HEYSEN TRAIL: From the Fleurieu Peninsula to the Flinders Ranges
To most of Australia's early white settlers, the Australian bush was an unfamiliarly harsh environment. They craved for the lush green countryside of home . . . what they found here was too foreign and unforgiving.
But one man - Sir Hans Heysen didn't share their apprehension. When he arrived from Germany as a six year old boy he instantly fell in love with the strangeness of the Australian bush. He spent a lifetime capturing the ruggedness of the landscape and through his work generations of Australians began to appreciate its unique beauty.
It's no co-incidence then that one of the world's longest walking trails passes through much of the bush that captured Heysen's imagination.
“Unlike other painters of the time when they took an image of Australia they often painted it with English eyes or French eyes and I think Heysen with German decent came out here and really captivated what Australia really looked like and he actually painted a river redgum like a river redgum."
"Not a European maple."
"Well yeah - so I think you really get to see what the landscape was like”.
The Heysen trail winds its way from Cape Jervis on the south coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, through the Adelaide Hills, the Barossa Valley and into the Flinders Ranges.
“It goes for 2000 kilometres of which 15 - hundred kilometres is actually marked and there's 500 kilometres that's not marked."
"Oh right, because a lot of people have the idea that it ends at Parachilna, but that's not the case? No, it actually keeps going and that's where the Heysen Trail gets interesting in that it gets really remote. You've got 500 kms roughly from Parachilna Gorge up to Mt Babbage and that's remote outback of Australia”.
It's a well-marked trail that caters for everyone - from serious bushwalkers to day backpackers. And it allows people to experience the full gamut of South Australia's landscape.
At its southern end at Cape Jervis, it meanders through windswept coastal scrub . . . framing spectacular seascapes . . . views of Backstairs Passage and beyond.
But the terrain changes as the trail dissects the Mount Lofty Ranges.
“As you sort of walk up and go to the Lofty Ranges just out of Adelaide, you find that there are orchids up there, there are vineyards up there um there's also a lot of National Park along the way and you get a real difference in what's actually available in scenery”.
“Once you head out towards the Flinders, like around here now, you actually get a really dry arid environment and in that environment you get to see a lot of Australian wildlife that you don't see anywhere else”.
As well as the wildlife, the Flinders section of the Heysen Trail serves as a living museum - offering glimpses of our distant and not so distant past.
“You look around and you see all these native pines and err they are really a testimony to our history of 150 years ago when we used to cut them down and use them for pine houses."
"So a lot of these would have been used for the settler's cottages?"
"Yeah, they would have actually and now what we see is their re-growth which is quite amazing."
"Yes they're certainly coming back."
Yes they are - they're actually come back so much so now that land holders are actually finding out they're actually going to have to start removing a couple of them”.
“Nathan the trail's also fantastic for examining Australia's geology?"
"It is. It sort of gives you a story of Australia of about 500 million years and if you look just here, it's quite interesting you've got ripple marks here in the rocks and shale rock and is just basically compressed sea bed basically and its just simply been tilted upwards, tilted skywards."
"So on a walk such as the Heysen walk, it takes you through the most amazing geology of the world I find (yeah) and you see formations like these which are quite stunning."
"So this is just a seabed compressed and pushed up?"
"That's all it is yeah”.
You can tackle the Heysen Trail almost anytime but be warned ....some sections may be closed during the fire season so it pays to check.
During the “Year of the Outback” thousands will converge on the trail.
The “Jacobs Creek Outback to Adelaide Bushwalk” consists of 21 different stages, over 90 days, beginning at Mount Babbage in the north.
To book a spot or for more information, contact Peter Kellett at ECOTREK on 61 (0)8 8383 7198. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
