Ranges, Salt Lakes and Limestone Coasts

Overview

South Australia’s protected areas span an unusually broad cross-section of Australian landscapes. More than 350 parks and reserves protect over 20 per cent of the state, ranging from small remnants of native vegetation near towns and agricultural districts to immense reserves across the arid north. Between them are the wooded Mount Lofty Ranges, the Flinders and Gawler ranges, mallee country, wetlands, islands, long stretches of coast and extensive desert landscapes.

That geographical spread gives hiking in South Australia a very different character from one region to another. The parks around Adelaide can feel enclosed and wooded, while further north the country opens into rocky ranges, broad plains, dune fields and salt lakes. Along the southern coastline, cliffs, beaches, headlands and limestone formations become defining features.

Highlights

The Flinders Ranges contain some of the state’s most recognisable landforms, including the great folded ranges surrounding Wilpena Pound and rock sequences that preserve hundreds of millions of years of geological history. Further north and east, South Australia’s desert parks protect immense dune systems, stony country, wetlands, mound springs and the salt flats of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre.

The scale changes again along the western and southern margins of the state. The Nullarbor parks protect the world’s largest semi-arid karst landscape, with an apparently level limestone surface concealing extensive caves and sinkholes before meeting the Southern Ocean at the Bunda Cliffs. In the south-east, the Limestone Coast includes caves, coastal dunes, lagoons, volcanic craters and crater lakes, while elsewhere the coastline ranges from sheltered bays to exposed cliffs and long sandy beaches.

Best Time to Visit

There is no single best season across a state this large. In the northern desert parks and ranges, autumn, winter and spring generally bring the most comfortable conditions for walking, and National Parks and Wildlife Service SA identifies the cooler months as the preferred period for visiting many inland areas. Seasonal change can also transform the landscape, particularly after rain when arid vegetation responds quickly and wildflowers can spread across country that had appeared sparse and dry.

Southern and coastal parks have a different rhythm. Cooler months bring flowing waterways, fungi and orchids in some higher-rainfall districts, while spring is associated with widespread flowering and increased animal activity. Coastal parks can remain rewarding across much of the year, so the best period depends as much on the part of South Australia as the season itself.

Plants and Animals

South Australia’s parks conserve habitats ranging from heathlands, forests and woodlands to deserts, wetlands, beaches, caves and marine environments. In the arid interior, vegetation includes coolibah woodland, river red gums along watercourses, mulga, gidgee, Mitchell grass, spinifex and plants adapted to surviving long dry periods before responding rapidly to rain.

The state’s protected areas are also important for animals adapted to very different environments. Desert parks support specialised reptiles, birds and mammals, while the Nullarbor provides habitat for species including the southern hairy-nosed wombat. Coastal and wetland reserves support large numbers of waterbirds and shorebirds, and offshore and coastal waters provide habitat for marine mammals. Long-running conservation programs such as Bounceback work across the Flinders, Gammon, Olary and Gawler ranges to restore habitat and recover threatened species at a landscape scale.

Culture and Heritage

South Australia has a long history of formally protecting natural places. Belair National Park was created in 1891, beginning a reserve system that has since expanded across the state. Many parks preserve more than natural landscapes, with historic mines, ruins, lighthouses, pastoral structures and other built remains recording periods of settlement, industry and changing land use.

These traces are particularly visible in some remote and coastal parks, where abandoned mining settlements, pastoral infrastructure and maritime sites sit within landscapes now managed primarily for conservation. Together they show that many of South Australia’s present-day parks have passed through several phases of use and protection, leaving cultural landscapes alongside the geological and ecological features for which they are now recognised.