Take a walk in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park: the Stenhouse Bay Lookout Walk

Take a walk in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park: the Stenhouse Bay Lookout Walk



At the tip of South Australia’s Yorke Penin­su­la, about 3 hours’ dri­ve from Ade­laide is the pic­turesque Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park.

The park is filled to the brim with incred­i­ble spots for camp­ing, fish­ing and surf­ing, and has a vari­ety of bush­walk­ing trails that you can head out on to explore the park.

One of these trails is the Sten­house Bay Look­out Walk – a 2 km loop that will take about 1 hour to complete.

The trail starts from the jet­ty car park and takes you around the clifftops above Sten­house Bay, where you’ll be treat­ed to spec­tac­u­lar views of Inves­ti­ga­tor Strait and the Sten­house Bay jetty.

There are 9 look­outs along the trail, and inter­pre­tive sig­nage pro­vides an insight into some of the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al his­to­ry of the area.

There’s plen­ty of wildlife to be seen along the trail, such as the tam­mar wal­la­by – a species that was once extinct on the Aus­tralian main­land but now has a thriv­ing pop­u­la­tion in the park thanks to a rein­tro­duc­tion pro­gram in 2004.

Keep an eye to the sky for the white bel­lied sea eagles and osprey that nest, breed and hunt in the area. You may also spot one of the park’s res­i­dent emus tak­ing a stroll.

Look­ing down, check the coastal waters for dol­phins and sea lions. In win­ter, you might even be lucky enough to spot south­ern right whales as they migrate from sub-Antarc­tic waters to the waters off the South Aus­tralian coast to calve and mate.

Get­ting there

Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park is locat­ed on the south-west­ern tip of the Yorke Penin­su­la, rough­ly 300 km from Ade­laide via Port Wake­field, Ardrossan, Min­la­ton and Warooka.

Trav­el along the Yorke High­way, which leads to the park entrance. Stop in at the vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion cen­tre to have a chat with the friend­ly park staff who can pro­vide you with a map of the park and any tips and information.

Fol­low sig­nage to the Sten­house Bay Jet­ty, about 8 min­utes into the park, and park in the jet­ty carpark for best access to the trail.

Things to pre­pare before you go

Before you head into the park, be sure to buy your vehi­cle entry pass either online or from one of the book­ing agents on your way.

You may also like to down­load a park map to your phone while you still have clear inter­net reception. 

Alter­na­tive­ly, a great way to nav­i­gate your way around the park is through the Aven­za Maps app, which uses your phone’s built-in GPS to plot your real-time loca­tion onto a map – no inter­net recep­tion required! Find out more about how it works.

There are lim­it­ed facil­i­ties in the park, so make sure you pack enough drink­ing water and food. It’s also a good idea to pack sun pro­tec­tion (a hat, sun­glass­es and sun­screen) and insect repellent.

It’s also essen­tial you wear suit­able cloth­ing for hik­ing, such as long pants.

There are no bins in nation­al parks, so you’ll also have to think about how you can take your rub­bish home. Find out more about how you can leave no trace.

Want to explore more of this beau­ti­ful park? Check out our guide for a day well-spent in the park, and get Ranger Mark Davison’s insid­er tips on the best places to vis­it and must-do activities.

Main image: views from look­out 6 on the Sten­house Bay Look­out Trail (image cour­tesy of Walk­ing SA).


This con­tent was pro­duced in part­ner­ship with  Good Living