Stories
Longer reads, travel guides and field notes from the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Two horsepower: the tram to Granite Island
The Victor Harbor horse tram is the only one of its kind still operating in Australia - but it died in the 1950s, spent three decades replaced by a tractor in disguise, and came back in 1986. The full story of an improbable survivor.
June 2026 · 7 min read
The Fleurieu in October
October on the Fleurieu is the overlap month - the final southern right whales of the season, wildflowers at full tilt, waterfalls still running, and beaches warming up before the crowds arrive. Here is how to use it.
June 2026 · 8 min read
The milk that saved Myponga
In the early 2000s Myponga's dairy farms were disappearing - the district had gone from around forty farms to ten. Three families decided to stop selling milk for someone else's label. This is the story of the Fleurieu Milk Company, and of the valley it kept in business.
June 2026 · 7 min read
Across the top: the Fleurieu high country
Between Myponga and Delamere runs the Fleurieu nobody markets: green dairy ridges, the state's first wind farm, and gravel turn-offs that end at places like Tunkalilla. A driving essay on the peninsula's empty quarter.
June 2026 · 8 min read
Second Valley, second to none
It was nearly called Finniss Vale. The story of Second Valley: Colonel Light's landing in 1836, the Leonard brothers' flour mill, and how a one-jetty cove became the most photographed coastline on the Fleurieu.
June 2026 · 7 min read
The ice age you can stand on
In the bed of the Inman River sits one of the most important rocks in Australia: a glacial pavement scraped smooth by an ice sheet 280 million years ago, and the first recorded evidence of ancient glaciation on the continent.
June 2026 · 7 min read
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