Stories
Longer reads, travel guides and field notes from the peninsula.
The Fleurieu in July: almond blossom, whales and winter fires
Mid-winter is the Fleurieu Peninsula's quietest month and also, quietly, its best. Almond blossom at Willunga, southern right whales in Encounter Bay, cellar-door fires lit from lunchtime, waterfalls at full flow and almost nobody on the roads. Here is the July case.
April 2026 · 8 min read
Vintage in McLaren Vale: what harvest looks like from the visitor side
Vintage is the most interesting time of year to visit McLaren Vale. Pickers at dawn, fermenting-fruit smell drifting through cellar doors, wineries that let visitors stomp grapes, and a whole region running on four hours' sleep. Here is where to see it happen.
April 2026 · 8 min read
The Encounter: when Flinders met Baudin in Encounter Bay
On 8 April 1802, two ships flying flags of opposing empires sighted each other off the Fleurieu coast. The British and French commanders had been mapping the same stretch of unknown coastline for months without knowing the other was there. The bay where they met has been called Encounter Bay ever since.
April 2026 · 10 min read
When the whales return: the opening of the Fleurieu whale season
Every year in late May and early June, the first southern right whales of the season return to Encounter Bay to calve. It is a quiet, tentative arrival after months of absence, and it marks the moment the Fleurieu wildlife calendar turns over. Here is the history of the whales, how they came back, and how to see the first arrivals.
April 2026 · 9 min read
The lost jetties of the Fleurieu
Port Willunga, Second Valley, Yankalilla, Rapid Bay, Normanville — the Fleurieu coastline is dotted with the stumps, pylons and ruined decks of jetties that once loaded slate, grain, wine and passengers for Port Adelaide. Some are still half-standing. Some you can swim or dive through. Here is a photo-trail of what survives.
April 2026 · 9 min read
The Cockle Train: Australia's first public railway
The Goolwa to Port Elliot line was opened in 1854 and is the oldest public railway in mainland Australia. Today it runs as the SteamRanger Cockle Train along the Encounter Coast.
April 2026 · 5 min read
The Star of Greece: a wreck on the Port Willunga reef
On the morning of 13 July 1888, the iron square-rigger Star of Greece broke up on the reef at Port Willunga. Seventeen men died within sight of the shore while rescuers stood helpless on the cliffs. The wreck site is still there.
April 2026 · 8 min read
The Italian families who built modern McLaren Vale
After the Second World War, families from southern Italy bought land at the edge of McLaren Vale and started planting. Eighty years later, their names are stamped on half the cellar doors in the Vale and on most of its best restaurants.
April 2026 · 9 min read
A short white window: 170 years of Willunga almonds
Willunga's almond-growing tradition stretches back to the 1850s. For most of the 20th century it was Australia's largest almond region. The famous Almond Blossom Festival has run since 1970.
March 2026 · 5 min read
Ngarrindjeri Country: the Coorong, the lakes and the river mouth
The Ngarrindjeri are the Traditional Owners of the Lower Murray, the Lower Lakes and the Coorong - some of the most ecologically and culturally significant Country in southern Australia. Their continuing connection to land and water has shaped the Fleurieu south-east for tens of thousands of years.
March 2026 · 7 min read
The shore-based whalers of Encounter Bay
Between 1837 and the 1860s, two rival whaling stations operated from the Bluff at Victor Harbor. They hunted the southern right whale to local extinction in less than three decades. The whales are only now beginning to return.
March 2026 · 6 min read
When Goolwa was an inland port
Between the 1850s and the 1890s, Goolwa was one of the busiest ports in colonial South Australia. Paddle steamers brought wool, wheat, copper and timber down the Murray, and a horse-drawn tramway carried it the last few kilometres to the open sea.
March 2026 · 6 min read