The Flinders

A range of mountains marking the Outback of South Australia

The Flinders are 400 kilometers of low purple mountains rising from red desert 450km north of Adelaide, a land laced with Aboriginal Dreaming myths and scenic corner of the Outback that has attracted film crew from Gallipoli to Rabbit Proof Fence. 

The Flinders stretch from Crystal Creek and Mt. Remarkable in the south to Mt. Hopeless in the north, where the 352 square miles of Flinders National Park (www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks) teems with wildlife—euros, red and grey kangaroos, wedge-tailed eagles, and rare yellow-footed rock wallabies.

The Flinders landscape is also carved with gorges that preserve Aboriginal art galleries of petroglyphs and hide cool pools where you can swim beneath waterfalls.

Spend a few days bushwalking, four-wheel driving, and taking a low-level sightseeing flight.

Flinders tours

• 3-Day Small-Group Eco-Tour from Adelaide: Flinders Ranges
• 5-Day Small-Group Eco-Tour from Adelaide: Flinders Ranges Outback

Flinders hotels

Wilpena Pound Resort - The simple, modern hotel itself is nothing special, but it sits bang in the middle of Wilpena Pound, a natural amphitheatre of wilderness covering 83 square kilometers hemmed in by 1,500-foot mountains, and it’s the best base for bushwalking in Flinders National Park. There’s always the option of staying at the B&B in nearby Arkaba Station, run by Dean Rasheed and his English wife Lizzie. (www.wilpenapound.com.au)

The Prairie Hotel - The Prairie Hotel, located in what is technically the “town” of Parachilna (pop.: 7), is an outback oasis with magnificent views of the Flinders Ranges in one direction and the red earth of the desert in the other. In addition to its general comfort and the friendliness of its hands-on hosts, Jane and Ross Fargher, the place is known for one of the best bush food restaurants in all of Australia, serving the “prairie on a plate” and a full menu of Flinders Feral Food. At breakfast you can enjoy emu egg omelets, then for dinner splurge on the Feral Mixed Grill—camel sausages, goat chops, kangaroo fillets, wallaby shaslicks—followed by a quandong crumble pie. (www.prairiehotel.com.au)

North Bundaleer - This is the posh option, a historic 1901 Pastoral Homestead set on 400 acres of bushland and farm on the southern edge of the Flinders, near the Clare Valley (see the next bit) about 190km north of Adelaide. The appointments are exquisite—French Aubusson carpets, canopy beds, African antiques, oak and mahogany furniture, working fireplaces (one in a bathroom), even the wallpaper—1740s Chinese Toile in one room, Victorian-era William Morris-design in another. Despite the luxe, this place feels more like visiting the home of your rich country cousins, Malcolm and Marianne Booth, who run the place more as a B&B home than an impersonal hotel. The resident roo is named Oscar Wilde, and dinner is often taken on the verandah with sweeping views over the Outback. (northbundaleer.com.au)