About 300 km west of Adelaide, Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park offers a blend of history, culture, and natural beauty. It is a a short 5.3 km drive from Marion Bay on the southern tip of the Yorke Peninsula.
Declared a National Park on March 5, 1970, it’s a biodiversity rich, hosting endemic species and diverse habitats from mallee scrubland to saline lakes. You can see kangaroos and emus roaming free and a variety of birdlife from black-faced cormorants to wedge-tailed eagles, falcons and crested tern.
The park is also a stronghold for endangered species like the mallee fowl and supports significant osprey, hooded plover, and emu populations.
The area, originally inhabited by the Narungga people, showcases their enduring cultural presence.
Nature lovers will adore Ethel Beach with its famed shipwreck and the panoramic ocean views from West Cape Lighthouse.
The Ethel was a 711 tonne, three-masted iron ship built in 1876 and ran aground in 1904 when caught in a storm en route to South Africa. The storm drove the ship onto the beach above the low tide mark, where it remained intact for many years.
Inneston Gost Town
The area is home to the historic Inneston Ghost Town, a preserved early 20th-century mining hub. “Inneston was once a thriving self-sufficient gypsum mining town, first settled in the late 1880s and abandoned in the 1930s after the Great Depression. The town was formerly home to around 200 people, with its own school, post office, bakery, general store and stables, but today is a ghost town, with the ruins standing proudly as a reminder of those previous times”. (source bushwalk.com)
Visitors can explore remnants of the region’s mining and farming past, scattered throughout the park.
Activities abound with walking trails, surfing spots, fishing, camping, kayaking, and birdwatching, making Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park a terrific destination for outdoor enthusiasts.
For more information, visit South Australian National Parks.
Species found in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park courtesy of the INaturalist community
