Stories
Longer reads, travel guides and field notes from the peninsula.
The Port Elliot walking trails: a coastal loop through the town
The Harbourmasters Trail is the short answer to 'what should we do for an hour in Port Elliot?' It is a sealed 1.9-kilometre loop that starts in the main street, hugs the granite cliffs, and takes in a half-dozen bays, a restored 1830s whaling lookout and one of the top bodyboarding breaks in Australia - and you can keep walking east from there all the way to the Murray Mouth.
April 2026 · 6 min read
Heritage trail: Strathalbyn to Willunga
The eastern Fleurieu was settled early and well - Strathalbyn was laid out in 1839 by Scottish free settlers, Willunga grew up around slate quarries in the 1840s, and Old Noarlunga is older still. A day's drive connects the three.
April 2026 · 5 min read
Whale watching on the Fleurieu
Each winter, southern right whales return to the Encounter Bay coastline to calve and mate in the sheltered waters where they were once hunted to near-extinction. Here is where to see them.
April 2026 · 5 min read
The wild south coast drive
The Main South Road between Yankalilla and Cape Jervis is one of South Australia's great scenic drives - windswept pastures, hidden coves, a 170-year-old flour mill, and the southernmost tip of the peninsula where the Heysen Trail begins.
April 2026 · 6 min read
48 hours on the Encounter Coast
The south coast of the Fleurieu - where Flinders met Baudin in 1802 and where southern right whales still return every winter - is a world apart from the wine country. Here is how to do it in two days.
April 2026 · 7 min read
A weekend in McLaren Vale
A detailed two-day guide to the Fleurieu's wine country - from Friday afternoon at the d'Arenberg Cube through to Sunday lunch at a heritage inn, with enough grenache and sea air in between to make you want to move.
April 2026 · 8 min read
The Tin Pot Tramway: McLaren Vale's forgotten horse railway
For half a century before the first motor truck rolled into McLaren Vale, a horse-drawn tramway ran from the vineyards down to the jetty at Port Willunga. Locals called it the Tin Pot. Its cuttings, sleepers and earthworks are still in the ground under what is now the Coast to Vines Rail Trail.
April 2026 · 8 min read
The Murray Mouth and the great barrages of Goolwa
Between 1935 and 1940, five massive barrages were built across the lower channels of the Murray to keep the Southern Ocean out of Lake Alexandrina. They are still standing, still working, and still controversial.
April 2026 · 9 min read
McLaren Vale Shiraz: a buyer's guide
McLaren Vale Shiraz has a regional character you can taste in a glass. This guide explains what that character is, where it comes from, the styles to look for, and the cellar doors that consistently make the best examples.
April 2026 · 10 min read
The lighthouse keepers of Cape Jervis
The original Cape Jervis lighthouse was built in 1871 on the windswept headland where the mainland runs out. For a hundred years it was kept by families whose lives ran to the rhythm of the Backstairs Passage weather. The keeper logs read like a soap opera.
April 2026 · 9 min read
McLaren Vale: a complete destination guide
McLaren Vale is the most-visited wine region in South Australia. There are 130+ cellar doors, dozens of restaurants, world-class architecture, beaches at the foot of the vineyards and a long list of things to do that have nothing to do with wine. Here is the complete guide.
April 2026 · 12 min read
The Strathalbyn gold rush nobody remembers
In the winter of 1852, gold was pulled out of a creek near Echunga in quantities that briefly looked like they might make the Mount Barker hills the richest diggings in Australia. Within a year Ballarat had stolen the attention. The Strathalbyn miners' cottages, puddling sites and the bank that held the dust are still there if you know where to look.
April 2026 · 8 min read