Woodside is a town in the Adelaide Hills region 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 ...

. The town is between

Balhannah Balhannah is a town in the Adelaide Hills about 30 km southeast of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was established in 1839 as a farming community by James Turnbull Thomson, who built the first hotel. The town soon grew to inco ...

and

Lobethal Lobethal is a town in the Adelaide Hills area of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Hills Council local government area, and is nestled on the banks of a creek between the hills and up the sides of the valley. It was once the centr ...

, from the state capital,

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 ...

. Mount Barker is also nearby.

Description

The town is a useful traffic hub linking Oakbank,

and Charleston. It is on the

Onkaparinga Valley Road Onkaparinga Valley Road is a South Australian secondary road, connecting the towns of Birdwood, Woodside, Balhannah and Verdun within the Adelaide Hills. It is designated part of route B34. Major intersections Onkaparinga Valley Road is enti ...

, South Australian route B34, and is 25 km due East of Adelaide's CBD. Amenities include a swimming pool, library, second hand store, grocery store, Cricket Club, tennis club, netball club, two pubs, lawyer, bowls club, and playing fields. Local businesses include Woodside Cheese Wrights, Melbas Chocolate Factory, a Lobethal Bakery and Bird in Hand winery. It includes Inverbrackie, the site of Woodside Barracks which is the home base of the 16th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery ground-based air defence unit. Woodside Air Base was used by Aerotech for aerial firefighting, who relocated to

Claremont Airbase Claremont Airbase is a private airport near Brukunga in the Adelaide Hills east of Adelaide, South Australia. It is the main base used for aerial firefighting support of the South Australian Country Fire Service The South Australian Count ...

near

Brukunga Brukunga is a small town in the Adelaide Hills, located approximately east of Adelaide and north of the town of Nairne. History Its name, derived from ''Barrukungga'' in the local Kaurna language, means "place of fire stone" or the "place ...

in 2016.

History

The first European explorers through the Woodside district were Dr George Imlay and

John Hill John Hill may refer to: Business * John Henry Hill (1791–1882), American businessman, educator and missionary * John Hill (planter) (1824–1910), Scottish-born American industrialist and planter * John Hill (businessman) (1847–1926), Austral ...

in January 1838. In 1839 the

South Australian Company The South Australian Company, also referred to as the South Australia Company, was formed in London on 9 October 1835, after the '' South Australia (Foundation) Act 1834'' had established the new British Province of South Australia, with the S ...

took out several special surveys which secured much of the central Mount Lofty Ranges and the sources of the Onkaparinga. The Johnston family of Oakbank founded Woodside in the 1850s, primarily to improve their brewery business. Gold was discovered in area. The largest mine was the Bird-in-Hand mine which operated from 1881 to 1889. Woodside was served by the

Mount Pleasant railway line The Mount Pleasant railway line is an abandoned South Australian line. It was opened between Balhannah and Mount Pleasant in September 1918 and ran until March 1963 as a freight and passenger service.

from 1918 to 1953. There was an army base here. There was also an immigration detention centre here and it was open for many years.

References

External links

Welcome to Woodside, South Australia
Towns in South Australia {{SouthAustralia-geo-stub