Best Gardens in the Adelaide Hills
Botanic showpieces, heritage camellias and whole villages that glow in autumn.
Few parts of Australia do gardens like the Adelaide Hills. The altitude delivers a genuine cool climate, and more than a century of European-style planting means deciduous trees, camellias and rhododendrons thrive here as nowhere else in the state. These are the gardens - formal and wild - worth a slow wander.
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1
StirlingMount Lofty Botanic Garden
The cool-climate showpiece - lakes, rhododendrons and winding paths that blaze with colour each autumn.
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2
CrafersCarrick Hill
A grand heritage estate and garden with sculpture, woodland trails and an English-manor house.
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3
Aldgate
Stangate House and Garden
A serene Aldgate garden famous for its camellias, opened by the National Trust on selected open days.
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4
CrafersCleland National Park
Native bushland and walking trails wrapping the slopes below Mount Lofty.
For peak drama, time a visit for late April and May, when the exotic plantings turn red and gold. Colour is short and weather-dependent, so check before you drive out.
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Image credits
- Mount Lofty Botanic Garden, Crafers 20250919-134207.jpg by RegionVisitor90 , CC0 via Wikimedia Commons