Inman Valley with Keith Conlon: In the Fleurieu Peninsula region of South Australia
The Inman Valley on the Fleurieu Peninsula is a classic picturesque Sunday drive in the country. Its rolling hills of fertile farming country are punctuated with magnificent old red and blue gums.
You need to get off the main road heading south from Adelaide and take the quiet back road and you’ll find the valley between Yankalilla on Gulf side and Victor Harbor on the other.
The valley is full of surprises - amidst the docile cows, beef cattle and horses there are a number of claims to fame - like the paddock of ponds holding a million yabbies. We called in to Galloway Yabbie Farm on the main road and caught up with chief ‘yabbie wrangler’, Jim Schofield. He and his wife Carol traded the daily demands of dairy farming for the less arduous task of yabbie farming.
They still have to tend the stock though - but unlike cows - the yabbies don’t complain if they’re not milked! They don’t need ‘bringing home’ either - it’s simply a matter of setting a trap!
“We use opera house traps.” explained Jim, as he pulled in a wire net full of yabbies. “The ideal size is 80 to 90 grams. The tail is packed full of tasty meat and the rest is used in the bisque.”
With the help of Scruff the Yabbie Dog, Jim pulls the pots twice a day during the warmer months. Galloway also farms Marron, the yabby’s bigger cousin from WA. A fresh water crayfish - it’s likened in taste and texture to its saltwater brother. Similar in price too!
While the catch is mostly bound for restaurant dinner plates, Jim makes sure he keeps enough back for a feed on the deck of the intimate ‘Chateau Galvo cafe’ overlooking the ponds.
Commercial yabbie farming is all a long way from the first settlers who arrived here in the 1840s. Exploring the traditional lands of the Ramindjeri people, they first came to the aptly named Bald Hills at the top of the valley.
Ask a local to point out a pioneering relic and they’ll probably send you to the Corn Hill Wesleyan Chapel. It was built in 1859 and it’s still standing - but only just. There’s no roof and huge cracks in the walls.
The Inman Valley township down the hill wasn’t far behind. It’s a sleepy little place with a handful of houses, a garage and a general store - worth a stop for a tasty homemade pie.
At the other end of the town is the Methodist Church. When it was opened in 1871, the district was lashed by a mighty thunderstorm - some of the parishioners thought it was a sure sign they shouldn’t have chosen a lady preacher!
You’d hope for better weather on the Heysen Trail as it eases along the Inman River. It also treks up and over the ranges also offer spectacular views.
The valley was named after Henry Inman, South Australia’s first Superintendent of Police, but of course, what nobody knew back then was the enormous geological significance of the place.
The tell-tail sharp drop into the flat-bottomed U-shaped valley below gives a hint - a giant glacier of sheet ice created the landscape. A slab of half a billion-year-old riverbed rock now called Glacier Rock provided the vital clue.
In 1859, geologist Professor A.R.C. Selwyn recognised the smoothing and scratching of the rock as the grindings of a glacier. We now estimate that it was about 250 million years ago when Australia was further south and part of the great southern super-continent known as Gondwanaland.
Thanks to the Inman River that has washed the topsoil away, we can actually walk on the bedrock and see what the glacier has done. You can see the waves and scratches in the rock that were left behind by the glacier.
The unofficial ‘keeper of the rock’ is Dave Hill, the chef extraordinaire who runs the Glacier Rock Restaurant above.
“I’ve been here a few years,” he said. “And I’ve had geologists from all over the world and they drool. They’re down there for hours taking photographs.”
Wander around one of the world’s largest exposed glacial pavements and you’ll marvel at a huge granite boulder lodged in the riverbank. Weighing maybe 30 tonnes it’s called an erratic and was carried by ice all the way from Granite Island about 20 kilometres away. An impressive demonstration of the forces involved
Thankfully you don’t need to be Indiana Jones to experience Selwyn’s Rock. You can enjoy a meal or jam and scones in Dave’s restaurant - a quirky English Pub on the inside with the Aussie bush on the outside.
The rock has been an attraction for over a hundred years. The Crossmans built the old bridge nearby in 1909 so people could get to their popular tearooms.
There might be a new bridge and a new restaurant - but the Glacier Rock? Well, that’s been the same for thousands of years. Glacier Rock is on the Inman Valley Road near the Golf Course - access is free.
The restaurant is open for lunch Tuesday - Sunday and dinner Thursday - Saturday. Galloway Yabbies is just up the road and is open Friday to Monday between 11 and 4. It’s closed in winter.
Inman Valley
Fleurieu PeninsulaGlacier Rock Restaurant
Inman Valley Road
Ph (08) 8558 8202Galloway Yabbies
Main Road
Ph (08) 8558 8215
(closed in winter)
