South Australia highlights
When was the last time you looked at something so beautiful you forgot how to breathe? Maybe it’s time to visit South Australia.
Here you can get up close and personal with some of the most well-loved creatures on the planet. Watch giant whales, from the stunning cliff faces of the Eyre Peninsula, as they make their migration through the Southern Ocean, swim with the welcoming sea lions and dolphins in Baird Bay, spot koalas, emus, kangaroos and wallabies as they roam their natural habitat and visit Kangaroo Island, the best place in Australia to see an abundance of wildlife in all its native glory.
To star-gaze beneath a majestic sky, head to the Outback, it is easily accessible and its vast and remote terrain will blow your mind. For culture, visit Adelaide, South Australia’s elegant and vibrant capital city, home to beautiful architecture and fabulous shops and restaurants. And for those with a penchant for fine wine, there are 17 wine regions with beautifully maintained vineyards and over 300 cellar doors to work your way through.
The breadth of experience you can have in South Australia is endless and when you travel in this beautiful area you will understand why its people are vigilant in minimizing their impact on the environment. They work hard to progress conservation and eco-sensitive management projects and put South Australia at the forefront of responsible tourism awareness. No Species Loss is the first statewide nature conservation strategy which plans to protect the wide array of ecosystems and aims to prevent the loss of any more species, whether they are living on land, in rivers, creeks, lakes and estuaries or the sea. South Australia is the world’s oldest continent and demands great awe and respect. For geologists, its limestone cliffs, volcanic craters, fossils and caves will tell its ancient story.
Outstanding landscapes and wildlife experiences that capture the very best of South Australia and are not to be missed include:
Kangaroo Island
Widely regarded as Australia’s Galapagos, Kangaroo Island is the best place in Australia to see the widest range of free roaming native animals in their natural habitat - kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, seals, sea lions, penguins, echidna, platypus and goannas, to name but a few. Almost a third of the Island is pristine wilderness or conservation parks, 21 in total, and it has retained its rich diversity of flora and fauna, much of which is not found on the mainland. The first thing that strikes visitors when they arrive on Kangaroo Island is its size. Only 15kms from the South Australian mainland, the island is nearly three times the size of London. It is dotted with secluded beaches where visitors can relax in the sun or do a spot of fishing or surfing. In fact, Australia’s best beach, Vivonne Bay, is located here.
Kangaroo Island is also home to sheep farmers, beekeepers, cheese and winemakers whose local produce is widely used to create award winning gourmet cuisine in the island’s numerous restaurants, whilst small galleries and stores showcase the work of local artists. And, last but not least, the range of accommodation options is extensive – eco lodges, wilderness retreats, private villas, hosted bed and breakfasts.
Kangaroo Island 3 day tour Kangaroo Island 2 day tour Kangaroo Island luxury lodge
WIN a trip to Kangaroo Island by entering here...
Flinders Ranges and the Outback
The Flinders Ranges are the world’s oldest mountain range and act as a gateway to the rugged Outback – and they start just 3 hours from the city of Adelaide. It is home to remarkable flora and fauna, clear waterholes, thermal springs and a rich variety of bird and reptile species including Blue Tounge Lizards and Thorny Devils. Big Red kangaroos, Wedge-tailed Eagles, Emus and Yellow Footed Rock Wallabies can also be found against a backdrop of red desert sands, spectacular gorges, pioneering history and Aboriginal art and culture. The world’s oldest reef was also discovered in Flinders Ranges, estimated to be 650 million years old, this reef is ten times higher than the Great Barrier Reef and possesses fossil evidence of the earliest examples of primitive animal life.
Experience a real Australian Outback adventure and make sure you do the following:
The Great Australian Outback Cattle Drive. This is the ultimate Outback experience. Climb into the saddle and help herd cattle along one of Australia's most evocative stock trails, passing through inspirational landscapes and collecting a swag of adventure stories along the way.
Wilpena Pound, an 83 square kilometre rock amphitheatre, once submerged under the prehistoric inland sea, can now easily be explored on foot, on a scenic flight or by taking a 4WD tour.
Coober Pedy is the world's opal-mining capital, a frontier town renowned for its underground living which includes many homes, a Serbian Orthodox church and the famed Desert Cave Hotel.
Rawnsley Park Station is a working sheep station set in nearly 12,000 hectares. Accommodation highlights are the property's luxurious eco-villas made of straw bales and reclaimed timber, whilst activities include bush walking, scenic flights, Outback 4WD and cycling tours and sheep shearing demonstrations.
Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is home to rugged mountain scenery, with over 160 varieties of birds attracted to the area's waterholes and gorges, as well as the largest telescope to be found in the Southern Hemisphere, ideal for memorable star gazing. The amazing 4WD Ridgetop Tour to Siller’s Lookout is also truly unforgettable. The Prairie Hotel is a true Aussie icon and is essentially a quintessential Outback pub with a well deserved reputation both for its innovative five-star feral cuisine and for the hospitality of the locals. The Prairie also offers a good range of accommodation, and has been known to host the likes of Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel.
Flinders Ranges wilderness tour Adelaide to Alice Springs tour
Eyre Peninsula
The Eyre Peninsula’s waters offer the sort of encounters that most people dream about. Baird Bay on Eyre Peninsula is one of few places in the world where you can swim with wild Australian Sea Lions and dolphins.
For the daring, there is cage-diving with Great White Sharks or swimming with large, fast (and very valuable) tuna. As well as these amazing opportunities to get closer to creatures of the deep, the Eyre Peninsula offers some of the best, freshest and most mouth-watering seafood in the world. Inland, the awesome Outback landscape of the Gawler Ranges offers encounters with kangaroos, emus, wombats, soaring eagles and rare native Australian animals.
The Eyre Peninsula is also home to the Nullarbor Plain, a vast, treeless plain that is the largest single piece of rock in the world at 77,000 square miles and stretching 720km. Beneath this unique landscape is a honeycomb networks of caves and lakes including the Koonalda Cave and Bunabie Blowhole.
Eyre Peninsula tours in South Australia Perth to Adelaide tour Adelaide to Perth tour
The Wine Regions
Barossa, McLaren Vale, Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills and Coonawarra are all regions which produce quality, world-famous wines. You can explore unique boutique wineries as well as those of the big players like Jacobs Creek and Penfolds and Wolf Blass. To make the most of their time, visitors are encouraged to buy a ‘Cellar Door Pass’ which allows cardholders to experience up to six cellar doors from 50 participating wineries, take away six bottles of wine and take part in premium wine tastings and tours. Wine-tasting is a relaxing and enjoyable way to soak up the different areas history, culture and tradition, to share a drink with the people who actually make the wines, and to sample the delicious accompanying local produce.
Two wineries that are passionate about environmental practices, sustainable agriculture and innovation are:
Aboriginal culture
To Aboriginal Australians the land is not just soil or rock or minerals but the whole environment: the land, the water, the air and all the life they support. They see themselves as part of the land and the land as part of them. Woman and man, all the elements, the sun, the moon, the earth and the skies are all related and are all linked by spirituality, culture and country. This is known as the ‘Dreaming’. The ‘Dreaming’ means we humans are not separate from the environment, but individually united with it. It is an eternal and inexhaustible cycle of life which is the basis of Aboriginal law and the essence of their culture and religious beliefs.
Australia is made up of several hundred language groups, each aligned with Spirit
Ancestors of the Dreaming’. These spirit Ancestors are commonly symbolised as totems of native Australian animals such as the kangaroo, emu, snake and birds – which marks a deep respect for these animals. Aboriginal Australians have a spiritual view of conception and view human life as a cycle of reincarnation. Spirit children came to their mothers from the dreaming place and the spirits of Aboriginal people returned to these places when they died. Their inseparable connection to land continues today and, even though many Aboriginal people do not have access to their traditional lands, they nonetheless know where their lands are, and therefore know their traditional songs – ‘to know your song is to know your place’.
Places to find more information on this culture are:
Aboriginal Cultures Gallery (at the South Australian Museum) - With over 3,000 items on display the gallery showcases the largest collection of Australian Aboriginal artefacts in the world. Through interactive media and innovative displays, you can experience the history and discover the richness of the world’s oldest continuously living culture. The gallery represents a summary of achievements of Aboriginal Australia, arising from the challenges posed by the country itself.
Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute – Tandanya is a multi-arts complex that promotes Indigenous culture through arts, performance, film and education. Speak with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and watch their inspiring didgeridoo performances. There are always new exhibitions which significantly capture Indigenous culture from past to present, and provide visions for the future.
Flinders Ranges scenic tour
Sustainability:
The government of South Australia’s strategic plans for attaining sustainability include:
To enjoy a remarkable wildlife journey in South Australia it is advisable to take a tour with one of the many knowledgeable and responsible tour operators as listed in this article.
South Australia is environmentally forward thinking and offers a variety of sustainable travel experiences to satisfy the responsible traveller. The cost to the environment therefore can be limited through planning an itinerary that takes advantage of such experiences, ultimately proving that a trip to this part of the world can be considered at least as, if not more, culturally sensitive and environmentally aware as destinations much closer to home. With such great scope for amazing and worthwhile experience and adventure, South Australia is quite simply the greatest escape you will ever make.
Tailor made Australia holiday
Take a look at our great range of South Australia holidays here
Need help finding a great value holiday? Contact our helpdesk at amelia@responsibletravel.com
Plus, WIN a holiday to Kangaroo Island, South Austalia. Click here to enter...
Here you can get up close and personal with some of the most well-loved creatures on the planet. Watch giant whales, from the stunning cliff faces of the Eyre Peninsula, as they make their migration through the Southern Ocean, swim with the welcoming sea lions and dolphins in Baird Bay, spot koalas, emus, kangaroos and wallabies as they roam their natural habitat and visit Kangaroo Island, the best place in Australia to see an abundance of wildlife in all its native glory.To star-gaze beneath a majestic sky, head to the Outback, it is easily accessible and its vast and remote terrain will blow your mind. For culture, visit Adelaide, South Australia’s elegant and vibrant capital city, home to beautiful architecture and fabulous shops and restaurants. And for those with a penchant for fine wine, there are 17 wine regions with beautifully maintained vineyards and over 300 cellar doors to work your way through.
The breadth of experience you can have in South Australia is endless and when you travel in this beautiful area you will understand why its people are vigilant in minimizing their impact on the environment. They work hard to progress conservation and eco-sensitive management projects and put South Australia at the forefront of responsible tourism awareness. No Species Loss is the first statewide nature conservation strategy which plans to protect the wide array of ecosystems and aims to prevent the loss of any more species, whether they are living on land, in rivers, creeks, lakes and estuaries or the sea. South Australia is the world’s oldest continent and demands great awe and respect. For geologists, its limestone cliffs, volcanic craters, fossils and caves will tell its ancient story.
Outstanding landscapes and wildlife experiences that capture the very best of South Australia and are not to be missed include:
Kangaroo Island Widely regarded as Australia’s Galapagos, Kangaroo Island is the best place in Australia to see the widest range of free roaming native animals in their natural habitat - kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, seals, sea lions, penguins, echidna, platypus and goannas, to name but a few. Almost a third of the Island is pristine wilderness or conservation parks, 21 in total, and it has retained its rich diversity of flora and fauna, much of which is not found on the mainland. The first thing that strikes visitors when they arrive on Kangaroo Island is its size. Only 15kms from the South Australian mainland, the island is nearly three times the size of London. It is dotted with secluded beaches where visitors can relax in the sun or do a spot of fishing or surfing. In fact, Australia’s best beach, Vivonne Bay, is located here.
Kangaroo Island is also home to sheep farmers, beekeepers, cheese and winemakers whose local produce is widely used to create award winning gourmet cuisine in the island’s numerous restaurants, whilst small galleries and stores showcase the work of local artists. And, last but not least, the range of accommodation options is extensive – eco lodges, wilderness retreats, private villas, hosted bed and breakfasts.
WIN a trip to Kangaroo Island by entering here...
Flinders Ranges and the Outback The Flinders Ranges are the world’s oldest mountain range and act as a gateway to the rugged Outback – and they start just 3 hours from the city of Adelaide. It is home to remarkable flora and fauna, clear waterholes, thermal springs and a rich variety of bird and reptile species including Blue Tounge Lizards and Thorny Devils. Big Red kangaroos, Wedge-tailed Eagles, Emus and Yellow Footed Rock Wallabies can also be found against a backdrop of red desert sands, spectacular gorges, pioneering history and Aboriginal art and culture. The world’s oldest reef was also discovered in Flinders Ranges, estimated to be 650 million years old, this reef is ten times higher than the Great Barrier Reef and possesses fossil evidence of the earliest examples of primitive animal life.
Experience a real Australian Outback adventure and make sure you do the following:
The Great Australian Outback Cattle Drive. This is the ultimate Outback experience. Climb into the saddle and help herd cattle along one of Australia's most evocative stock trails, passing through inspirational landscapes and collecting a swag of adventure stories along the way.
Wilpena Pound, an 83 square kilometre rock amphitheatre, once submerged under the prehistoric inland sea, can now easily be explored on foot, on a scenic flight or by taking a 4WD tour.
Coober Pedy is the world's opal-mining capital, a frontier town renowned for its underground living which includes many homes, a Serbian Orthodox church and the famed Desert Cave Hotel. Rawnsley Park Station is a working sheep station set in nearly 12,000 hectares. Accommodation highlights are the property's luxurious eco-villas made of straw bales and reclaimed timber, whilst activities include bush walking, scenic flights, Outback 4WD and cycling tours and sheep shearing demonstrations.
Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is home to rugged mountain scenery, with over 160 varieties of birds attracted to the area's waterholes and gorges, as well as the largest telescope to be found in the Southern Hemisphere, ideal for memorable star gazing. The amazing 4WD Ridgetop Tour to Siller’s Lookout is also truly unforgettable. The Prairie Hotel is a true Aussie icon and is essentially a quintessential Outback pub with a well deserved reputation both for its innovative five-star feral cuisine and for the hospitality of the locals. The Prairie also offers a good range of accommodation, and has been known to host the likes of Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel.
Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula’s waters offer the sort of encounters that most people dream about. Baird Bay on Eyre Peninsula is one of few places in the world where you can swim with wild Australian Sea Lions and dolphins.
For the daring, there is cage-diving with Great White Sharks or swimming with large, fast (and very valuable) tuna. As well as these amazing opportunities to get closer to creatures of the deep, the Eyre Peninsula offers some of the best, freshest and most mouth-watering seafood in the world. Inland, the awesome Outback landscape of the Gawler Ranges offers encounters with kangaroos, emus, wombats, soaring eagles and rare native Australian animals.
The Eyre Peninsula is also home to the Nullarbor Plain, a vast, treeless plain that is the largest single piece of rock in the world at 77,000 square miles and stretching 720km. Beneath this unique landscape is a honeycomb networks of caves and lakes including the Koonalda Cave and Bunabie Blowhole.
The Wine Regions Barossa, McLaren Vale, Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills and Coonawarra are all regions which produce quality, world-famous wines. You can explore unique boutique wineries as well as those of the big players like Jacobs Creek and Penfolds and Wolf Blass. To make the most of their time, visitors are encouraged to buy a ‘Cellar Door Pass’ which allows cardholders to experience up to six cellar doors from 50 participating wineries, take away six bottles of wine and take part in premium wine tastings and tours. Wine-tasting is a relaxing and enjoyable way to soak up the different areas history, culture and tradition, to share a drink with the people who actually make the wines, and to sample the delicious accompanying local produce.
Two wineries that are passionate about environmental practices, sustainable agriculture and innovation are:
- Banrock Station Wine & Wetland Centre – This is Australia’s largest wine ecotourism complex. Since 1998 Banrock Station, in partnership with Landcare Australia, has been giving proceeds from its wine sales to fund and support projects that save wildlife habitats worldwide. Past projects have helped to save Australia’s regent parrot, freckled duck and green and golden bell frogs. Banrock Station Wine & Wetland Centre, located on the Murray River, offers visitors self-guided walking trails complete with story centres and bird hides to observe native black swans, pelicans, swamp hens, ibis, spoonbills, herons and egrets. In addition there is wine tasting, excellent meals and guided walks.
- Gemtree Vineyards – located in the picturesque McLaren region, 35 kms south of Adelaide, the entire Gemtree estate has been farmed biodynamically since 2007. Since 1998 Gemtree has been developing the 10 ha Gemtree Wetlands. Having created 6 dams and planted 20,000 native trees, they are now working in partnership with Greening Australia creating an area of biodiversity which is a major haven for native plants, frogs, birds and other animals, as well as being a great teaching resource for the community.
Aboriginal culture To Aboriginal Australians the land is not just soil or rock or minerals but the whole environment: the land, the water, the air and all the life they support. They see themselves as part of the land and the land as part of them. Woman and man, all the elements, the sun, the moon, the earth and the skies are all related and are all linked by spirituality, culture and country. This is known as the ‘Dreaming’. The ‘Dreaming’ means we humans are not separate from the environment, but individually united with it. It is an eternal and inexhaustible cycle of life which is the basis of Aboriginal law and the essence of their culture and religious beliefs.
Australia is made up of several hundred language groups, each aligned with Spirit
Ancestors of the Dreaming’. These spirit Ancestors are commonly symbolised as totems of native Australian animals such as the kangaroo, emu, snake and birds – which marks a deep respect for these animals. Aboriginal Australians have a spiritual view of conception and view human life as a cycle of reincarnation. Spirit children came to their mothers from the dreaming place and the spirits of Aboriginal people returned to these places when they died. Their inseparable connection to land continues today and, even though many Aboriginal people do not have access to their traditional lands, they nonetheless know where their lands are, and therefore know their traditional songs – ‘to know your song is to know your place’.Places to find more information on this culture are:
Aboriginal Cultures Gallery (at the South Australian Museum) - With over 3,000 items on display the gallery showcases the largest collection of Australian Aboriginal artefacts in the world. Through interactive media and innovative displays, you can experience the history and discover the richness of the world’s oldest continuously living culture. The gallery represents a summary of achievements of Aboriginal Australia, arising from the challenges posed by the country itself. Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute – Tandanya is a multi-arts complex that promotes Indigenous culture through arts, performance, film and education. Speak with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and watch their inspiring didgeridoo performances. There are always new exhibitions which significantly capture Indigenous culture from past to present, and provide visions for the future.
Sustainability: The government of South Australia’s strategic plans for attaining sustainability include:
- Achieving the Kyoto target by limiting the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 108% of 1990 levels during 2008-2012, as a first step towards reducing emissions by 60% by 2050
- Supporting the development of renewable energy so that it comprises 20% of the state’s electricity production and consumption by 2014
- Improving the energy efficiency of government buildings by 25% from 2000-01 levels by 2014
- Increasing the energy efficiency of dwellings by 10% by 2014
- Managing South Australia’s water resources within sustainable limits by 2018
- Reducing South Australia’s ecological footprint by 30% by 2050
- Reducing waste to landfill by 25% by 2014
- Increasing the use of public transport to 10% of metropolitan weekday passenger vehicle kilometres travelled by 2018.
To enjoy a remarkable wildlife journey in South Australia it is advisable to take a tour with one of the many knowledgeable and responsible tour operators as listed in this article.
South Australia is environmentally forward thinking and offers a variety of sustainable travel experiences to satisfy the responsible traveller. The cost to the environment therefore can be limited through planning an itinerary that takes advantage of such experiences, ultimately proving that a trip to this part of the world can be considered at least as, if not more, culturally sensitive and environmentally aware as destinations much closer to home. With such great scope for amazing and worthwhile experience and adventure, South Australia is quite simply the greatest escape you will ever make.
Take a look at our great range of South Australia holidays here Need help finding a great value holiday? Contact our helpdesk at amelia@responsibletravel.com Plus, WIN a holiday to Kangaroo Island, South Austalia. Click here to enter...