Eagle On The Hill is an unbounded locality 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 in the suburb of Crafers West on the western face of the Adelaide Hills overlooking the Adelaide metropolitan area. The village is located on

Mount Barker Road Mount Barker Road was once the main road from Adelaide through the Adelaide Hills to Mount Barker on the eastern slopes of the Mount Lofty Ranges. The main route has now been replaced, or subsumed into, the South Eastern Freeway, but two sectio ...

, which was formerly the connection from Adelaide to the

South Eastern Freeway South Eastern Freeway is a freeway in South Australia (SA). It is a part of the National Highway network linking the state capital cities of Adelaide, SA, and Melbourne, Victoria, and signed as National Highway M1. It carries traffic over ...

. Once the freeway was extended through the

Heysen Tunnels The Heysen Tunnels are twin tube road tunnels which carry the South Eastern Freeway under Eagle On The Hill, South Australia, Eagle On The Hill in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia. The tunnels were excavated using a tunnelling machine no ...

in 2000, through the ridge underneath Eagle On The Hill, the locality went into a precipitous decline. It is now a relic of its former self; its restaurant, hotel, bottle shop and service stations have all closed, leaving behind a quiet suburb with a small resident population. Eagle On The Hill is now a very popular spot for downhill speedboarders who travel down the road at speeds close to 65 kilometres per hour.

Hotel

The Eagle on the Hill Hotel was built by George Stevenson in 1850 and initially was run as an eating-house, then opened in 1853 as an hotel by William Anderson, who named it ''Anderson Hotel''. Abraham Fordham was its lessee in 1854, naming it the "Eagle Inn", changing it to "Eagle on the Hill" in 1856. Fordham was found insolvent in 1861 but was able to continue trading until April 1864, when the lease on the "Eagle on the Hill" (better known as "Fordham's") was re-advertised. Fordham, who previously ran a hotel on

Grenfell Street Grenfell Street () is a major street in the north-east quarter of the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. The street runs west-east from King William Street to East Terrace. On the other side of King William Street, it continues as Currie S ...

, died at the hotel the following August. His wife, Elizabeth Fordham, successfully applied for the licence, and died aged 68 at the hotel in September 1866. Their son, William Robert Fordham (died 1873), next had the licence, then transferred it to James Tighe (died 1876) in January 1869, but the association with the Fordhams continued for many years. The hotel has twice been ravaged by bushfires. First in 1899; a fire destroyed all of the old hotel with the exception of two rooms. Again on

Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and falls on the first day of Lent (the six weeks of penitence before Easter). It is observed by Catholics in the Rom ...

(16 February 1983) the hotel suffered, with it being completely destroyed. It was rebuilt and operated with much success until its closure after the construction of the new freeway route which carried the

through the

instead of up the ridge past the hotel. It is now a private residence.

External links

History of Eagle on the Hill

References

Geography of Adelaide {{Adelaide-geo-stub