About the Walking Trail

This 7.5km loop walk around Ansteys Hill Recreation Park includes some steep climbs, superb views over the Adelaide Plains, some of the wildlife of the park, and the ruins of Newmans Nursery.

You can walk your dog in this park provided it remains on a lead.

The hike follows the main blue dolomite wide fire tracks, except parts of the Ridge Top Walk track, and the return along the Boundary Walk track (parallel to Perseverance Road), which is a clay dirt fire track. The trail is marked with yellow markers. In March 2017 this trail was marked as the Yellowtail Loop, as part of the upgrade of Anstey Hill Recreation Park.

Begin the hike from any of these locations:

• Gate 2 on North East Road
• The main carpark, accessible from Gate 2
• Gate 3 on Perserverance Road
• Gate 7 on Perserverance Road

History

The main open cut quarry and ruins, dating from 1853 to 1982, supplied stone for buildings, including Adelaide’s war memorial and St Peter’s Cathedral.

The Newmans Nursery was established in 1854, and the extensive ruins show glimpses into the past; of heated glass houses, and that it was the largest nursery in the southern hemisphere. The nursery was devastated by flood in 1912, and never quite recovered, being used as a dairy from 1932, and from 1935 assets from the buildings were salvaged and the property used for sheep grazing. What remained was destroyed by Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983. Some of the family set up the current day Newmans Nursery in 1925, nearby on North East Road.

Access by Public Transport

It’s easily possible to do this hike by catching an Adelaide Metro bus, to bus stop 51N, North East Road, Tea Tree Gully, on route 557, or the 542 to bus stop 52 North East Road (0.7km from park entrance).