Creating the Wild South Coast Way on the Heysen Trail

South Aus­trali­a’s mul­ti-day walk­ing expe­ri­ence along the Fleurieu Peninsula

Walk the Wild South Coast Way on the Hey­sen Trail now.

Sec­tions of the icon­ic Hey­sen Trail from Cape Jervis to Vic­tor Har­bor have now been upgrad­ed to cre­ate a five day, four night hike and oth­er high qual­i­ty, short­er trail-based experiences.

The trail is open now for walk­ing in its entire­ty (with camp­sites to be booked online pri­or to depar­ture) with con­struc­tion set for com­ple­tion in 2022.

The coastal walk­ing expe­ri­ence pro­vides new­ly con­struct­ed ​‘walk-in only’ camp­grounds (cou­pled with exist­ing camp­sites that can be reached by both and vehi­cle), two new pic­nic areas (each includ­ing a uni­ver­sal­ly-acces­si­ble walk­ing trail) and an upgrade to exist­ing Trig Camp­ground.
New inter­pre­ta­tion along the trail will assist walk­ers with knowl­edge of of the area and high­light key features.

Fin­ish­ing touch­es are cur­rent­ly being made to the new­ly cre­at­ed Tapanap­pa Ridge Look­out and Pic­nic Area (which is cur­rent­ly restrict­ed but set to open mid-year) and the upgrade to Trig Camp­ground is slat­ed for late 2022.

You can book camp­sites and plan your walk­ing expe­ri­ence here and keep up-to-date on the progress of the Wild South Coast Way by sub­scrib­ing to the e‑newsletter.

Inter­ac­tive map of the Wild South Coast Way

To help plan a jour­ney along the Wild South Coast Way, use the below inter­ac­tive map by click­ing on icons for more infor­ma­tion or to book indi­vid­ual camp­sites. Due to walk-in camp­sites being under con­struc­tion, you will not be able to book these sites until they become available.

About the trail

The Hey­sen Trail has been upgrad­ed from Cape Jervis to Vic­tor Har­bor to become one of South Australia’s pre­mi­um coastal walks. A high qual­i­ty five-day, four-night hike has been cre­at­ed includ­ing areas with acces­si­ble trails to cater for peo­ple with lim­it­ed mobil­i­ty and places to gath­er in small groups to pic­nic and enjoy sur­round­ing land­scapes. The trail has been designed to accom­mo­date those who wish to walk short­er sec­tions and in either direction.

Walk­ers will be able to expe­ri­ence the parks that run along the south­ern coast­line of the Fleurieu Penin­su­la, that include Deep Creek Nation­al Park, New­land Head Con­ser­va­tion Park, and Gran­ite Island Recre­ation Park.

High­lights include new precincts at Deep Creek Nation­al Park which can be enjoyed by those who want to vis­it for the day. One of these, the Goon­dooloo Pic­nic Area, opened in Sep­tem­ber 2021. Tapanap­pa Ridge Look­out and Pic­nic Area is the next and final precinct to be com­plet­ed and offers ample space for mul­ti­ple groups to enjoy facil­i­ties against the back­drop of the the south­ern coastline. 

The new ​‘walk-in only’ camp­grounds have been built and are avail­able for book­ing now. The exist­ing Trig Camp­ground is being upgrad­ed lat­er in 2022 to cater for grow­ing demand. 

The new camp­grounds are:

• Wul­di Krikin Ngawan­thi (locat­ed at the for­mer Eagle Water­hole Camp­ground and pro­nounced Wool-dee Krik-ren Ngah-wun-thee) in Deep Creek Nation­al Park
• Yapari Ngawan­thi (Cliffs Camp­ground and pro­nounced Yah-pah-ree Ngah-wun-thee) in Deep Creek Nation­al Park
• Kur­ri Ngawan­thi (Creek Camp­ground and pro­nounced Koor-ee Ngah-wun-thee) in Bal­la­parud­da Creek Recre­ation Park
• Natun­yu­ru Ngawan­thi (Sand Dunes Camp­ground and pro­nounced Nut-un-yoo-roo Ngah-wun-thee) in New­land Head Con­ser­va­tion Park

Down­load the fact­sheet that details the project or vis­it our ded­i­cat­ed web­page for vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion.

Inter­ac­tive mobile phone Tour App

For those walk­ing the trail, a new SA Nation­al Parks Tour App has been devel­oped using tech­nol­o­gy built into a walker’s mobile device to deliv­er curat­ed con­tent at loca­tions along the trail. Options for visu­al­ly or hear­ing impaired vis­i­tors include voiceover, audio tran­scripts and image descrip­tions. Mul­ti­lin­gual sup­port is also pro­vid­ed, with 27 lan­guages supported.

The app show­cas­es Ramind­jeri and Ngar­rind­jeri sto­ries, a tra­di­tion­al wel­come and farewell to Ramind­jeri Ruwi coun­try as well as reflec­tions and med­i­ta­tions on tra­di­tion­al life.

Insights on the unique plants, ani­mals and expe­ri­ences along the trail are also explained.

Walk­ers can opt-in to alerts for when con­tent is available.

The project was made pos­si­ble by work­ing close­ly with the Ngar­rind­jeri Abo­rig­i­nal Cor­po­ra­tion (NAC) and Ramind­jeri and Ngar­rind­jeri artists.

Improved acces­si­bil­i­ty

The project enables bet­ter access to nature and open space – essen­tial for the health and well­be­ing of the com­mu­ni­ty. Sec­tions of the trail net­work and facil­i­ties have been designed and con­struct­ed so they can be used by all peo­ple regard­less of their age or ability.

Deliv­ered in partnership

This project is being deliv­ered in part­ner­ship with First Nations, Yankalil­la Dis­trict Coun­cil, City of Vic­tor Har­bor, The Friends of the Hey­sen Trail, park users and the pri­vate sector.