Friends’ Tips: 5 Hidden treasures of Morialta and Black Hill Conservation Park

In a less than 30 minute dri­ve, you can swap Adelaide’s city buzz for bird­songs and bush­land. Mori­al­ta and Black Hill con­ser­va­tion parks sit side by side, offer­ing tow­er­ing gums, rugged trails and peace­ful gul­lies — offer­ing dou­ble the adven­ture, each park brings some­thing different.

These parks are cared for by rangers and the local Friends of Black Hill and Mori­al­ta group. Found­ing mem­ber Ann Tay­lor shares five hid­den trea­sures to explore and how you can get involved.

1. Encounter an endan­gered south­ern brown bandi­coot — Mori­al­ta Con­ser­va­tion Park

Tread qui­et­ly on Morialta’s Pylon Track and you might spot a south­ern brown bandi­coot – the last of eight bandi­coot species once found in SA, and now endan­gered. Access the track from Moores Road via Cen­tre Track, or take the steep climb from Third Falls. This wide fire track winds through pris­tine bush­land burst­ing with wild­flow­ers like vanil­la lilies and orchids. If you’re lucky enough to see a bandi­coot, record your sight­ing to sup­port the Bandi­coot Super­high­way Project.

2. Have a pic­nic sur­round­ed by wildlife — Mori­al­ta Con­ser­va­tion Park

Enter the park from the Trail­head car park and fol­low the Mori­al­ta Falls Plateau hike. On the way to Mori­al­ta Falls (First Falls) there’s a table on the right near the creek, it’s a great place to stop for lunch with plen­ty of shade. While you’re enjoy­ing your pic­nic, take a moment to look up in the trees to see if you can spot any koalas. Lis­ten out for kook­abur­ras or frogs, and keep an eye out for kan­ga­roos too!

3. Explore Deep View Look­out — Mori­al­ta Con­ser­va­tion Park

Deep View Look­out offers sweep­ing views of Mori­al­ta, with water­falls in the dis­tance and the Ade­laide sky­line beyond — but you’ll need to hike to get there! From the Mori­al­ta Falls car park, cross the bridge on your left and walk 30 metres to choose your route. Go straight for an eas­i­er trail with wild­flow­ers, or turn right for a steep­er climb. You can also start from the Trail­head car park and hike in an anti-clock­wise direc­tion, head­ing right and merg­ing onto the sec­ond and third falls hike trail. You’ll pass over the top of either First or Sec­ond Falls before reach­ing Deep view lookout.

4. Explore the wilder­ness — Black Hill Con­ser­va­tion Park

Take a slow walk along the Rasp­ber­ry hike off Mon­ta­cute Road. Take the time to be still and lis­ten to the birds in the gul­ly. Can you see the native rasp­ber­ry? Sense the space around you and enjoy the qui­et. You can even try for­est bathing to fur­ther relax your body and calm your mind in the beau­ti­ful pres­ence of the parks’ nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment. Can you find the water­fall at the start of the gul­ly? It is ephemer­al: it only flows in heavy rain.

5. See panoram­ic views of Ade­laide — Black Hill Con­ser­va­tion Park

Take the sum­mit hike from the Addi­son Ave entrance. Turn south at the end of Addi­son Ave and fol­low the fire track until it turns into a walk­ing track. A steep walk with some dif­fi­cult sec­tions is reward­ed by a gul­ly with vast­ly dif­fer­ent habi­tats and veg­e­ta­tion on the two sides. One side rocky and sun exposed has plen­ti­ful grass trees, the oth­er side is more shel­tered and has a great vari­ety of herba­cious plants and wild­flow­ers. Look behind you and you will see panoram­ic views of the Ade­laide met­ro­pol­i­tan area. Can you iden­ti­fy any of the buildings?

Want to join your local Friends of Parks and Nature Group?

The Friends of Black Hill and Mori­al­ta is one of 150+ Friends of Parks and Nature groups ded­i­cat­ed to pro­tect­ing var­i­ous areas with­in our beau­ti­ful state. With over 5000 mem­bers, con­sist­ing of all ages and back­grounds, these groups care for native plants and ani­mals, main­tain walk­ing trails, restore habi­tats and help look after parks across the state. If you’d like to get involved with your com­mu­ni­ty, find your local Friends group here!

Park of the Month:

Through­out June, Black Hill Con­ser­va­tion Park and Mori­al­ta Con­ser­va­tion Park are being cel­e­brat­ed as the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vicePark of the Month. There are lots of events and activ­i­ties to get involved in, find out more.