Adelaide Park Lands Walking Tours

Full Day

Guided Walks to explore little-known nooks and crannies of Adelaide’s greatest treasure: the unique open spaces of its Park Lands.

Adelaide is the only city in the world garlanded by Park Lands. In effect the city is built inside a park, and each part of the Park has its own unique features, heritage, and current usage.

Guided Walks are led by volunteer Park Ambassadors, each with a special knowledge of their particular part of the Park Lands. A tour can take between one hour and two hours depending upon the location.

Services

From $6 to $9

A stroll through one of the most picturesque and well-used parts of the Adelaide Park Lands, combining history, nature, sport and recreation.

Blue Gum Park / Kurangga (Park 20) hosts a number of highly appreciated sporting facilities, for BMX bikes, petanque, basketball, tennis, and athletics, as well as a 100-year-old children’s playground, and the Tree Climb facility.

The South Park Lands Creek winds its way though Blue Gum Park / Kurangga, across stunning tree-lined footpath avenues and the Park Lands trail.

Find out about this Park’s history and its continuing role in Adelaide’s culture. Children most welcome; also bring your dog (on a lead).

Disabled Access

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From $6 to $9

Join Park Ambassador Loine Sweeney for a two-hour Guided Walk through the heart and soul of Adelaide’s eastern Park Lands.

Skirting the Adelaide Zoo, the Walk will take in a sculpture park and lush native re-vegetation alongside the River Torrens, a stroll through Adelaide’s rich social history in Botanic Park, recent controversial Park losses, and opportunities to glimpse Adelaide’s unique flying fox colony.

Disabled Access

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From $5 to $7.5

A guided tour through the home of circuses, river birds, railway lines, a billabong, playground, a community garden, police “greys”, and the old Gaol, Park 27 has suffered more than any other Park, over the years, with huge tracts of this Park removed to make way for public buildings. Yet so much of beauty still remains. Discover this Park’s history, its hidden treasures, and its continuing role in Adelaide’s culture.

Disabled Access

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From $6 to $9

With APA’s Park 21W Ambassador, Gillian Stevens, starting at the corner of Sir Lewis Cohen Ave and South Tce, we’ll take in the historic Lundie Gardens, the Princess Elizabeth playground, the playing fields, native bush regeneration, the Park’s historic connection to an annual “Wattle Day” and controversial record of tree plantings. Suitable for children, and bring your dog as well (on a lead).

Disabled Access

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From $5 to $7.5

Join us for a stroll through the two formal gardens of North Adelaide – Brougham Gardens & Palmer Gardens

Find out about the role of Palmer Gardens and Brougham Gardens in Adelaide’s history, their hidden secrets, and their continuing role in the city’s life. Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of about 1.6km. Approximately 1.5 hours duration.

Disabled Access

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From $6 to $9

Join Park Ambassador Iris Iwanicki for a 90-minute guided tour of a Park with two halves, a Park split in two by a railway line, with two very different stories.

One part of this Park is a newly-planted urban forest. The other part is reserved for sports.

This 90-minute guided walk will explore both halves of Park 25. You’ll see and learn about Adelaide’s newest urban forest and its resurrection as Park Lands after 130-years of being a water depot. You’ll also see the multi-million dollar new sporting facilities and landscaping opposite the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the links between this Park and 20th century railway workers

Disabled Access

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To $0

Join Park Ambassador Alice Davidson for a guided walk through the jewel of Adelaide’s eastern Park Lands – featuring an ornamental lake, a huge rose garden, and majestic avenues of plane and cedar trees. Learn about this Park’s controversial history including as a former rubbish dump, and the 2017 construction of a busway trench.

Disabled Access

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To $0

A guided stroll through one of the most beautiful though little-known parts of the Park Lands. Home to an historic relic of Adelaide’s 19th century infrastructure, two croquet grounds, playing fields and the magnificent 1880’s “carriageway” of huge elm trees. The trail includes segments across grass and through forest. Dogs (on leads) most welcome.

Disabled Access

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To $0

A Guided stroll through an arguably under-appreciated and sometimes overlooked part of the eastern Adelaide Park Lands.

This Park was a centrepiece in three massively popular annual sporting events (the Tour Down Under; the equestrian three day event, and supercar racing.

It’s home to an ancient olive grove, the ephemeral Botanic Creek, school sporting fields, a children’s playground, a pepper tree boulevard, and much more. Find out about “King Rodney” the man after whom this Park was named. Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of about 1.6km.

Approximately 1.5 hours duration. Meet at the corner of East Tce and Bartels Rd. (Southern side of Bartels Rd) Children and dogs are most welcome.

Disabled Access

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To $0

Join APA Park Ambassador Valdis Dunis for a guided walk, learning about one of the best-loved parts of the Park Lands where horses run free, the best views of the Adelaide Hills and very special remnants of native vegetation.

Insights into Park 6’s heritage, history, sporting facilities and more. Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of just over 2 km. This guided walk takes approximately 2 hours in duration. Children and dogs are most welcome.

Disabled Access

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To $0

A walk of 75 to 90 minutes visiting and learning about one of the most central and well-used parts of the Adelaide Park Lands.

The site of the annual ‘Garden of Unearthly Delights’ was once a despised rubbish dump and a quagmire. Learn about the huge efforts as early as the 1880’s to turn it into a much-loved outdoor venue space, as well as this Park’s role in providing air raid shelters in WW2. Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of just over 1.5 km; 75 to 90 minutes duration. Children and dogs welcome

Disabled Access

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From $6 to $9

A two-hour Guided Walk, learning about one of the best-loved parts of the Park Lands, along the banks of the Torrens, home to a variety of public art works, significant heritage trees, University facilities, many ducks, and much more. Features include the first arboretum in South Australia, the memorial to Forgotten Australians, Peace Park, Angas Gardens, Grundy Gardens and the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden. Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of just over 2km, around two hours duration. Dogs are welcome, but on a lead, please

Disabled Access

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From $5 to $7.5

Join us for an exploratory walk around one of the most historic parts of the Adelaide Park Lands. Learn about its horse racing and motor racing history. See the exercise track, the cycle racing track, a rare “dragon blood” tree, and hear stories about the historic olive groves and the heritage grandstand. Bring the kids! Dogs on leads are also most welcome. Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of about one and a half hours duration.

Disabled Access

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From $5 to $7.5

An exploratory walk around a Park that is cherished by the residents of lower North Adelaide, who’d love to show it off, to you! Featuring a bushland trail, a kids playspace, bike trails and sports facilities, you’ll also learn some quirky history about the nearby heritage houses.

Disabled Access

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From $6 to $9

A guided stroll around one of the most beautiful parts of the Adelaide Park Lands –

Hosted by APA Park Ambassador Peter Sansom. You’ll learn some surprising history about not just Veale Gardens but also the larger Veale Park, and discover some of its hidden treasures – including a community garden and a dense thicket of re-greened bushland.

Children; and dogs on leads are most welcome. Start at the tram stop on Peacock Road, near the corner of South Terrace.

Disabled Access

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From $5 to $9

A walk through three small parks in one afternoon. We’ll investigate bush regeneration sites, historical underground water infrastructure, some 20th century cultural heritage, a ghost story, Medindie’s connection to the origins of BHP, along with the popular Ngampa Yarta dog park.

Disabled Access

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From $5 to $7.5

Learn not just about the Square; but also the historic buildings and people from this part of the City. You’ll seer how life has changed around this part of Adelaide over 180 years, from the City’s oldest blacksmith’s shop and hotel (1838) to a 23-storey apartment building (2018).

In the square, there’s a tribute to 19th Century Afghan cameleers, a long-lost tram route, and the site of air raid shelters from World War Two, as well as the 21st century innovations that have made the square a focus for local recreation.

Disabled Access

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From $5 to $7.5

A guided stroll amongst a strange forest of gnarled, ancient olive trees and giant pines.

Find out how, when and why these olive groves were planted, and why they are nestled in-between the major ring route roads on the City’s north-western corner. Discover hidden walking trails and see some of the biggest pine and eucalyptus trees in the Park Lands, dotted in-between the olives
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Learn why a convicted offender was given approval to plant olives as the first and only cash crop in the Adelaide Park Lands
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Discover a walking trail that replaced one of the former roads through the Park and learn about the 1960’s road widening project that slashed the width of the Olive Groves

Learn about the City Council’s plans to transform the Olive Groves with new facilities for visitors.

Disabled Access

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From $5 to $7.5

A two-and-a half-hour Guided Walk through the heart and soul of Adelaide’s eastern Park Lands.

Skirting the Adelaide Zoo, the Walk will take in a sculpture park and lush native re-vegetation alongside the River Torrens, a stroll through Adelaide’s rich social history in Botanic Park, some little-known highlights within the Botanic Garden, recent controversial Park losses, and opportunities to glimpse Adelaide’s unique flying fox colony.

Disabled Access

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From $6 to $9

Half-park, half-cemetery: See a wetland with hidden trails and animal sculptures. Plus famous graves, and rare bush tucker plants.

Join Park Ambassadors Ted and Nate Jennings for a walk through the Park that has a split personality: half-park, half-cemetery.

Explore the fabulous wetland with hidden trails through extensive revegetation, bushland and bronze animal sculptures. Then, learn about some strange South Australian History with famous gravesites, war memorials, and lurking between the headstones, some of the rarest bush tucker plants on the Adelaide plains.

Children are most welcome. Bring your dog (on a lead). Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of about two hours duration.

Disabled Access

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Walk, run or ride a loop around Adelaide completely through Park Lands A lap around the city is about 16km – a perfect distance for a good spring walk.

But pick your own adventure: add in North Adelaide for a longer route; just do a few kilometres; cycle several laps; jog with a pram… the how and how far is up to you!

The main group will depart from the Himeji Japanese Garden at 9am, and walk in an anticlockwise direction aiming to finish back at Himeji Gardens several hours later. Join this group if you wish OR do your own loop.

Either way, wear some green, take photos on the way to post using #parklandsloop, and keep an eye out for fellow loopers!

Disabled Access

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From $6 to $9

Discover the highlights and secrets of the much-loved and picturesque two Parks on each side of Glen Osmond Rd – Parks 18 and 19.

Park Ambassador Nicole Lionnet will lead you through Peppermint Park / Wita Wirra (Park 18) and Pelzer Park / Pityarilla (Park 19). You’ll see century-old gardens and enormous river red gums, the stunning Himeji Japanese garden (with a photo activity, so bring your camera) the 2018 revamped community “hub” in Pelzer Park and the open woodland and new reed beds along the course of the restored South Park Lands creek.

Disabled Access

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From $5 to $7.5

It’s not all about the Aquatic Centre! Join us for a guided walk through this under-appreciated Park of your northern Park Lands, visiting its tree-lined walkways, sporting grounds, patches of remnant native vegetation, exercise facilities ad more.

Insights into Park 2’s heritage, history, and its unique connection to a living Adelaide sports champion.

Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of about 1.6 km

Disabled Access

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From $6 to $9

This Park has many thousands of regular visitors, but few who know its hidden treasures. Join Park Ambassador Helen Hutton to discover the 1914 memorial oak, breeding grounds of waterbirds, and the history of Park losses as sporting bodies and Government corporations have fenced off or built over many parts of this Park. The tour includes Pinky Flat, Stella Bowen Park, Creswell Gardens, and Light’s vision on Montefiore Hill

Disabled Access

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From $6 to $9

A Guided Walk through a Park loaded with Adelaide heritage – from the site of the first public hangings, to proposed sites for a new function centre. From open woodland, through the North Adelaide golf courses, we’ll point out dozens of tree species, historic buildings facing the Park, its little-known history of military training, the site where early European settlers tried to confine the Kaurna people to one ‘native location’ and the history of the Torrens weir. Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of up to two-and-a-half hours.

Disabled Access

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To $0

Join Park Ambassador Malwina Wyra to explore a Park that provides home grounds for sports teams from the University of Adelaide, and the Adelaide Archery Club. The Guided Walk also explores this Park’s historical record of sand carting from the banks of the River Torrens, and its poignant memorial to local lives lost in World War One. You’ll also trek on the famous “Uni Loop” running circuit, passing multiple fitness stations, and skirt the City Council’s green waste recycling site, bordered by tall kei apple hedges.

Disabled Access

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From $6 to $9

Join Park Ambassador Helen Hutton for water bird spotting, and explore the most hotly-contested part of your Adelaide Park Lands. See what remains of your Open Green Public space in the Parks that are closest to the CBD and River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari.

Disabled Access

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From $5 to $7.5

Join us for an exploratory walk around some of the newest, and some of the oldest features of your Adelaide Park Lands. From protected remnant grasses that provide rare butterfly habitat, to Kaurna wood carvings, to the southern open woodlands featuring towering gum trees planted by schoolchildren in the 1880s, to the picturesque new 3.2 hectare wetlands, opened in May 2022. The series of lakes that make up the wetlands stretches almost across the entire width of Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16), from Beaumont Road in the west, almost to Fullarton Road in the east.
Bring the kids! Dogs on leads are also most welcome. Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of about 1 and a half hours duration.

Disabled Access

Family Friendly Non Smoking Pet Friendly - Enquire Public Toilet

From $15 to $20

The Kaurna people are the traditional owners and custodians of the Adelaide Plains. On this two-and-a-half hour walk, with Kaurna elder Rod O’Brien, you’ll learn about traditional elders and discover their stories of the past as told through art and word.

The trail invites reflection on Kaurna life before European settlement and explores the impact of this settlement on Aboriginal people.

It takes in sites both within the Adelaide Park Lands and also in the CBD.

Disabled Access

Family Friendly Public Toilet

To $0

A Guided Walk through a Park loaded with quirky Adelaide heritage. We’ll introduce you to Australia’s only woodland memorial to deceased workers; a secluded billabong at the end of a bunyip trail, soccer fields, a community garden, and a white elephant rail crossing. Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of up to two hours.

Disabled Access

Carpark Family Friendly Non Smoking Pet Friendly - Enquire Public Toilet

To $0

Join Park Ambassador Loine Sweeney for a guided walk, visiting the highlights of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, including the International Rose Garden, the Bicentennial tropical conservatory, the First Creek wetlands, Adelaide’s oldest tree, the lake, 1875 Palm House, Garden of Health, and the Gingko Gate.

Easy (free) parking on Plane Tree Drive). Wear sturdy shoes for a walk of just over 2km.

Children most welcome. Dogs are not permitted in the Botanic Garden.

Disabled Access

Carpark Family Friendly Public Toilet

To $0

A 90-minute exploration of one of Adelaide’s western Parks, best known as a venue for sport, but with some hidden remnants of rare native vegetation, plus some memories of fascinating former built heritage within this Park, now long-forgotten.

Disabled Access

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