Mawson Trail

Location

About This Trail

An iconic 900km off-road cycling and walking trail in South Australia, running from the Adelaide Hills north to Blinman in the Flinders Ranges. The Mawson Trail is one of Australia's great long-distance off-road cycling routes, stretching almost 900 kilometres from the outskirts of Adelaide north through the Mount Lofty Ranges, the Barossa and Clare Valleys, the Mid North, and deep into the rugged Flinders Ranges to the historic copper-mining village of Blinman. Named after Antarctic explorer and geologist Sir Douglas Mawson, who carried out geological field work in the Flinders Ranges, the trail showcases 600 million years of South Australian landscape, history and culture in a single point-to-point ride. The route was conceived in early 1990 when members of the SA Touring Cyclists' Association (now Bicycle SA) rode from Blinman to Adelaide to scout out an off-road cycling trail. In June 1990, representatives from SATCA, the Cycling Protection Association, the Cycling for Pleasure Group and the Adelaide Mountain Bike Club met to plan the new trail. Volunteers then began marking and establishing the route, stitching together state forest and national park fire trails, farm access tracks, unmade or unused roads, and quiet low-traffic backroads. Signage today supports riders travelling in either direction, although the route is most commonly described and ridden south-to-north. The trail starts at the upstream end of the Torrens Linear Park on Gorge Road in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide, connecting via dedicated cycleway all the way to the coast at West Beach, and climbs into the Adelaide Hills before descending into the wine country of the Barossa Valley (Rowland Flat, Tanunda, Nuriootpa) and Clare Valley (Auburn, Clare). It then crosses the historic copper town of Burra, traverses the open pastoral country of the Mid North through Hallett, Spalding, Laura and Melrose, and finally enters the dramatic ranges of Wilmington, Quorn, Cradock, Hawker, Rawnsley Park, Wilpena Pound and Blinman. Surfaces are predominantly unsealed gravel and dirt fire trails, station tracks and unmade roads, with occasional sealed-road links between towns. The Mawson Trail is suited to mountain bikes or rugged gravel/touring bikes with wide tyres. It is rated moderate to hard overall: while individual day stages can be ridden by reasonably fit recreational cyclists, completing the full 900km is a serious undertaking that demands navigation skills, bike-handling on rough fire trails, climbing legs for the Flinders ascents, and the ability to carry water and supplies through long remote sections, particularly north of Hawker. Autumn (April-May) and spring (September-October) are the recommended seasons; summer brings extreme heat and fire risk in the ranges, while winter can be cold and wet in the south. Towns are spaced through the southern half of the trail (typically every 30-80km) so riders can resupply at pubs, general stores, bakeries and cafes, and overnight in caravan parks, hotels or B&Bs. North of Hawker the country becomes genuinely remote with services concentrated at Rawnsley Park Station, Wilpena Pound Resort and Blinman. Since 2002, Bicycle SA has run the biennial Outback Odyssey, a fully-supported 16-day guided tour of the entire route (with shorter Mini-Mawson options of Adelaide-Burra, Burra-Melrose and Melrose-Blinman), capped at 200 riders. The trail appeals to adventurous tourers, gravel cyclists, mountain bikers and bikepackers seeking a quintessentially Australian outback ride combining wineries, heritage towns, pastoral landscapes and the ancient geology of the Flinders Ranges.

Highlights

Facilities