Stringybark Slopes and Creek Valleys of Scott Creek

Overview

Scott Creek Conservation Park sits in the Cherry Gardens and Mount Bold area of the Adelaide Hills, about 30 kilometres south east of Adelaide. It protects 706 hectares of steep valley country, rounded ridgelines and small creeks that feed into Scott Creek, creating a park with a much more folded and varied feel than its size first suggests.

This is an important conservation area in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges, with high quality habitat and some of the most diverse remaining indigenous vegetation in the region. Much of the park is natural bushland, with creek catchments and sheltered gullies giving it a strong sense of enclosure and a distinctly hilly character.

Highlights

The landscape here is shaped by steep-sided valleys, rounded ridge tops and a network of creeks that cut through the park. Those changes in slope and aspect give Scott Creek a constantly shifting feel, from drier ridges to cooler, damper creeklines.

One of the things that sets the park apart is the way its vegetation follows the land. Messmate stringybark dominates much of the upper canopy, while creek flats and sheltered valleys carry river red gum, manna gum and lush creekline plants. In places, the higher ground opens out enough to give long views across the surrounding hills, and from the highest country there are distant views towards the coast.

Best Time to Visit

Scott Creek is usually at its best from the cooler months into spring, when the hills are greener, the creeklines are fresher and flowering shrubs and orchids add extra colour through the bush. Cool wet winters and mild spring conditions suit the park’s steep, undulating terrain far better than the heat of high summer.

Spring is especially rewarding if you are interested in wildflowers, with heaths, fringe myrtle, grevillea and a range of orchids among the standout seasonal features.

Plants and Animals

Nearly 400 native plant species have been recorded here, and the park contains most of the eucalypt species native to the Mount Lofty Ranges. Messmate stringybark is the main upper canopy tree, joined by South Australian blue gum, pink gum and cup gum, while the valleys and creeklines support river red gum, manna gum, silky tea-tree, swamp wattle and soft water fern.

The flora is a major part of what makes Scott Creek special. More than 100 recorded plant species have been classified as rare, vulnerable or endangered, including several spider-orchids and Derwent speedwell. The park is also known for a diverse array of native fauna. Common ringtail possums, brushtail possums, echidnas, western grey kangaroos and several bat species occur here, and viable populations of the endangered southern brown bandicoot have been recorded.

Culture and Heritage

Scott Creek Conservation Park lies within the country of the Peramangk people of the western Mount Lofty Ranges. Stream valleys including Scott Creek were major travelling routes through the hills, linking higher country with the plains and coast, and the area’s permanent water and sheltered creek flats would have made it an important place within that landscape.

The park also carries a strong layer of post-contact history. From the mid-1800s the area was logged, farmed and mined for copper and silver, and parts of the old Almana mine workings and ruins remain as reminders of that period.