The Onkaparinga To Willunga Rail Trail with Keith Conlon
From the shores of the Onkaparinga River to the hills at Willunga, cyclists and walkers can have it all their own way, and so the invitation is out to mount your trusty treddly or put on your walking shoes for some postcard views along the old Willunga railway line. Its southern twenty kilometres is now a recreational trail.
Before you get up too much steam on the very new section starting on the city side of the river, here is your itinerary...the newly paved section climbs gently up through Seaford and then cuts back through the hills to McLaren Vale before running through the vineyards along to Willunga (this section has been established since 1986).
It takes advantage of restored railway bridges like the substantial one across the Onkaparinga and railway cuttings and embankments so that is all fairly easy going. It had to be fore the trains that took this route for nearly a half century from 1915.
There are some delicious detours along the way, however. The Onkaparinga estuary wetland trail for instance, a three kilometre circuit around a haven for waterbirds. Or a tour through old Noarlunga township tucked into a horseshoe bend of the river as it emerges from the spectacular Onkaparinga Gorge.
Up the rise, the trail meanders along a wide transport corridor through the 1990's suburb or Seaford. There are lakes and thousands of tree plantings to green the way. Steam train passengers looked out on wool and wheat here and hopped off for a day at Moana, then a distant "Manly of South Australia". Now the subdivisions roll across the hills, and the locals can take to the trail here as it takes a sharp left turn. They swap the sea and suburbs for spectacular rural scenery.
The South Road to Sellick's Beach used to wind down the gully to cross Pedlar Creek, crossing the train line as it went. Traffic flies overhead now as the rail trail heads east into deep cuttings. Explosives helped open them in 1913 and then it was all pick and shovel work to make the gradient for steam locomotives. The hard yakka has opened up an easy-going trail in a hidden valley for the new century.
Over the next five kilometres, totally new vistas unfold, historic farms, pretty Pedlar Creek and the magnet for artists and photographers the Willunga hills face. Round a curve, there's a picturesque railway bridge crossing above the creek as it gurgles past ancient river red gums. Soon after the vines come into view. This is the small wine-makers' domain, and they have transformed South Australian countryside into Tuscany. The cooling hills, the seabreezes, the local soil they all help produce the legendary rich McLaren Vale shiraz.
The new ten kilometre section of the Onkaparinga to Willunga rail trail comes close to serious traffic for one short stretch into McLaren Vale township. It slips under the relentless speedsters to Victor Harbor via an intimate boardwalk that caresses the Pedlar Creek beneath the roadbridge and temporarily takes to the main road into town. Eventually the Onkaparinga Council and governments funds will flow to put it along the valley behind the Visitor Centre, now surrounded by pretty cottage gardens and vineyards. It's a fount of all local knowledge, and they're proud of their very own first vintage, the Stump Hill Shiraz 1998.
The trail currently passes The Barn, once a staging post before the passenger coaches were superseded by the train. It will be open again for summer, celebrating its thirtieth anniversary since its pioneering wine bistro licences was granted. A youngster over the side road, Limeburners cafÈ and Marienburg Wines is nevertheless in a pioneer cottage. And very handily at the halfway mark, the Southern Vales B&B does bike hire as well.
Just past the landmark hotel, the trail joins the original track alignment again at the old level crossing. You can see the cracks in the bitumen marking the old 5'3" broad gauge lines. The train cut the corner of the old Tintara Winery in the old flour mill bought by wine pioneer Thomas Hardy, he put McLaren Vale reds and ports on the lips of London wine merchants in the late 1800's.
As the trail leaves the road, a real rail memento The Almond Train sits on a few surviving metres of track. Passengers waited for fifty years for the line to open, and in less time than that, it was closed. The two carriages, genuine veterans of the Willunga line, remain in service offering all sorts of local temptations.
The rail trail offers a backyard view of McLaren Vale, chooks and all, before it swings south to cross Kangarilla Road. A weatherboard cottage B&B's back verandah looks out to the dogwalkers and local school children who also enjoy the traffic-free trail. There are a half dozen B&B's close to the path in the region, and several wineries (after all, there are around 50 in the district). If you're on a leisurely timetable, take some bread for a duck-feeding-frenzy at the expansive and gumtree surrounded pond at McLaren's on the Lake. It's a good food-wine-bed establishment in a park right on the edge of the old line.
Through the next cutting and again the rail trail enters a world of its own. The familiar vinescape of the vale looks strikingly fresh and attractive from this new angle. A former level crossing brings more decisions straight on to Willunga, or left down the road to a B&B, bikes and a bite at Wirilda Creek Winery and the gargantuan gum fence at Wirra Wirra Winery in rebuilt nineteenth century bluestone cellars. Or you might want to turn right for a short detour for the renowned gourmet fare at the Salopian Inn.
Back on the rail trail its all vineyards now, but the old steam trains thundered through hay paddocks on the eight kilometre straight stretch to Willunga. Boring it is not, however. The trek or treddle is rewarded with views to Mt Lofty in the north and the enchanting enticement of the hills-face rolling to the sea at Sellick's Beach. Willunga's high school on one side and its golf course on the other signal the crossing of the old Victor Harbor road as the trail heads for the terminus, almost twenty kilometres from the Onkaparinga railway bridge.
Willunga itself offers a charming walking or riding tour in its own right, with its historic courthouse museum as the centerpiece, and more B&B's and country-style pubs too. The remnants of the rail era wait at the end of the line the old weatherboard station, refreshment room (now the domain of sporting clubs), and the concrete water tank to feed thirsty locomotives. It was a glad day here in 1915 when the Governor arrived by special train of course, to open the line. The rail service was a boon in its time, but the last passengers embarked in 1957 and the last freight train left in 1963. The very last special train ran thirty one years ago, but the opening day poem still stands.
"The air is pure and the folks are kind So try our railway"
On foot or on your bike, try the Onkaparinga to Willunga trail.
Details
The trail brochure and signage are still in the pipeline, as Onkaparinga Council has just completed the northern section.
Further information
McLaren Vale Visitor Centre
Main Road, McLaren Vale SA 5171
Open 10am-5pm everyday (except Xmas Day and Good Friday)
Phone: 08-8323-9944 Fax: 08-8323-9949
Tollfreee: 1800-628-410
Email: mclarenvale@visitorcentre.com.au
Web: www.visitorcentre.com.auOnkaparinga Council
Bikeplan Coordinator - Darren Hampstead
Phone: 8384-0172Reading "Sea and Vines" - Barbara Sautich
Wakefield Press
