Black Hill Conservation Park, formerly the Black Hill National Park, is a protected area in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

located approximately northeast of the state capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. The conservation park is in a rugged bush environment, with a prominent peak, bounded by steep ridges on the southern slopes.

Geography and climate

Black Hill Conservation Park covers around within the

Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and ...

, which run north-south to the east of Adelaide's coastal plain. It is located in the suburbs of

Athelstone Athelstone is a suburb of Adelaide in the City of Campbelltown, South Australia, City of Campbelltown. It was established in the 19th century but only became part of suburban Adelaide in the second half of the 20th century. It is approximatel ...

and Montacute and is bounded to the north by Gorge Road and to the south by Montacute Road. The conservation park lies mostly on the northern side of Fifth Creek. The conservation park adjoins Morialta Conservation Park, home to many activities, including bushwalking, bird watching and rock climbing. The main access to the conservation park is via the vehicle entrance off Maryvale Road, and there is walking access at various points along Marble Hill Road. Morialta shares Adelaide's

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

, with average temperatures of in winter, to during summer. The conservation park receives average annual rainfall of mostly between May and September. During the summer months (December to February) temperatures can rise above . The conservation park is classified as an IUCN Category III protected area.

History

The land first received protected area status as the ''Black Hill National Park'' proclaimed on 27 January 1972 under the ''National Parks Act 1966'' in respect to land in sections 669, 670 and 671 of the cadastral unit of the

Hundred of Adelaide The Hundred of Adelaide is a cadastral hundred in the city of Adelaide spanning all the inner suburbs south of River Torrens. It is one of the eleven hundreds of the County of Adelaide, and was one of the first hundreds to be proclaimed. Like the ...

and section 526 of the

Hundred of Onkaparinga The Hundred of Onkaparinga is a cadastral hundred of the County of Adelaide, South Australia, in the Adelaide Hills. It was proclaimed by Governor Frederick Robe in 1846 and named for the Onkaparinga River valley, which flows from north east to ...

. On 27 April 1972, the national park was reconstituted as the ''Black Hill Conservation Park'' under the ''

National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 Protected areas of South Australia consists of protected areas located within South Australia and its immediate onshore waters and which are managed by South Australian Government agencies. As of March 2018, South Australia contains 359 sepa ...

''. As of 2019, it covered an area of . In 1982, it was listed on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate.

Prior use of the land

The land used by the Morialta Conservation Park was traditionally occupied by the

Kaurna The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurn ...

people. Most of the Kaurna elders died before much of their culture could be recorded, and so little is known of the pre-colonial history of the area. It is known that they used fire both as an aid to hunting, and to regenerate the vegetation. Private landholdings were given over to a wildflower garden on the north edge of the conservation park which has now officially been handed over to the conservation park. The Friends of the Black Hill and Morialta Conservation Parks have a building on site where meetings are held and activities are based/conducted for help with the wildflower garden and the two conservation parks.

Activities

The conservation park caters for a variety of activities, including bushwalking, picnics and bird watching. There are many walking paths within the conservation park, including the Yurrebilla and Heysen Trails. Being only from the centre of

, Black Hill is an accessible but often overlooked conservation park area. There are picnic grounds near the conservation park's Administration buildings and this area links in with the Athelstone oval and Wadmore Park, a Campbelltown City Council reserve.

References

External links