Waterfall Gully, South Australia

Waterfall Gully, South Australia

Waterfall Gully is an eastern suburb of the South Australian capital city of Adelaide. It is located in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges around 5 km east-south-east of the Adelaide city centre. In Australian Aboriginal mythology, the region is part of the story of the ancestor-creator Nganno, who laid down to die in the region. Today the suburb consists primarily of private residences and parks, and is under the control of the State Government.

About Waterfall Gully, South Australia in brief

Summary Waterfall Gully, South AustraliaWaterfall Gully is an eastern suburb of the South Australian capital city of Adelaide. It is located in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges around 5 km east-south-east of the Adelaide city centre. For the most part, the suburb encompasses one long gully with First Creek at its centre. At the southern end of the gully is First Falls, the waterfall for which the suburb was named. In Australian Aboriginal mythology, the region is part of the story of the ancestor-creator Nganno, who laid down to die in the region. The region was referred to as Yur-e-billa, or ‘the place of the ears’, while the nearby town of Uraidla employs a more corrupted form. Today the suburb consists primarily of private residences and parks, and is under the control of the State Government. It was first explored by European settlers in the early-to-mid-19th century, and quickly became a popular location for tourists and picnickers. The government chose to retain control over portions of Waterfalls Gully until 1884, when they agreed to place the land under the auspices of the City of Burnside. 28 years later the government took back the management of the southern part of Water Falls Gully, designating it as South Australia’s first National Pleasure Resort. Today this area remains under State Government control, and in 1972 the Waterfall Gullies Reserve, as it was then known, became part of larger Cleland Conservation Park.

The suburb is bounded to the north by Burnside, from the north-east to south-east by Cleland conservation Park, to the south by Crafers West, and to the west by Leawood Gardens and Mount Osmond. In 1831, Captain Kent, along with Collet Barker and Collet Miles, climbed Mount Lofta, making their ascent in a skirted ravine. Mr Kent described the area as possessing a rich rich plains that could only be found on the slopes, and that would have been easier on the general public in general. One of the earliest accounts comes from a man named Kent, who described the region as ‘rich in rich plains’ and possessing a string of trees and cossid moth larvae along with other species of plants and animals. Nevertheless, there were only a few resources that could be found in the area. The native Kaurna people did not live in the ranges themselves, but they did live on the lower slopes. In the early 1800s the region housed one of the state’s earliest water-powered mills, and a weir erected in the late 1800s provided for part of Burnside’s water supply. Early agricultural interests saw the cultivation of a variety of introduced species as crops, as well as the development of local market gardens and nurseries. Attempts to mine the area were largely unsuccessful, but the region houses a number of local trees used in the construction of local landybark trees.