The people’s park: the fascinating story of Belair National Park

Belair National Park is a big, beautiful place filled with stories of tranquil walks, family picnics and joyful outings, all of them true. But this is the story of the park’s early days and how Belair National Park came to be. It involves some questionable land acquisition by very powerful people in the early years of British colonial settlement.

It’s a tale of a hard-done-by squatter and the 1840 creation of Government Farm on prime Adelaide Hills land. Here, police horses and survey team bullocks could go to rest up and government workers could make hay while the sun shone. The story continues with a failed attempt to divide and sell off the land.

Come along and learn how the public won, and South Australia’s first National Park was finally declared in December 1891. 

Image: Old Government House, Belair National Park. Watercolour by Annie Jane Duncan, 1934. SLSA: B 6417