Boutique hotels
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Arkaba Station & Walk
- Style
- Sheep station chic
- Setting
- Outback galore
Flinders Ranges Overview
South Australia
- Countryside
- Rolling rocks and ranges
- Country life
- Walking and wildlife-watching
Australia’s most accessible outback, the Flinders Ranges – just a five-hour drive from Adelaide – serves up a wildly beautiful landscape that's home to geological wonder Wilpena Pound, aboriginal rock art and native wildlife.
To make the most of your South Australian experience, drive via the Barossa or Clare valleys, for vineyard visits on route. Once at the Flinders, you'll be met by purple-tinged rolling hills and majestic ancient rocks, an epic land strewn with twisted, bark-bright Red River Gums, inhabited by kangaroos and emus, and flocked with tune-toting birds. Social life may be limited to small, eccentric outback towns, but you'll never be short of sheep to count (sheep stations and dairy farms are big news in these parts). Get active with some trekking, mountain biking, four-wheel-drive safaris or photography (artists love this dramatic countryside); then kick back with a fine local wine. The Heysen and Mawson Trails run through this region, and Lake Eyre is within reach for scenic flights.
Local knowledge
- Tipping culture
- Like elsewhere in Australia, tipping here isn’t mandatory, but add on 10 per cent in restaurants and cafés if you rated the service. Round taxi fares up to the nearest dollar.
- Time zone
- GMT + 9.5 (so confusingly you're just half an hour behind Victoria and New South Wales).
- Do go/don't go
- The climate in the Flinders Ranges and southern outback is usually dry and sunny year-round. Over the summer, from December to February, it can get uncomfortably hot during the day, but is pleasanlty warm come evening. In winter, from June to August, days are warm and nights cold, often dropping below zero degrees. Spring, when wildflowers bloom, and autumn, make for good trekking and camping conditions, but bring layers and prepare for the chance of rain.
