The Dutchmans Stern Conservation Park

Open dai­ly.

Clo­sures and safety

This park is closed on days of Cat­a­stroph­ic Fire Dan­ger and may also be closed on days of Extreme Fire Danger.

You can deter­mine the cur­rent fire dan­ger rat­ing by check­ing the Fire Ban Dis­trict map on the CFS website.

Check the CFS web­site or call the CFS Bush­fire Infor­ma­tion Hot­line 1800 362 361 for:

• Infor­ma­tion on fire bans and cur­rent fire conditions
• Cur­rent CFS warn­ings and incidents
• Infor­ma­tion on what to do in the event of a fire.

Lis­ten to your local area radio sta­tion for the lat­est updates and infor­ma­tion on fire safety.

Vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion, book­ings and park management:

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice, Yorke and Mid North Office
Phone: (+61 8) 8841 3400

Emer­gency contacts:

Med­ical, fire (includ­ing bush­fire) and police emer­gency sit­u­a­tions
Phone: Triple Zero — 000

Police Assis­tance
Phone: 131 444 for non-urgent police assistance

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice SA – After-hours duty offi­cer (voice mes­sages only, text mes­sages are unavail­able to be received)
Phone: 0417 883 678

Injured wildlife:

With­in the park
Please con­tact Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice, Yorke and Mid North Office on (08) 8841 3400 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on 0417 883 678 (out­side of busi­ness hours)

Out­side of the park
Please con­tact a local wildlife res­cue group

Dutch­mans Stern Con­ser­va­tion Park is locat­ed 10km north west of Quorn. Access is via Arden Vale Road, the sign­post­ed turn-off to the park is 6.5 km from the Port Augus­ta road inter­sec­tion in Quorn. It is then a fur­ther 3 km to The Dutch­man car park. All walk­ing trails com­mence at the car park.

• Park maps

Dogs are not per­mit­ted in this park.

Dis­cov­er which parks you can walk your dog in on our find a park tool or read 12 dog-friend­ly walks in Ade­laide Parks by Good Liv­ing for inspiration.

Assis­tance dogs are per­mit­ted in most pub­lic places and are there­fore wel­come in South Australia’s parks and reserves. Assis­tance dogs must be appro­pri­ate­ly restrained on a lead and remain under your effec­tive con­trol at all times while in a park or reserve.

As per the dogs in parks and reserves pol­i­cy, if the dog is not an accred­it­ed assis­tance dog, they must be trained to assist a per­son with a dis­abil­i­ty to alle­vi­ate that dis­abil­i­ty and meet stan­dards of hygiene and behav­iour appro­pri­ate for a dog in a pub­lic place. How­ev­er, refusal may be giv­en if the per­son with the dis­abil­i­ty is unable to pro­duce evi­dence the dog is an assis­tance dog with the appro­pri­ate training.

Before tak­ing your assis­tance dog into a park that does not nor­mal­ly allow dogs, it is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed that you con­tact us so we can pro­vide you with the lat­est infor­ma­tion on any poten­tial haz­ards with­in spe­cif­ic parks that may affect your dog. Please con­tact the park via the con­tact details pro­vid­ed under the con­tact tab or con­tact the vis­i­tor ser­vice cen­tre via email or on Face­book.

There are accom­mo­da­tion and pic­nic areas avail­able in this park.

Plants

Changes in veg­e­ta­tion reflect rock type, alti­tude and aspect. Sug­ar gums occu­py the crest and upper slopes of the bluff, with stands of droop­ing sheoak scat­tered amongst them. White cypress-pines are found on cliff faces some dis­tance below the crest of the range and blue gum cov­ers the low­er slopes. An attrac­tive heath of com­mon fringe-myr­tle and nee­dle bot­tle­brush on the north­ern slopes con­trasts with the Christ­mas bush and cur­ry bush on deep­er soils of the south­ern and low­er slopes. The park is home to great num­bers of Quorn wat­tle, which are endem­ic to this region. The area comes alive after suf­fi­cient rain events with colour­ful wild­flow­ers includ­ing the bright pink gar­land-lily found along creek lines. 

Ani­mals

The diverse veg­e­ta­tion of this con­ser­va­tion park attracts a sim­i­lar­ly var­ied range of birds. Over 51 species have been record­ed, includ­ing sev­er­al species of con­ser­va­tion sig­nif­i­cance. If you are lucky you may spot the uncom­mon chest­nut-rumped heath­wren, Gilbert’s whistler or dia­mond fire­tail. Keep an eye out for the fastest ani­mal on the plan­et — the pere­grine fal­con, which reach­es speeds in excess of 320 km/​h when diving.

Euros are com­mon in the reserve. West­ern grey kan­ga­roos can be seen in less rugged areas, while red kan­ga­roos are com­mon on the west­ern side of the park. Con­ser­va­tion efforts have result­ed in an increase in num­bers of the endan­gered yel­low-foot­ed rock-wal­la­by, which may be glimpsed along gorge walls. Three species of bat have been record­ed in the reserve. The obser­vant vis­i­tor may also spot an echid­na or at the very least dis­cov­er some of their diggings.

The creek lines and water­cours­es of the park pro­vide habi­tat for sev­er­al amphib­ians, includ­ing a new sub­species of the brown toadlet. Sev­er­al snake species are present in the park, so take care when bushwalking.

Flo­ra and fau­na species lists

To down­load flo­ra (plants) and fau­na (ani­mals) species lists for this park, use the ​‘Cre­ate Sim­ple Species List’ tab under ​‘Flo­ra Tools’ or ​‘Fau­na Tools’ in NatureMaps.

• Vis­it the Walk­ing Trails Sup­port Group for maps, leaflets and walk­ing notes pro­duced by park volunteers.
• Down­load the Flinders Ranges Walks app (iOS, Android) before you leave home for walk­ing notes on 16 walks in the Flinders Ranges. This app is pro­duced by park volunteers.

• Remote area trav­el information
• Parks man­age­ment plans
• Trails SA
• SA Marine Parks

Out­back Road Report

1300 361 033 (24-hour auto­mat­ed ser­vice)
North­ern and West­ern South Aus­tralian Out­back Roads Tem­po­rary Clo­sures, Restric­tions and Warn­ings Report

• Impor­tant: Col­lec­tion of fire­wood with­in Nation­al Parks is pro­hib­it­ed. Dead wood plays a vital role in pro­vid­ing shel­ter for ani­mals and adding nutri­ents to the soil.

The Nukunu peo­ple are the Abo­rig­i­nal group con­nect­ed with this area. The Barn­gar­la group to the west also have ties to the Dutch­man region.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples have occu­pied, enjoyed and man­aged the lands and waters of this State for thou­sands of gen­er­a­tions. For Abo­rig­i­nal first nations, cre­ation ances­tors laid down the laws of the Coun­try and bestowed a range of cus­tom­ary rights and oblig­a­tions to the many Abo­rig­i­nal Nations across our state. 

There are many places across the State that have great spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cance to Abo­rig­i­nal first nations. At some of these places Abo­rig­i­nal cul­tur­al pro­to­cols, such as restrict­ed access, are pro­mot­ed and vis­i­tors are asked to respect the wish­es of Tra­di­tion­al Owners.

In places where pro­to­cols are not pro­mot­ed vis­i­tors are asked to show respect by not touch­ing or remov­ing any­thing, and make sure you take all your rub­bish with you when you leave.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples con­tin­ue to play an active role in car­ing for their Coun­try, includ­ing in parks across South Australia. 

• DEW Park management
• DEW Abo­rig­i­nal partnerships

Rocks in the Flinders Ranges have formed from the com­pres­sion and fold­ing of 500 – 800 mil­lion year-old sed­i­ments, which accu­mu­lat­ed in the lakes and shal­low seas of a mas­sive depres­sion known as the Ade­laide Geo­syn­cline. Two rock types are dis­played at The Dutch­mans Stern — hard, blocky ABC Range quartzite and soft­er Brachi­na For­ma­tion silt­stones (both are also found fur­ther north in Flinders Ranges Nation­al Park). The Dutch­mans Stern ridge is com­prised of the hard quartzite, the low­er slopes of the soft­er silt­stone. Oth­er dif­fer­ent quartzites and silt­stones also occur in this region.

The park gets its name from the bluff’s sim­i­lar­i­ty to Dutch sail­ing ships of the eigh­teenth cen­tu­ry. The rocky out­crops and slopes appear to resem­ble the reverse stern of these ships. The bluff was named by Cap­tain Matthew Flinders who chart­ed the near­by Spencer Gulf in 1802.

The Dutch­man was a pas­toral lease from the 1880s until it was acquired for con­ser­va­tion in 1985. Vis­i­tors may notice yards, tracks, build­ings, fences and oth­er reminders of the area’s pas­toral his­to­ry. Despite over 150 years of graz­ing, bio­di­ver­si­ty has been main­tained. Wood­cut­ting, wat­tle strip­ping and yac­ca resin col­lect­ing activ­i­ties also occurred. Scars remain from where min­ing com­pa­nies have under­tak­en explo­ration work through­out the ranges.