Rundle Park / Kadlitpina, Park 13

Curated by Adelaide Park Lands Association

Known also by its European name, Rundle Park, or simply Park 13, Kadlitpina is bound by East Terrace, Rundle Road, Dequetteville Terrrace and Botanic Road.


This 6.5 hectare park exists today in much the same shape and form as when Colonel Light surveyed it in 1837, and exhibits characteristics of a semi-formal Victorian Garden\ style, with a mix of exotic and native flora.


But things have not always been so picturesque for Kadlitpina. Its position, perched on the shoulder of the city, has sometimes been a precarious one.

Kadlitpina In Context

This walk begins at the south-west corner of the park, and the juncture of Rundle Road and East Terrace. The Adelaide Park Lands in front of you are unique - the only city built inside a park. The Park Lands are not a loop or circle, but a figure-8…

Naming

This park is named in two different languages after two men with vastly different connections to the area. Kadlitpina was a Kaurna elder at the time of colonisation. He was known to the Europeans as Captain Jack. Regarded as a ‘military genius’, he…

Early Days

Beginning on the corner of East Terrace and Rundle Road, follow the tree-lined path into the park. This pathway or 'allee', lined with white cedars, dates from the mid-1870s. It is thought to be the first and oldest white cedar planting in the Park…

Rundle Road - Cars Of All Kinds

As you walk along the path, Rundle Road is on your right-hand side. Rundle Road is built at a slightly higher level than the Parks grounds on either side of the road.  Its slight elevation protects it from the intermittent flooding which in the past…

Old paddling pool and petanque piste

This unusually shaped gravelled space was previously a paddling pool, installed in 1961 for the delight of children in the hot summer months. The site is now used for playing petanque, a game similar to bocce or boules. The painted structure is the…

Lemon-scented gums: return of birdlife

Their branches haven’t always held such lively examples of Adelaide’s native birdlife, however. Up until the mid-twentieth century, the practice of re-vegetation in the Park Lands meant mostly Europeanisation. Flower beds and deciduous trees…

Central toilet block and other amenities

There are three separate barbecues in Kadlitpina providing opportunities for park visitors to make the most of their surrounds. There are two toilet blocks in Kadlitpina. The red brick toilet block, back on the corner of East Terrace and Rundle Road…

O-Bahn City Access Project

In 2015 the State Government announced a $160 million project to extend the O-Bahn busway from Hackney Road through the Park Lands into the city. The plan saw the O-Bahn tracks running under Kadlitpina, Rundle Road, and also the adjacent Rymill…

Return to White Cedar allée: the re-vegetation story

By 1850, public opinion had concluded that something needed to be done about the barren and unappealing aesthetic of this park. Olives became one of the most widely planted trees by the 1870s, because of their fast growth and productivity. There is…

Peace and Friendship Garden

The area returned to the Park Lands following the closure of the waterworks depot was replanted in the early 1980s into a native garden featuring South Australian blue gum, river she-oak, and lemon scented gums. In 1996, this garden was formalised as…

The old Valve house

Adelaide’s earliest water supply was drawn from wells or bought from carters who siphoned water from the Torrens. From December 1860, water was pumped into the city from waterworks infrastructure built in this corner of Rundle Park. Later, in 1879,…

Adelaide Fringe Festival

For 31 days straddling February and March every year (since 2006,) the park has been given over to the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Masquerading as the Garden of Unearthly Delights, this park is fenced off and filled with temporary venues for theatre,…

Light Horse memorials

In the north-eastern corner of Kadlitpina there are several war monuments. The large white granite obelisk was dedicated in 1925 to members of the Australian Light Horse Regiments who had died in World War One. The horses themselves are also…