About the area:The picturesque Fleurieu Peninsula is located 30 minutes south of Adelaide in South Australia. With its central highlands and coastal fringes, the Fleurieu Peninsula offers wine, wildlife and water in delightful abundance. Wildlife presents itself to the visitor throughout the year. Little Penguins return to nests on Granite (Penguin) Island every evening of the year. Kangaroos are seen on the hillsides in most of the 20 or so national parks, in particular in Cox Scrub, Newland Head and Deep Creek. The Coorong National Park is famous for its migratory waders and the Onkaparinga Estuary, Aldinga Scrub and areas around Mount Compass, Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island reward bird watchers. Winter and springtime wildflowers and orchids delight the keen observer.
Being a peninsula, water plays a major part in the recreational activities of locals and visitors alike. Long sandy beaches, rugged cliffscapes, and sheltered coves introduce a range of year round holiday activities that include fishing, surfing, scuba and snorkelling, sailing and swimming. Winter migrations of the Southern Right whales are seen along the coastlines of the Peninsula, particularly along Encounter Bay.
Kangaroo Island
Victor Harbor
Carickalinga cliffs
The Facts
How to Get There:drive south from Adelaide via the South Eastern Freeway and Princes Highway to Murray Bridge, or the coastal route via Main South Road (Cape Jervis) or Victor Harbour Road.
Best Time To Go: The climate is typically Mediterranean with cool winters May to August ranging through 10-18 degrees, and warm to hot dry summers November to March ranging through 24-35 degrees. In the summer months, the area to the west of an imaginary line drawn between Port Elliot and Yankalilla is milder in temperature than the northern and eastern areas. Being bounded on both sides by the Southern Ocean, this region is affected by sea breezes. Coastal areas tend to have minimum winter temperatures that are several degrees warmer than those recorded by the inland regions.
Hahndorf: Adelaide Hills; Mt. Lofty Ranges; Totness Recreation Park
Mt. Barker: Laratina Wetlands
Mt. Pleasant: Mt. Pleasant (542 metres); Scott Hill (473 metres); Saunders Gorge; Palmer Granite Boulders Area
Gumeracha: Chain of Ponds; Fox's Peak (514 metres)
Ashton: Horsnell Gully Conservation Park
Lenswood: Lenswood Recreation Park
Montacute: Montacute Conservation Park; Black Hill Conservation Park; Morialta Conservation Park
Myponga: Myponga Conservation Park; Nixon-Skinner Conservation Park; Yulte Conservation Park
Piccadilly: Mount Lofty Botanical Gardens; Eurilla Conservation Park; Loftia Recreation Park; Clelland Conservation Park
Historic Places
Willunga: Delabole village (slate quarry); Pug cottages; Church of England; Old Courthouse & Police Station Museum (1855); Old Post and Telegraph Station (1857, 1864); Old Bush Inn (1839); Willunga Hotel (1870); 17 St Andrews Terrace (1850s); former Council Chambers, now Museum (1854); St Anne's Lodge (1850s)
Aldinga: old coaching inn (c.1840); St Anne's Church of England (1863); Uniting Church (1863)
Yankalilla: 'The Olives' (c.1859); Christ Church (1857); The Old Schoolhouse (the first place where Mary McKillop, Australia's first saint, and her Sisters of St Joseph order taught. Mary McKillop opened the school in 1867 with an enrolment of 40 pupils.)
Victor Harbor: Whaler's Haven; Adare homestead (1860s); Mount Breckan (1879); Newland Memorial Congregational Church (1869); Encounter Coast Discovery Centre (Customs House, 1865), St Augustine's Church of England (1869) Reads Wool Mill (1868); horse drawn tram to Granite Island; Foundation Inn, Yilki (1837); Old Mill (1851)
Strathalbyn: the town has over 30 buildings of historic interest, including St Andrew's Church (1848); Old Provincial Gas Company (1868); Strathalbyn Old Court House National Trust Museum (1858); Old Court House Museum (1867); Terminus Hotel (licensed in 1840); Glenbarr (built by William Rankine in 1842); Robin Hood Hotel (1855); Argus House; London House (1867); the Institute and Town Hall (1874); Albyn Terrace (used for scenes in the movie Picnic at Hanging Rock)
Mt. Barker: former Post Office (1860); Police Station and stables (1878); former corner shop (c.1860s); Nixon's Mill (1842).
Nairne: Dunn's Flour Mill (1842-54); Albert Mill; Police Station; Catholic Church; Miller's Arms Hotel; The Crooked Billet (1845, used as an Inn from 1851 to 1860); District Hotel (c.1851); Pioneer Cottage: Railway Station buildings.
Lobethal: former St John's Lutheran Church (1843-45); historic graves at the Lutheran Church Complex (from 1842); Lobethal College (1845); house behind 48 Mill Street (1840s).
Hahndorf: there are over 50 buildings of importance in Hahndorf which include Hans Heysen's House and Studio; Beerenberg Strawberry Farm (part of the historic Peach farming settlement, 1839); Thiele's Cottage, Thiele's Flower Shop; The Old Mill (1853); Detmold House (1861); Haebich's Cottage (c.1850); Storison Arts and Crafts (1880); German Arms Hotel (1861); Australian Arms Inn (c.1854) St Michael's Lutheran Church (1858, Australia's oldest Lutheran Church); Hahndorf Academy (1857, 1871-72); Hahndorf Inn (1863); St Paul's Lutheran Church (1886); Lubasch Barn (1840s); former Wittwer's Flour Mill (1864); German Cottage (1841); 'Putland's Cottage' (c.1840); George Paech Cottage (1840s); Mueller's Farmhouse (1840s). State Heritage Area website
Birdwood: Blumberg flour Mill (now the National Motor Museum, 1852); Blumberg Inn (1865)
Bridgewater: Raywood In-Service Training Centre Gardens (1935); Mill Cottage (1858-59); Bridgewater Mill (1860)
Callington: Callington township and Bremer Mine Conservation Area, including former Flour Mill (c.1850); former Police Station (1867); Bridge over Bremer River (1890); Explosives Hut at Old Bremer Copper Mine; Bremer Mine Settling Tanks; Bremer Mine Buildings
Noarlunga: Church of St Philip and St James (1850)
Mt. Pleasant: Herbig Family Tree (an old hollow red gum in which German migrant Friedrich Herbig and his wife lived and the first two of their sixteen children were born in the 1850s. By 1864 the family was living in a stone cottage.); Police Station (1860s); Palmer Granite Boulders Area Aboriginal rock art; Cookes Hill Aboriginal rock art.
About the area: The picturesque Fleurieu Peninsula is located 30 minutes south of Adelaide in South Australia. With its central highlands and coastal fringes, the Fleurieu Peninsula offers wine, wildlife and water in delightful abundance. Wildlife presents itself to the visitor throughout the year. Little Penguins return to nests on Granite (Penguin) Island every evening of the year. Kangaroos are seen on the hillsides in most of the 20 or so national parks, in particular in Cox Scrub, Newland Head and Deep Creek. The Coorong National Park is famous for its migratory waders and the Onkaparinga Estuary, Aldinga Scrub and areas around Mount Compass, Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island reward bird watchers. Winter and springtime wildflowers and orchids delight the keen observer.
