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Top 10 Fleurieu hidden spots
Top 10

Top 10 Fleurieu hidden spots

The places locals know that visitors miss

Where the locals go

Every destination has the headline list - the Bluff, the Cube, Port Willunga jetty - and then the second list that locals quietly love and visitors never find. This is the second list. None of these are secret in any literal sense - they're all on a map - but each one delivers a quieter, more personal Fleurieu experience than the postcards.

Go on a weekday if you want them to yourself.

  1. 1
    Blowhole Beach
    Cape Jervis

    Blowhole Beach

    The hidden cove inside Deep Creek National Park. 4WD or a steep 3km walk down from Cobbler Hill. The reward is a beach almost no-one else makes it to.

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  2. 2
    Parsons Beach
    Victor Harbor

    Parsons Beach

    A wild surf beach at the western end of Newland Head Conservation Park. No facilities, no lifeguards, often empty - and the cliffs above are a Heysen Trail highlight.

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  3. 3
    Myponga & Second Valley

    Myponga Beach

    Down a narrow dirt road from the highway near Myponga, this small cove sits at the foot of cliffs with no facilities and almost never a soul on the sand.

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  4. 4
    Victor Harbor

    Kings Beach

    A sheltered cove at the foot of the Waitpinga Cliffs. A short, steep track down from the clifftop carpark - in winter the carpark itself is a quiet whale-watching lookout.

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  5. 5
    Port Elliot

    Green Bay

    A tiny tucked-away cove between Rocky Bay and Knights Beach, accessible via the Harbourmasters Walking Trail. Almost no-one outside Port Elliot knows about it.

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  6. 6
    Cape Jervis

    Tunkalilla Beach

    5 kilometres of wild Southern Ocean coast accessed via a rough dirt road into the eastern end of Deep Creek. One of the most remote beaches on the Fleurieu.

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  7. 7
    Cape Jervis

    Fishery Beach

    A historic whaling-station cove east of Cape Jervis with heritage ruins along the foreshore. Reached by a short gravel road and almost always empty.

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  8. 8
    Glacier Rock (Selwyn Rock)
    Inman Valley

    Glacier Rock (Selwyn Rock)

    A 510-million-year-old glacial pavement on the river foreshore that almost no visitors know about. Geology and quiet picnic spot in one.

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  9. 9
    Inman Valley

    Mount Magnificent Conservation Park

    A 3.5km Heysen Trail summit loop with views to Lake Alexandrina, the Coorong and the McLaren Vale plains. You will rarely meet another walker.

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  10. 10
    Strathalbyn

    Tolderol Game Reserve

    A 428-hectare wetland on the north-west shore of Lake Alexandrina with bird hides - one of the best birdwatching sites in southern Australia, and almost completely unknown to non-birders.

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