35-19 South Park Lands Creek and wetlands in Victoria Park
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The creek is not a natural watercourse but an artificial drainage channel that was built in 1917 to channel water away from the Greenhill Road - Fullarton Road intersection, and through the South Park Lands.
Over the following century, the condition of the Creek gradually but significantly deteriorated.
In 2020 the Adelaide City Council and the Brown Hill Creek & Keswick Creek Stormwater Authority began the biggest Park Lands earthworks this century.
A grove of white poplar trees, characterised as "woody weeds" were removed, and a detention basin was excavated. The white poplars had been planted in 1954 to partially reduce winter flooding but were later considered an invasive species.
In late 2020, excess soil was temporarily spread over an area about 150 metres to the north - to be returned later to provide small hills around the wetlands.
Native plants were to be restored to a widened creek bed.
The project had several aims:
* to reduce the risk of flooding downstream in Goodwood, Wayville and Unley
* to improve safety and biodiversity along the South Park Lands creek, and
* to create a scenic haven to attract visitors to the southern part of Victoria Park.
Plans for this redevelopment included interpretive and education facilities, boardwalks and a range of nature play and recreation opportunities.
Work was scheduled for completion by the middle of 2021.
Similar rehabilitation work had been carried out earlier, further along the South Park Lands Creek, in adjacent Parks, commencing in 2017.
From this point you will need to go back to Fullarton Road to cross over the creek, near the Greenhill Road traffic lights.
Once you have crossed the creek, look for a bitumen path that heads north-west through the urban woodland.
