Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta is a new nation­al park formed in 2020 in Adelaide’s south­ern sub­urbs. The park is locat­ed 16 km south of Ade­laide on Majors Road in O’Halloran Hill.

The former 208-hectare Glenthorne property is being revitalised through an extensive revegetation program.

The four named trails, adven­ture play­ground and vis­i­tor hub opened in mid 2023. The original 4km trail has been replaced with the four new themed trails:

1. On this page:
   Walk­ing with Winaity­i­naityi Trail, 40 mins return, 1.5km (marked in yellow on maps.)
   This trail intro­duces you to 10 winaity­i­naityi (birds) that vis­it Glen­thorne-Tya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta. Hear from Kau­r­na edu­ca­tor Jack Buck­skin in the ​‘Walk­ing with Winaity­i­naityi’ tour on the SA Nation­al Parks Tours smartphone app. The trail fol­lows the creek line to the two dams, before return­ing back to the vis­i­tor hub. Log seats are locat­ed along the trail so you can take your time look­ing and lis­ten­ing for winaityinaityi.

2. Foot­prints from the Past Trail, 1 hour loop, 1.3km (marked in pink on maps.)
   This trail unlocks the his­to­ry of the for­mer Glen­thorne Farm through the sto­ries of six char­ac­ters from Glenthorne’s past, begin­ning with Kau­r­na Miyur­na (peo­ple). The trail takes you through the main vis­i­tor hub, past a 1960s glasshouse lab­o­ra­to­ry and 1850s vigneron’s barn, then towards a look­out with panora­ma views over the park and dis­tant hills. To get the most out of the trail, lis­ten to the audio nar­ra­tives and bring the fea­tured char­ac­ters to life through aug­ment­ed real­i­ty in the ​‘Foot­prints from the Past’ tour on the SA Nation­al Parks Tours smartphone app.

3. Grow with me Trail, 1 hour return, 2.2km (marked in orange on maps.)
   This trail takes you to some of the best van­tage points in the park. See just how much Glen­thorne-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta has grown since it was pro­claimed as a nation­al park in May 2020. Keep an eye out for the ​‘Grow with me’ pho­to points along the way where you can take pho­tos to add to cit­i­zen sci­ence records and track your own growth along with the park’s each time you visit.

4. Warhorse Way Trail, 1 hour loop, 2.5km (marked in green on maps.)
   This trail starts in the main vis­i­tor hub and fol­lows part of the ​‘Foot­prints from the Past’ trail to reveal the sto­ries lead­ing up to and through­out the Aus­tralian Army’s time here dur­ing World War I and II. The trail then winds its way up the hill to a pair of muni­tions stores built as part of the estab­lish­ment of the No.9 Amy Remount Depot. Take a peek inside the build­ings, learn about what they stored, and dis­cov­er how impor­tant the depot was to the war effort.

The adven­ture play­ground fea­tures three slides, a see­saw, spin­ner, fos­sil dig area and Kau­r­na carv­ings and sculp­tures set across 7,000 square metres, mak­ing it one of the biggest nature play spaces in South Aus­tralia. There are also rope and log climb­ing ele­ments, a pen­du­lum swing, cub­by building, a 25m long fly­ing fox and a wide range of acces­si­ble equip­ment to ensure chil­dren of all abil­i­ties can enjoy the space.

The park is named after Itya­mai­it­pin­na who was a sig­nif­i­cant Kau­r­na elder dur­ing the coloni­sa­tion between Kau­r­na and Euo­pean set­tlers. ​‘Itya’ means ​‘fleshy’, ​‘mai’ means ​‘food’, ​‘itpin­na’ means the ​‘father of’ and ​‘yarta’ means land. Watch a video to learn more about the Itya­mai­it­pin­na.

The adven­ture play­ground is sur­round­ed by a pur­pose-built vis­i­tor hub that includes shel­ters, BBQs, toi­lets, pic­nic areas, carparks and her­itage buildings. Mobile food ven­dors sometimes oper­at­e in the park – find them near the play­ground offer­ing cof­fee, drinks and food.

Park opening hours

All trails are shared use

All trails in the park are shared use between bikes and walk­ers. The trails are rel­a­tive­ly flat and pre­dom­i­nate­ly designed for walk­ers, children’s bikes and those with acces­si­bil­i­ty needs. If you are look­ing for a more chal­leng­ing moun­tain bik­ing expe­ri­ence head across Majors Road to the O’Halloran Hill por­tion of Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta.

Dog walking permitted

Dogs are welcome on the trails in this park. Please keep your dog under control and on a lead no more than 2 metres in length. Bring disposable bags to clean up your dog’s faeces (please be aware there are no bins in national parks).

Getting to the trailhead

The carpark is location off Majors Road, O’Halloran Hill, SA 5158.

Adelaide Metro bus services stop at nearby Stop 45 Adams Rd, Trott Park SA 5158 (750m walk along Majors Rd to reach national park entrance) and Stop 32 Main South Rd, O’Halloran Hill SA 5158 (1km walk along Majors Rd to reach national park entrance.)