10 national parks near Adelaide you might not have heard of

Don’t get us wrong, Mori­al­ta Con­ser­va­tion Park, Water­fall Gul­ly and Belair Nation­al Park are all amaz­ing spots but if you’re crav­ing a bit more of a seclud­ed wilder­ness walk there are actu­al­ly lots of less­er-known nation­al parks dot­ted around Ade­laide to explore.

These small­er, more seclud­ed parks tend not to have the facil­i­ties that some of the larg­er, more pop­u­lar parks have so be sure to be self-suf­fi­cient on your walk.

Here are 10 you might like to try:

1. Horsnell Gul­ly and Giles Con­ser­va­tion Parks

Horsnell Gul­ly and Giles are locat­ed just 10 kilo­me­tres east of Adelaide’s CBD, between Cle­land Nation­al Park and Mori­al­ta Con­ser­va­tion Park.

Horsnell and Giles are two adjoin­ing parks, and are home to the pop­u­lar Hey­sen and Yur­re­bil­la trails and offer stun­ning views over Ade­laide. Along the trails, you will find the remains of a large home­stead, includ­ing coach­ing sheds, a sta­ble and cowsheds.

2. Kyeema Con­ser­va­tion Park

Kyeema is locat­ed 60km south of Ade­laide, just east of Willun­ga. The peace and tran­quil­li­ty walk­ing through this dense­ly veg­e­tat­ed park is rejuvenating.

The park pro­vides habi­tat for ani­mals such as the south­ern brown bandi­coot, swamp rat and west­ern grey kan­ga­roo. Be sure to pack your binoc­u­lars – with more than 80 species of birds this park is a haven for birdwatchers.

3. Mount George Con­ser­va­tion Park

Mount George is locat­ed 25km south­east of the city, just out­side of Stir­ling. This park has lots of walk­ing trails to explore, rang­ing in dura­tion from 15 min­utes to 2 hours. A sec­tion of the Hey­sen Trail also pass­es through the park.

You can walk your dog in the park’s ​‘recre­ation zone’, between Mount George Road and Cox Creek, pro­vid­ed you keep it on a lead and under your con­trol at all times.

4. Mark Oliphant Con­ser­va­tion Park

Mark Oliphant is locat­ed 22km south east of Adelaide’s CBD, between Iron­bank and Stir­ling. It was renamed in hon­our of for­mer state gov­er­nor Sir Mark Oliphan­t’s con­tri­bu­tion to con­ser­va­tion, and is a great choice if you want to bush­walk through a for­est landscape.

Look out for native birds, includ­ing the scar­let robin, gold­en whistler and Ade­laide rosel­las. The park is also impor­tant habi­tat for the nation­al­ly endan­gered south­ern brown bandi­coot.

5. Mon­ta­cute Con­ser­va­tion Park

Mon­ta­cute is locat­ed 17km north­east of the city, just east of Mori­al­ta Con­ser­va­tion Park.

It’s here that you can take a hike along the Mon­ta­cute Heights to Cud­lee Creek sec­tion of The Hey­sen Trail, but be aware that some sec­tions are quite steep and challenging.

Along the trails you may dis­cov­er out­crops of Pre­cam­bri­an dolomite rocks more than 570 mil­lion years old, or on the east­ern side of the park, an out­crop of Stonyfell quartzite.

6. Scott Creek Con­ser­va­tion Park

Scott Creek is locat­ed in the Ade­laide foothills, 30km south of Ade­laide. It’s a sig­nif­i­cant con­ser­va­tion area and home to many threat­ened species of the Mount Lofty Ranges. 

Expect to dis­cov­er rem­nants of mine ruins includ­ing an engine house, stone chim­ney, the mine office, a dairy and sev­er­al min­ing shafts along the park’s inter­pre­tive walk­ing trails.

7. War­ren Con­ser­va­tion Park

War­ren is a lit­tle fur­ther afield, locat­ed 60km north­east of the city, just south of Williamstown. There is a rich diver­si­ty of plants and ani­mals in this park includ­ing wild orchids, lilies, kan­ga­roos and lizards.

The park has four chal­leng­ing walk­ing trails, includ­ing a sec­tion of the Hey­sen Trail. The tracks are steep and quite dif­fi­cult, so they should be used by expe­ri­enced bush­walk­ers only.

8. Aldin­ga Scrub Con­ser­va­tion Park

Aldin­ga Scrub is locat­ed 46km south of Ade­laide in the Willun­ga basin, and fea­tures an impres­sive back­drop of sand dunes, sand blows (mobile dunes) and coastal vegetation.

Explore the walk­ing trails and take the time to stop, look and lis­ten for ani­mals and birdlife. Dur­ing spring the park is ablaze with wild­flow­ers. If you’re lucky you might even spot a short-beaked echid­na, a lizard or a bat.

9. Hale Con­ser­va­tion Park

Hale is anoth­er park locat­ed near Williamstown, about 60km north­east of Ade­laide. Char­ac­terised by its diverse land­scape and steep rocky ridges, this park is home to some of Aus­trali­a’s more secre­tive mam­mals and con­serves the Oys­ter Bay cypress pine.

Chal­leng­ing walk­ing trails pro­vide spec­tac­u­lar views of the South Para Val­ley and reser­voir. The trail to the South Para Riv­er pass­es from the high­lands to the riv­er cross­ing, while the trail to the north-east­ern bound­ary of the park fol­lows the creek line to emerge in grass­lands on the out­skirts of Williamstown.

10. Sandy Creek Con­ser­va­tion Park

Sandy Creek is also about 60km north­east of Ade­laide, but just east of Gawler. It’s sur­round­ed by farm­land, vine­yards and deep sand min­ing pits.

There are sev­er­al walk­ing trails that take you through the native pine and pink gum bush­land. Look out for wildlife such as kan­ga­roos graz­ing on the grass­lands in the ear­ly morn­ing and at dusk, and vis­it in spring to see an abun­dance of wildflowers.

Have we missed one of your favourites? Tell us which park you like to vis­it that oth­er park-goers might not know about yet.

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed in August 2018