South Australia

Glass of Barossa Valley wine
South Australian Tourism Commission

South Australia is one million square kilometres of ancient Dreamtime landscapes and wild coastal beauty. It is also a land of incredible contrast: the endless desert of the north and the fertile vales of the south-east are a world apart.

In 1836 Colonel William Light chose the site for the capital of South Australia on Kaurna land beside the River Torrens. The settlement’s early days were far from ideal as the first colonists huddled in squalid mud huts, perhaps regretting they had no convict labour to call on. But today the world’s first planned city is a gracious capital of wide streets and generous public parks.

In the 1840s German Lutherans fleeing persecution in Europe settled in the Adelaide Hills and the Barossa Valley, bringing traditions of wine-growing and social liberty that have flourished here ever since. In the early 1970s the election of flamboyant rebel Don Dunstan as premier launched a decade of social reform unmatched in any other state. South Australians are proud of their history of social innovation, and their state has a well-earned reputation for tolerance and cultural diversity.

For travellers, South Australia is the perfect place to get off the beaten track. This is the nation’s most urbanised state, so the outback begins just an hour or two up the road from Adelaide.

The Flinders Ranges are one of the oldest mountain ranges on earth. At its centre, Wilpena Pound (Ikara) is a lost world of cypress pines and hidden creeks, its gorges created by Akurra the serpent as he travelled north with a grumbling belly full of salt water.

The state’s Southern Ocean coastline includes the sheer cliffs of the Great Australian Bight and the sheltered wetlands of the Coorong. This refuge for native and migratory birds begs you to sit quietly with a pair of binoculars.