About the Walking Trail

The Chambers Hike is a 2.5 hour, 7km loop (3 hours, 9.6km from Chambers Gully carpark).

On this hike you can enjoy the cool sanctuary of Chambers Gully. Watch out for cockatoos, butterflies and bandicoots as you follow the track fringed with ferns. A steep climb takes you to the ridge, where splendid views of the city and coast are revealed.

The loop cant be directly accessed by road, but it is an easy 1.2km hike to reach an access point, from the carpark at Chambers Gully.

Directions

The directions begin at the carpark at Chambers Gully, and walk in a clockwise direction.

1. The small roadside carpark is opposite 67 Waterfall Gully Road, Waterfall Gully. The Chambers Gully bitumen road (the road is actually called the Burnside Quarry Track, but there are no signs saying this) here is blocked by a gate, walk through this gateway
2. Continue up along the bitumen road. Walking past the red brick building (a rifle club), take the right dirt firetrack through the quarry. If you missed this turn, the track you are on will meet up again with the main track soon enough
3. The bitumen road rejoins, and at the turn-around area for the bitumen road, continue along the dirt fire track. An old road sign here reads “Waterfall Gully Road OUT”
4. The track reaches Gate 9 / Burnside Walking Trails CP 44. Continue on the same wide track through the gate. The single track walking track is where you will return later. This is the entrance to Cleland Conservation Park (the land from Waterfall Gully Road to here is administered by the City of Burnside). As you have now entered the Conservation Park, this is where the trail markers for the Chambers Hike begin.
5. The wide track continues up Chambers Gully. You soon reach a cross junction, although the steep trail to the right can be indistinct, and is colloquially known as the Widow Maker (it’s steep). This intersection is marked as Emergency ID 45. Continue on the main trail, which is actually the start of the Bartrill Spur Track (the Chambers Gully Track goes left up the steep hill, but the signs don’t make this clear)
6. You soon reach the junction of the Bartrill Spur Track (the track you are on) and Kerrang Track. This intersection is marked as Emergency ID 48. The track now is shared with the Wine Shanty Hike. The next section gets steeper.
7. As the steepness begins to ease off, you reach the top of the gully at the junction of Bartrill Spur Track and Long Ridge Track. Turn right, down hill, along the Long Ridge Track. This long, wide ridge gives splendid views of Adelaide and the coast.
8. You pass an intersection marked as Emergency ID 54, and soon after ID 56. This marks the Manna Gum Loop. It’s here, and further down, where there is a manna gum nursery where branches are harvested for the Cleland Wildlife Park koalas.
9. After about 1.5 kms of walking along the ridge, you reach the junction with the Winter Track. This track offers an alternate route back to Waterfall Gully Road (but a little further up from the carpark). This junction is marked as Emergency ID 58. Continue another 250m towards the Lookout / Sugarloaf Hill (ahead of you, on the same track)
10. Nearing the lookout, you see the Chambers Gully Walking Track on the left, a single track walking trail. This track will contour around the Sugarloaf back to Gate 9 / Burnside Walking Trails CP 44 (point 4), where you can turn left and return down Chambers Gully to the carpark
11. Optionally at 10, walk up to the Lookout to see more views of Adelaide, the plains and the coast, before returning to 10 and following the Chambers Gully Walking Track

Extend this Hike

• When you reach Long Ridge Track, walk to Mt Lofty summit, or
• Combine this walk with the Wine Shanty Hike to do a figure 8 hike