Upgrades at metropolitan Adelaide parks

Improv­ing vis­i­tor access to pop­u­lar nation­al parks

Vis­i­tors now have eas­i­er access to some of Adelaide’s most pop­u­lar nation­al parks.

This includes increased car park­ing capac­i­ty at key sites, improved vis­i­tor expe­ri­ence and improved vis­i­tor safety.

Upgrades are now com­plete at Mark Oliphant Con­ser­va­tion Park in the Ade­laide Hills and Cham­bers Gul­ly – the pop­u­lar entrance point to the Cle­land Nation­al Park trail net­work – and Mori­al­ta Con­ser­va­tion Park in Adelaide’s east.

Find out more about these works, includ­ing a snap­shot of the upgrades and deliv­ery timelines.

Works at Mori­al­ta Con­ser­va­tion Park

Nes­tled 8 km east of Ade­laide, Mori­al­ta Con­ser­va­tion Park is home to the pop­u­lar Mukan­thi Nature Play Space, which was opened in 2017.

The new nature play space rapid­ly drew in the crowds, putting pres­sure on the car park locat­ed adja­cent to the site and forc­ing vis­i­tors’ vehi­cles to spill onto neigh­bor­ing streets.

This prompt­ed the South Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment to fund the upgrade of a tem­po­rary car park locat­ed near the Mukan­thi Nature Play Space, seal­ing and con­nect­ing it to the exist­ing sealed car park on Strad­broke Road.

The new car park pro­vides vis­i­tors with safe and direct access to Mukan­thi, mak­ing it eas­i­er for school groups and fam­i­lies to enjoy the play space and spend time explor­ing nature. 

The car park com­pris­es more than 100 clear­ly marked park­ing spaces (includ­ing 4 acces­si­ble spaces), 4 motor­bike parks, a des­ig­nat­ed bus drop-off and pick up space, one entry dri­ve­way and two exit dri­ve­ways. New walk­ing paths guide vis­i­tors to the nature play space and beyond.

The car park was care­ful­ly designed to min­imise unnec­es­sary impact on the sur­round­ing veg­e­ta­tion, and DEW ecol­o­gists chose 1650 local native plants to reveg­e­tate the area. These plants are now in pace and add to the beau­ty and bio­di­ver­si­ty of the veg­e­ta­tion in the car park precinct.

Works at Mark Oliphant Con­ser­va­tion Park

An increase in vis­i­ta­tion at Mark Oliphant Con­ser­va­tion Park in the Ade­laide Hills in recent years has seen a greater demand on park­ing near the Scott Creek Road entrance at Longwood.

This prompt­ed a range of upgrades to this entrance, includ­ing expand­ing and recon­fig­ur­ing the car park area to cater for approx­i­mate­ly 20 vehicles.

The near­by pic­nic shel­ter was refur­bished and a new pic­nic table has also been installed. A short, acces­si­ble path has also been con­struct­ed to link the car park to the pic­nic area.

Park entry sig­nage has also been improved to pro­vide a more wel­com­ing street pres­ence, and new trail­head sig­nage and improved wayfind­ing sig­nage was also installed.

Works at Cham­bers Gully

Cham­bers Gul­ly in the foothills of Ade­laide is the start­ing point for many of the walk­ing trails in Cle­land Nation­al Park.

Work is now com­plete, with vis­i­tors now ben­e­fit­ing from improved trail­head sig­nage, extra park­ing and addi­tion­al vis­i­tor ameni­ties at this pop­u­lar spot.

Cre­at­ing clear­ly defined car park spaces and installing wheel stops has max­imised the num­ber of avail­able car parks.

Broad­er site works includ­ed installing 2 new bench­es and wayfind­ing signs along the Cham­bers Gul­ly to Mount Lofty Sum­mit Trail.

Con­tact us

For more infor­ma­tion about the Com­mu­ni­ty Access to Nation­al Parks project, con­tact the project team.