Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park (SA) Guide

About Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park

The park covers nearly 10,000 hectares of coastal bushland and wild coastline on Nharangga Banggara, Narungga Country, at the south-western tip of the peninsula past Marion Bay. Stop at the board at the visitor centre for the Narungga stories of the place, from Ngarna the bat and Buthera the giant to Widhadha the shark, whose totem you’ll keep seeing on the Caring for Country signs around the peninsula. The park has two working lighthouses, Cape Spencer and West Cape, the wreck of the Ethel on Ethel Beach, the gypsum-mining ghost town of Inneston, and seven campgrounds from the jetty at Stenhouse Bay to the bush at Pondalowie.

You don’t need a 4WD: the main road is sealed and the campground roads are good gravel. Vehicle entry is $14.40, paid online before you enter, and as the self-registration at the gate is card only on a slow connection, buy the pass in town. Leave the dog at home, and in the fire danger season it’s gas fires only.

Best time to go

We came between Christmas and New Year: warm, breezy, the water clear and the campgrounds busy but not full. The fire danger season runs from November to April, so no wood fires, and the park closes on Catastrophic fire days. Spring brings wildflowers and cool walking weather, and autumn keeps the warm water without the crowds.

• SpringBest timeSeptember–NovemberWildflowersCool days for the cliff walks
• AutumnBest timeMarch–MayWarm waterQuiet camps
• SummerFairDecember–FebruaryBeach weatherBusy campsGas fires only
• WinterTake careJune–AugustBig seas on the cliffsCold windEmpty

Getting There and Accessibility

From Adelaide it’s about 300 km via Port Wakefield, Ardrossan, Minlaton and Warooka to Marion Bay, then a few kilometres to the gate. We came from Daly Head along the coast through Marion Bay, where there’s a water filling station to top up before the park, and a caravan park and pub. Inside, the sealed road runs through to Stenhouse Bay and Pondalowie, with gravel spurs to the beaches and camps, all fine for any car.

Campgrounds in Innes National Park

We drove through four of the park’s seven campgrounds and camped at none, which is the one regret of the day; each has its own review below. Stenhouse Bay is the easy one with drive-through bays for vans, Pondalowie the big, sheltered one, Casuarina and Cable Bay the small, quiet ones. The others we didn’t see are Shell Beach with five sites and the Shepherds Hut, and Gym Beach with six sites off the Corny Point road. You book and pay for all of them on parks.sa.gov.au, they’re all gas fires only in the fire danger season, and none has drinking water, so bring your own.

Lookouts

Cape Spencer is the park’s great lookout and the best view on the peninsula: an easy, accessible path out along a headland of limestone cliffs to the lighthouse. It has its own review below.

Sights

The beaches are the rest of the day. Dolphin Bay is the one not to miss, the calmest and clearest swim we had on the peninsula, and just outside the park Parsons Beach is where we drove onto the sand for lunch. Shell Beach, up the road from Dolphin Bay, is a short walk and wooden steps down to another white bay, Little Emu Beach is a walk from Stenhouse Bay, the salt lakes beside the road to Pondalowie are white to the horizon, and Inneston Lake, on the way in, is a surprising clear blue. We didn’t get to Inneston, West Cape or the Ethel wreck, which is reason enough to come back.

Practical Tips

Innes is at the south-western tip of the Yorke Peninsula, and the park camps have no drinking water, so a little planning goes a long way. Here’s what we’d sort out before going.

Summary

Cliffs, lighthouses, salt lakes, calm bays and seven campgrounds at the tip of the peninsula, all in any car for $14.40 a vehicle. We did it in a day from Daly Head and swam at Dolphin Bay, but with seven campgrounds inside the park, it’s worth staying a night or two.

Recommended Gear for Innes National Park

There’s no drinking water in the park, so carry it in good water containers and fill up in Marion Bay. A camp shower gets the salt off after Dolphin Bay, a camping fridge keeps lunch cold on the cliffs, and a head torch is all you need for the camps, where there’s no power.