Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park

Fur­ther inspiration:

• Qui­et­ly look­ing for rare tam­mar wal­la­bies; re-intro­duced to the park after becom­ing extinct in South Australia.
• Watch­ing ospreys div­ing into the surf as they hunt for their dinner.
• Tak­ing a pic­nic to the West Cape pic­nic area, where the spec­tac­u­lar coast­line will take your breath away.

Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park has an excel­lent choice of walk­ing trails. Vary­ing from a 30 minute short stroll to a four hour hike, the trails pro­vide some of the best coastal views in the state, includ­ing the Sten­house Bay Look­out Walk and West Cape Head­land Hike, which offers spec­tac­u­lar 360 degree views of the coastal land­scape from a lookout.

Learn about the site’s Euro­pean her­itage on the Thom­son-Pfitzn­er Plas­ter Trail Hike from his­toric Inneston Town­ship to Sten­house Bay, or observe the native plants and ani­mals along the many trails.

Many of the parks walk­ing trails have been linked with the Yorke Penin­su­la Coun­cil’s Walk the Yorke walk­ing trail project. The trail now tra­vers­es the entire park with entry and exits at Mar­i­on Bay and Gym Beach.

• Inves­ti­ga­tor Strait Ship­wreck Trail
• Trail clas­si­fi­ca­tions
  
• Bush­walk­ing safety
• Park trail maps
  

Easy walks

• Inneston His­toric Walk (1 hour loop, 2km)

  This pop­u­lar trail takes you back to the ear­ly 1900s and the gyp­sum-min­ing era. Inter­pre­tive signs tell the sto­ry of the close-knit com­mu­ni­ty of Inneston. Beware of unsta­ble ruins.

  Access: just inside the gate at the Inneston car park.

• Sten­house Bay Look­out Walk (1 hour loop, 2km)

  Fol­low the cliff tops through low, closed coastal heath. The spec­tac­u­lar views over Inves­ti­ga­tor Strait and the off­shore islands are among the best in the park.

  Access: Sten­house Jet­ty car park.

Mod­er­ate hikes

• Gym Beach Hike (4 hours return, 9.8km)

  A diverse hike through the unique flo­ra and high sand dune areas between Browns Beach and Gym Beach. You may see a vari­ety of birdlife and native orchids as you pass through the dense mallee vegetation.

  Access: Gym Beach Hike Starts 550m south of the pub­lic car park at Browns Beach (park­ing at start of hike). It can be tak­en in either direction.

• Roys­ton Head Hike (2 hours return, 4km)

  You’ll have amaz­ing views of the rugged penin­su­la coast from the look­out point on the cliffs at Roys­ton Head.

  Access: Roys­ton Head Hike car park, along the road to Dol­phin Beach.

• Thom­son-Pfitzn­er Plas­ter Trail Hike (3 hours return, 7.6km)

  This hike fol­lows the old wood­en rail­way line that runs from Inneston to Sten­house Bay, with a series of inter­pre­tive signs depict­ing the local envi­ron­ment and history.

  Access: just after the horse sta­ble ruins at Inneston, or in the reverse direc­tion from Sten­house Bay.

• West Cape Head­land Hike (30 min loop, 1 km)

  A short hike tak­ing in spec­tac­u­lar coastal views across the South­ern Spencer Gulf Marine Park and off-shore islands. The loop trail helps you nav­i­gate through frag­ile coastal veg­e­ta­tion to the light­house at the head of the cape where you’ll have exhil­a­rat­ing views of the high-ener­gy coastline.

  Access: West Cape car park.

Fees and booking

Camp­ing fees apply and must be paid before you arrive.

• Book online

• FAQs about book­ing online

Sten­house Bay campground

Suit­able for: car­a­vans, camper vans, camper trail­ers and tents

Facil­i­ties: toilets

A large camp­ground with 25 camp­sites and is locat­ed with­in walk­ing dis­tance of the beach, Sten­house Bay Jet­ty and the Sten­house Bay Vis­i­tor Cen­tre. It is a great base to explore the park from.

Pon­dalowie Car­a­van and Trail­ers campground

Suit­able for: car­a­vans, camper vans and camper trailers

Facil­i­ties: toi­lets, fire pits and pub­lic phone

Locat­ed near the beau­ti­ful Pon­dalowie Bay, this camp­ground has nine large car­a­van sites and 16 small­er camper trail­er sites.

Pon­dalowie Bay Bush campground

Suit­able for: tents

Facil­i­ties: toi­lets, fire pits and barbeque

Locat­ed near the beau­ti­ful Pon­dalowie Bay, this camp­ground has 26 tent based campsites.

Cable Bay Beach campground

Suit­able for: car­a­vans, camper vans, camper trail­ers and tents

Facil­i­ties: toilets

Small camp­ground with nine camp sites offer­ing pic­turesque views of the off­shore islands. 

Casua­r­i­na campground

Suit­able for: tents and camper trailers

Facil­i­ties: toilets

Locat­ed a short walk to the Pon­dalowie Bay beach and surf break, this small camp­ground has 10 camp­sites available.

Gym Beach campground

Suit­able for: car­a­vans, camper vans, camper trail­ers and tents

Facil­i­ties: toilets

Small seclud­ed camp­ground with six camp sites which is only acces­si­ble from the Corny Point Road. 

Shell Beach campground

Suit­able for: tents and camper trailers

Facil­i­ties: toilets

Locat­ed a short walk from sandy shell beach, this camp­ground has eight camp­sites that offer shade and shel­ter from the wind.

Inneston Her­itage Accommodation

You can also enjoy the park from the com­fort of self-con­tained accom­mo­da­tion rang­ing from a sin­gle-roomed hut at Shell Beach to a large hall at Sten­house Bay. Dot­ted among the mallee and stone ruins of the Inneston his­toric town­ship are sev­er­al restored and ren­o­vat­ed build­ings where you can wake up to wildlife on your doorstep! 

Book online to reserve your accom­mo­da­tion up to 12 months in advance.

FAQs about book­ing online

Engi­neers and Man­agers Lodges (three bed­room with lounge & kitchen, sleeps 10)

Both lodges offer warm gas fire­places, stun­ning views across Inneston Lake, beau­ti­ful tim­ber floors and quin­tes­sen­tial­ly Aus­tralian veran­das. Room con­fig­u­ra­tion in bed­room one is one queen bed, bed­room two has two sets of bunks, and bed­room three has one set of bunks and one queen bed. Facil­i­ties include show­er, toi­let, elec­tric light­ing and elec­tric oven/​stove. Linen and bed­ding is not sup­plied so bring your own sheets, pil­lows, blan­kets and tow­els. There is gas heat­ing but no cooling.

Nor­folk Lodge (two bed­room with lounge & kitchen, sleeps four)

Nor­folk Lodge reflects the charm of yester-year with its peri­od-style baltic pine fur­nish­ings. Linen and bed­ding is not sup­plied you must bring your own sheets, pil­lows, blan­kets and tow­els. Gas heat­ing / no cooling.

Mallee Lodge (two bed­room with lounge & kitchen, sleeps four)

The Mallee Lodge offers a styling mod­ern inte­ri­or while main­tain­ing its her­itage exte­ri­or. Fresh and mod­ern facil­i­ties and fur­nish­ings. Bed­ding con­fig­u­ra­tion is one queen and two sin­gle beds. Facil­i­ties include show­ers, toi­let, and basic kitchen facil­i­ties. Linen and bed­ding is not sup­plied you must bring your own sheets, pil­lows, blan­kets and tow­els. Gas heat­ing / no cooling. 

Post Office (one bed­room & kitchen, sleeps two)

The Post Office is a tra­di­tion­al her­itage cot­tage with a bright and mod­ern inte­ri­or and per­fect for cou­ples. It has fresh mod­ern facil­i­ties and fur­nish­ings, and one queen bed. Facil­i­ties include show­er, toi­let and kitchen. Linen and bed­ding is included. 

Gate­house Lodge (two bed­room with lounge & kitchen, sleeps six)

The Gate­house Lodge offers mod­ern com­fort nes­tled among the ruins of his­toric Inneston town­ship. Accom­mo­da­tion is in two bed­rooms with two sets of bunks and one queen bed. Linen and bed­ding is not sup­plied so bring your own sheets, pil­lows, blan­kets and tow­els. There is gas heat­ing but no cooling.

Go surf fish­ing on the beach or cast your fish­ing line from the Sten­house Bay Jet­ty. Browns Beach is one of South Aus­trali­a’s best salmon fish­ing areas, while oth­er loca­tions in the park offer the chance to catch squid, mul­let, tom­my ruffs, garfish, sweep, mul­loway and whit­ing through­out the year.

The bays and coast­line around Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park form part of the South­ern Spencer Gulf Marine Park. The Chinaman’s Hat Sanc­tu­ary Zone pro­tects a sec­tion of spec­tac­u­lar coast­line and rich marine habi­tat between Sten­house Bay and Cable Bay. Fish­ing is not allowed in the sanc­tu­ary zone, with the excep­tion of a shore based recre­ation­al line fish­ing exemp­tion on Chinaman’s beach (136° 54.918′ E to 136° 55.289′ E).

Fish­ing is active­ly man­aged in South Aus­tralia by the Depart­ment of Pri­ma­ry Indus­tries and Resources SA.
Check out these use­ful links before embark­ing on your fish­ing adventure:

• Recre­ation­al fish­ing regulations
• SA recre­ation­al fish­ing guide app
• Aquat­ic reserves

Surf­ing is a pop­u­lar activ­i­ty at Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park. The Yorkes Clas­sic, one of South Aus­trali­a’s most pres­ti­gious surf­ing events, is held in the park every May. Pon­dalowie Bay offers long and con­sis­tent waves, while Chinaman’s Beach has a pow­er­ful left hand break with a larg­er swell suit­ed to expe­ri­enced surfers only.

Twen­ty-two ships have been wrecked along the coast between Edith­burgh and Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park, with six ships meet­ing their fate near Althor­pe Island. Today, you can scu­ba dive to explore the rem­nants of some of these under­wa­ter time cap­sules in the South­ern Spencer Gulf Marine Park.

There are no des­ig­nat­ed moun­tain bik­ing trails in this park. 

• Which parks can you ride in?

More than 120 bird species, many of con­ser­va­tion sig­nif­i­cance, find safe refuge and nest­ing sites with­in the park. Look for the rare osprey and malleefowl or lis­ten for the shy west­ern whip­bird. The hood­ed plover, a threat­ened species in South Aus­tralia, nests on beach­es through­out the park.

Inneston vil­lage

Vis­it the his­toric Inneston vil­lage and explore the ruins of an aban­doned gyp­sum town along the Inneston His­toric Walk. Once home to around 200 peo­ple, Inneston was com­plete­ly self-suf­fi­cient, hav­ing its own school, post office, bak­ery, gen­er­al store and ten­nis court.

Ship­wrecks

Over 40 ship­wrecks lay off the coast of Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park and the South­ern Yorke Penin­su­la. An inter­pre­tive mar­itime trail along the coast­line recounts tales of tragedy, brav­ery and the final ago­nis­ing moments before these ships sank beneath the waves. Vis­it the rust­ed relics of the park’s most famous wreck, The Ethel, that came to grief in 1904 when it ran aground near the beach dur­ing a severe storm. The wreck is not always vis­i­ble, it depends on the sand move­ments at the time. 

Light­hous­es

Take a short walk to admire the oper­at­ing light­hous­es at Cape Spencer and West Cape. On the hori­zon is anoth­er light­house that oper­ates on Althor­pe Islands Con­ser­va­tion Park. These light­hous­es not only pro­vide safe pas­sage for ves­sels today, but offer an insight into the area’s mar­itime heritage.

Stro­ma­to­lites

Stro­ma­to­lites con­sist of lay­ers of blue-green algae (or cyanobac­te­ria). Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park is one of only a few places in the world where liv­ing stro­ma­to­lites are known to exist. New lay­ers devel­op on top, clos­est to the light, trap­ping what­ev­er silt may be present. Old lay­ers under­neath are impreg­nat­ed with cal­ci­um car­bon­ate and become fos­silised. In this park, the dome-shaped struc­tures occur around the edges of the salt lakes. Car­bon dat­ing has indi­cat­ed some of the stro­ma­to­lites to be around 3,000 years old. Exam­ples of stro­ma­to­lites can be seen at the park’s vis­i­tor centre.

Gulawul­gawi Ngun­da Nhagu – Cape Spencer Lookout

The Gulawul­gawi Ngun­da Nhagu – Cape Spencer Look­out gives vis­i­tors the per­fect plat­form for 360-degree views across this pic­turesque landscape.

Locat­ed just 10 min­utes into the park, at the end of an acces­si­ble and pram-friend­ly path, the look­out is a great spot to pull up and get a taste of what to expect as you explore the rest of the area.

Want to join oth­ers and become a Park Friend?

To find out more about Friends of Parks groups please vis­it Friends of Parks South Australia.

You could join oth­ers to help look after a park. You can take part in work­ing bees, train­ing and oth­er events.

Become a Camp­ground Host

Com­bine your love of camp­ing with doing a good deed by becom­ing a vol­un­teer camp­ground host in this park. 

A camp­ground host is a vol­un­teer who stays at the park either for a spe­cif­ic peak peri­od, like the East­er break or a long week­end, or an extend­ed peri­od of time (up to a few months) to sup­port park rangers.

If you are pas­sion­ate about the envi­ron­ment, a keen camper, like to meet peo­ple from all around the world, and are a hap­py to help, then host­ing could be right up your alley. 

• SA’s Camp­ground Hosts Program