dirt road which is acces­si­ble for most cars, but some is more-or-less along a creek bed so will not be ide­al after heavy rain. The road may even be closed, so check with Nation­al Parks and Wildlife staff, use your judge­ment and dri­ve to conditions.

Keep your eyes peeled along this hike and you might even spot a yel­low-foot­ed rock wal­la­by (Andu in Adnya­math­anha lan­guage), which has been brought back from the brink of extinc­tion by the Bounce­back threat­ened species recov­ery program.

Tre­zona Hike

Dis­tance: 8km, 4 hours

This hike is one for the rock and fos­sil enthu­si­asts. Look out for stro­ma­to­lites — evi­dence of some of the ear­li­est life forms on earth — in the Tre­zona shale and lime­stone geo­log­i­cal formation.

You’ll begin this walk at the Tre­zona Camp­ground, about a 40 minute dri­ve from Wilpe­na Pound Resort. It’s a loop trail which takes in part of the 1,200km Hey­sen Trail. Walk along gum-lined creeks, through open grass­land and past ancient rock for­ma­tions. Much of this trail is fair­ly exposed, so wear a hat and sun­screen and car­ry plen­ty of water (you were going to do that any­way, right?). Best enjoyed dur­ing the cool­er months.

Be pre­pared, stay safe

• Vis­it the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife ​‘Know Before You Go’ page to help you plan, pack and pre­pare for your trip.
• Car­ry enough water — there’s no guar­an­tee there will be qual­i­ty drink­ing water available.
• Use hats and sun­screen and car­ry insect repellent.
• Wear com­fort­able enclosed shoes.
• Check for Park Alerts.
• Talk to Nation­al Parks and Wildlife staff with­in the park — they will be able to help you with the most up-to-date infor­ma­tion and per­son­al recommendations.

The Flinders Ranges: World Her­itage worthy

It’s hard to wrap your mind around, but as you walk in the Flinders Ranges, the land under your feet is over 600 mil­lion years old. It’s one of Australia’s tru­ly mag­nif­i­cent land­scapes. South Aus­tralia is edg­ing clos­er to final­is­ing the nom­i­na­tion of fea­tures of the Flinders Ranges for World Her­itage listing. 

The Flinders Ranges is the only place on Earth where 350 mil­lion years of near-con­tin­u­ous geo­log­i­cal sequence can be seen, demon­strat­ing the rise of a hab­it­able plan­et and the dawn of ani­mal life.

The Adnya­math­anha Peo­ple (mean­ing hills or rock peo­ple) are the tra­di­tion­al cus­to­di­ans of this diverse land­scape, which is world-renowned for its wealth of nat­ur­al, cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance, his­toric and scenic values.

You can learn more about what makes this region wor­thy of nom­i­na­tion, the ben­e­fits of a World Her­itage list­ing and more over here: Flinders Ranges World Her­itage nom­i­na­tion.