South Australia - A brilliant blend
Kangaroo Island (nature, parks)
You’ll find amazing wildlife and wilderness areas right across South Australia, but it’s hard to go past Kangaroo Island for an unforgettable nature experience. Thirty per cent of the island (Australia’s third largest) is dedicated to national and conservation parks, it’s home to the world’s largest breeding colony of sea lions, and its dramatic scenery ranges from the Little Sahara (actually a massive sand dune) to the huge sculptured granite boulders called Remarkable Rocks.
Kangaroo Island has been carefully protected from mainland rabbits and foxes, so you’ll find heaps of native fauna including the echidna, koala, platypus, goanna, glossy black cockatoo, albatross and the island’s own species of kangaroo. Its shores are also home to the elusive leafy sea dragon and countless species of fish. You can walk among the sea lions as they bask on the beach in Seal Bay, follow an expert tour guide through the bush, or go fishing, bird watching, cycling or adventure caving.
Kangaroo lsland on SouthAustralia.com
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Murray River
Lounge on the deck of a luxury houseboat moored beside a gum tree. Drink award-winning wines after hiking around the eight-kilometre boardwalk trail at Banrock Station Wine and Wetland Centre. Spy a rare bird or two at Gluepot Reserve. Explore Australia’s paddleboat history at the Mannum Dock Museum. Grab a copy of the Riverland Wine and Food Trail Map and taste everything from stone fruits to wine and almonds to oranges. Or catch an elusive Murray cod before cooking it up for dinner back at your campsite. These are just some of the brilliant experiences that you’ll encounter on South Australia’s Murray River.
Houseboating is big business in South Australia. Watch the river float by as you sit in the jacuzzi on a multi award-winning Unforgettable Houseboat or relax in super-luxury aboard the River Dream Boatel (they’ll even organise a chef for you). Or for a more casual option, take a dozen mates away for the weekend to fish, water ski and enjoy a drink around the on-board barbecue.
Murray River on SouthAustralia.com
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Tasting Australia
13-20 October 2007
Take your tastebuds on tour as South Australia hosts some of the world’s top chefs in some of South Australia’s most stunning locations.
Learn all you need to know about food and culinary art from international chefs Rick Stein, Serge Dansereau, Gabriel Gate, Madhur Jaffrey and more.
Held biennially in odd years, Tasting Australia showcases the very best the nation has to offer in food, wine, beer, gastronomic discussion, hospitality, travel and lifestyle. Tasting Australia promises eight days of the best in eating and drinking blended with spicy discussion and cookery demonstrations with many of the world’s leading food and wine professionals.
This year the festival will begin with a bang with the two-day LifeStyle FOOD Channel Feast for the Senses at the Adelaide Riverbank Precinct, showcasing some of the best gourmet food, fine wine, premium beer, coffee and beverages Australia has to offer.
Tasting Australia
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World Heritage Listed Caves, Naracoorte, Limestone Coast
Naracoorte Caves National Park is one of Australia’s fourteen World Heritage Areas. The park was inscribed on the World Heritage List for the extensive fossil deposits found within the caves that have revealed so much about Australia’s marsupial heritage. Visitors to the park can view several fossil areas on a range of tours led by professional guides.
One special cave is home to the threatened Southern Bentwing Bat that returns to the cave each spring to give birth and raise their young. This special annual event can be viewed via infrared technology in the Bat Observation Centre, where visitors can take a peek into the bats’ normally inaccessible world and observe their daily activities. The nightly exit of thousands of bats is a spectacular sight.
Also at the park, the Wonambi Fossil Centre is a re-created scene of Naracoorte Caves as it may have looked 200,000 years ago. It features life-size models of the ‘megafauna’ in a simulated habitat of the era.
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Wine Country & Gourmet Grazing
There’s a restaurant to suit every taste and budget in South Australia. Sample the award-winning fusion fare at The Grange in the Adelaide Hilton or match Petaluma wines with your meal at Bridgewater Mill in the Adelaide Hills. Eat fish and chips on the beach before catching the horse-drawn tram at Victor Harbor on the Fleurieu Peninsula or try regional cheeses and freshwater marron at the Ozone Seafront Hotel on Kangaroo Island.
Just an hour or so from the city and you’ll be in the heart of wine country. Tour the grand chateaus and 100-year-old vines of the Barossa. Drink the big reds from the red earth of Coonawarra. Cycle the 27km Riesling Trail linking dozens of cellar doors in the Clare Valley or relax on a houseboat and learn why the Riverland accounts for nearly a third of Australia’s wine grapes (it’s all the sunshine). Find your favourite wine labels or try the new breed of reds hailing from McLaren Vale. Drive just 20 minutes from the heart of Adelaide and find yourself in the white wine epicentre of the Adelaide Hills.
Wine Country & Gourmet Grazing on SouthAustralia.com
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Seafood & Aquaculture Trail – Eyre Pensinsula
The Eyre Peninsula accounts for 60 per cent of South Australia’s seafood, with calamari, crayfish, kingfish, mussels, prawns, tuna and whiting all sourced from the pristine waters surrounding the peninsula. Oysters, abalone and succulent scallops are also harvested commercially in local waters – and visitors can catch all of the action on Australia’s Seafood and Aquaculture Trail, a journey through 11 amazing businesses from Ceduna to Whyalla.
Bringing together seafood, dining and aquaculture experiences, the trail charts the journey of delicious seafood from the ocean to restaurant plates. Visit oyster farms, multi-million dollar businesses, fish farms and fishing boats along the way.
SeafoodTrail.com
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Flinders Ranges
Tree-lined gorges, rugged mountain ranges, rolling plains and rich colours mark the stunning ancient lands of the Flinders Ranges, with four-wheel driving, bushwalking, camping and adventure all part and parcel of the experience.
Make sure you visit the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna, a sleepy town with a total population of seven. This quintessentially Australian pub has earnt worldwide recognition for its gourmet feral cuisine, luxury accommodation and Outback hospitality.
The Flinders Ranges is also home to Wilpena Pound, featuring excellent bushwalking tracks, abundant wildlife, scenery and dense native vegetation. Shaped like a horseshoe, the pound forms a natural amphitheatre of great Aboriginal significance.
Further north Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary offers a range of experiences, including the spectacular four-wheel drive Ridgetop tour, the Arkaroola Astronomical Observatory and star chairs for deep space exploration, bushwalking trails and scenic flights over the northern Flinders Ranges and local inland lakes.
Flinders Ranges on SouthAustralia.com
flindersoutback.com
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A Brilliant Blend of Events
South Australia is certainly the place to be to celebrate events, with a brilliant blend of festivals and events taking place throughout the year. There’s always a huge line up of internationally acclaimed events sure to entertain and attract locals and visitors from across the country. Events include cultural icons like the Fringe Festival (now an annual event), the Festival of Arts and WOMADelaide to sporting spectaculars such as the roar of the V8s at the Clipsal 500, the power of the world’s best cyclists during Tour Down Under and the exciting Rugby 7s. Hundreds of thousands of visitors attend the jam-packed calendar of events on offer annually in South Australia and whether it is food, wine, music, culture, theatre, comedy, petrol power, the Outback or cycling, South Australia offers something for everyone.
