Upgrades at metropolitan Adelaide parks

Improving visitor access to popular national parks

Work is underway to give visitors easier access to some of Adelaide’s most popular national parks.

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

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

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

To cater for the park's extra visitors, South Australian Government funding will enable a temporary car park (known as the overflow car park) located near the Mukanthi Nature Play Space to be formalised, sealed and connected to the existing sealed car park on Stradbroke Road.

This will create one large sealed car park that occupies the footprint of the two existing car parks (the sealed car park and the overflow car park), but reconfigured to maximise the number of vehicles it can accommodate.

The new car park will have approximately 100 clearly marked car park spaces, a designated bus drop-off and pick-up space, one entry driveway and 2 exit driveways.

New walking paths from the car park will provide safer access for visitors to the nature play space and beyond.

The car park footprint has been carefully designed to minimise unnecessary impact on the surrounding vegetation, however a small amount of vegetation will be removed as part of the construction works. DEW ecologists have selected 1650 local native plants to revegetate the car park precinct as part of the project.

A builder has been selected to undertake the project and works will begin from 1 August. The construction process is expected to take 8 to 10 weeks to complete.

While works are underway parking will be extremely limited, and we strongly recommend that you instead visit one of our other nearby metro parks, such as Cleland Conservation Park or Belair National Park.

While construction is underway visitors to Mukanthi play space must park at the Resource Centre or along Morialta Falls Road, or in permitted areas in nearby streets. Pedestrian access will remain unchanged other than exclusions in place around the construction site, and the Fourth Creek trail will not be affected. National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers and Council staff will monitor street parking and work to minimise the impact to nearby residents and park visitors.

We ask all visitors who choose to park on nearby streets to exercise safety precautions when crossing the road on their way to and from the park and to be careful not to obstruct the driveways of local residents when parking their vehicles.

Visitors may also choose to use public transport to travel to the park.

Note: this timeline is subject to change as the project progresses.

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 underway to provide extra parking and additional visitor facilities at this popular spot.

The car park area is being reconfigured to better use the available space, with wheelstops, fencing and other barriers also being installed.

Two picnic benches will also be installed at the site and a new trailhead and wayfinding signs will be erected along the walking trail.

Contact us

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