By Discover the Adelaide Hills · · 6 min read
Most visitors never venture south of Hahndorf. Those who do find the Hills' quietest, most agricultural and most surprising corner.
Draw a line south from Hahndorf and the crowds thin almost at once.
This is the high southern plateau of the Adelaide Hills - a rolling country of dairy paddocks, grazing land and big skies that feels a long way from the tour buses of the main street. The towns are working towns: Meadows with its bakery and its country fair, Echunga with its gold-rush past, Macclesfield strung along its creek.
A pioneering past
The history runs deep here. Echunga saw South Australia's first significant gold strike in the 1850s, and the hilltop hamlet of Prospect Hill keeps a fine little museum that tells the story of farming and timber on the plateau. From its ridge, on a clear day, you can see all the way to the Fleurieu coast.
The pleasure of empty roads
What the southern Hills offer above all is space. The roads run empty between hedgerows and dairy farms; the produce - milk, cheese, cherries - is some of the best in the state. For travellers who've done Hahndorf and want to see how the Hills really live, this is where to point the car.