Get to know Adelaide’s newest national park

Did you know there’s a new nation­al park being cre­at­ed in Adelaide’s south­ern suburbs?

The 208-hectare Glen­thorne prop­er­ty used to be a work­ing farm but is being con­vert­ed into an excit­ing nation­al park where peo­ple can con­nect with nature.

It will join a precinct of exist­ing parks and open spaces in Adelaide’s south that will span almost 1500 hectares, which is big­ger than Belair Nation­al Park.

In April and Octo­ber last year, more than 3000 peo­ple flocked to the Glen­thorne prop­er­ty on Majors Road at O’Halloran Hill to help shape the future of Glen­thorne Nation­al Park. They gave feed­back about incor­po­rat­ing things like nature play and edu­ca­tion, nature for phys­i­cal and social health, men­tal health and well­be­ing, Kau­r­na cul­ture, native flo­ra and fau­na, and his­to­ry and heritage.

These ideas are anoth­er step clos­er to being realised, with the Glen­thorne prop­er­ty and adja­cent O’Halloran Hill Recre­ation Park offi­cial­ly pro­claimed as Glen­thorne Nation­al Park — Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta this week.

If you’re inter­est­ed in learn­ing how to pro­nounce the park’s name and the mean­ing behind it, you’re in luck, audio and video resources are cur­rent­ly being devel­oped and will be avail­able soon on the Glen­thorne web­site.

Oth­er near­by parks and open spaces will join the Glen­thorne Nation­al Park precinct, but will keep their exist­ing names. These areas include Hal­lett Cove Con­ser­va­tion Park, Mari­no Con­ser­va­tion Park, and also Hap­py Val­ley Reser­voir which is set to open its gates to recre­ation by the end of 2021.

When can I visit? 

In the mean­time, demo­li­tion work is under­way on the for­mer Glen­thorne prop­er­ty to make way for the even­tu­al con­struc­tion of the Glen­thorne Hub area, which will include a space for edu­ca­tion, learn­ing and social con­nec­tion and learn­ing about Kau­r­na cul­ture and his­to­ry. Her­itage precincts will also be estab­lished, and also a nature play and pic­nic area.

Demo­li­tion com­mences at Glenthorne 

What else is in store for Glenthorne?

Also in the pipeline is an upgrade to Majors Road, estab­lish­ment of vehi­cle access and park­ing, the plant­i­ng of almost 36,000 native plants across 10 hectares of the park, the con­struc­tion of the Glen­thorne Hub area, estab­lish­ment of the her­itage precinct, pic­nic and nature play space, camp­ing area, pond area, inter­pre­ta­tion and wayfind­ing – includ­ing Kau­r­na cul­tur­al inter­pre­ta­tion, a trail net­work and look­outs, a wet­land area and board­walks, and a plan to use and re-use water sustainably.

This work was all ear­marked in the mas­ter plan that was devel­oped as a result of the com­mu­ni­ty feed­back received at last year’s open days, and is being worked on by a group of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers known as the Glen­thorne Part­ner­ship who are work­ing close­ly with the Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment and Water.

How can I be part of the cre­ation Glen­thorne Nation­al Park—Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta?

If you’d like to roll up your sleeves and lend a hand, you may be inter­est­ed in join­ing the Glen­thorne Action Team – a ded­i­cat­ed vol­un­teer pro­gram that has been estab­lished across the precinct.

Due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, vol­un­teer events have been placed on hold for the time being, but you can still reg­is­ter to be the first to know when the pro­gram re-starts.

You can also sub­scribe to bi-month­ly updates via the Glen­thorne Nation­al Park e‑newsletter.

Find out theresults of Glenthorne’s recent water sur­veyand get to knowGlen­thorne Senior Ranger Bec Brown.