Onkaparinga River National Park

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Onkaparinga River National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)

Nearest town/city:	Adelaide
Coordinates:	35°09′38″S, 138°33′14″E
Area:	13.8 km²
Managing authorities:	Department for Environment and Heritage
Official site:	Onkaparinga River National Park

Onkaparinga River National Park is in South Australia (Australia), 32 km south of Adelaide also incorporates the Onkaparinga River Recreation Park.

The hills that make up the eastern part of this park serve to block off the sights and sounds of the nearby suburbs, also conveniently making this place fairly unknown and people-free. The vegetation of the park has been greatly perturbed by human activity, but remnant patches remain. The most intact area is the Hardy's Scrub section of the reserve. A history of grazing has cleared most of the reserve of native understorey species and in many areas invasive grasses are the main vegetation type. Remnant Eucalypts are the most noticeable native species in the reserve. Eucalyptus microcarpa (Grey Box), Eucalyptus fasciculosa (Pink Gum), Eucalyptus porosa (Mallee box), Eucalyptus Cameldulensis (Red Gum), and Eucalyptus leucoxylyn (Blue Gum) all occur in the reserve. The European Olive (Olea europaea) is a noxious weed in South Australia and has invaded the park, although generally individuals are not as large as in older parks in the Mount Lofty Ranges like Belair NP but will continue to be a problem unless managed. Over the last twenty years accessible areas of the gorge have been revegetated by contractors working for National Parks SA. The oldest area of revegetation in the park was conducted with tubestock, predominantly of Eucalypts. Recent efforts have focused on the direct seeding method where seed of native species is ploughed into a scraped trench. The reserve features good views and some spectacular insect activity, notably butterflies (Lepidoptera)and dragonflies (Anisoptera), kangaroos are common among the open hillsides with abundant grasses although they are fairly people-shy. Onkaparinga Gorge has some very steep terrain, following the car trail on foot leads to very steep inclines, the river at the bottom of the ravine makes such walks worthwhile (see picture).

Directions: It's usually listed on maps as Onkaparinga River Recreation Park, entrances can be found on the dirt section of Piggott Range Road, Onkaparinga Hills.