Mount Crawford Forest

Mount Crawford Forest is located on Kaurna and Peramangk Country, extending from our Forest Information Centre near Williamstown, to Pewsey Vale in the Southern Barossa and all the way to Cudlee Creek.

The forest covers 12,367ha and is managed for sustainable wood production, while also providing for the conservation of native flora and fauna and community use for recreation and events. It is also home to South Australia’s premier biking destination, Fox Creek Bike Park.

Land was first purchased for forestry at Mount Crawford in 1909, with commercial plantings beginning in 1914 and continuing to expand until the 1960s. Many of the original plantations have since been clear felled and replanted.

Mount Crawford Forest also contains 4,440 hectares of native vegetation protected for conservation. This includes eight gazetted Native Forest Reserves covering 3,600ha. These Native Forest Reserves and conservation zones are of high conservation value, containing a rich variety of trees, shrubs and ground cover species which provide significant habitat for native birds, reptiles and mammals.

Mount Crawford’s proximity to Adelaide, just an hour’s drive from the city, also makes it a popular place to visit. Every year, thousands of visitors come to camp and enjoy hut-style accommodation, bushwalk, horse ride, fossick, mountain bike and take part in a host of organised community events!

Visit Forestry SA Website
Visit SA.com Website

 

Text and banner: Forestry SA; Images: SouthAustralia.com – accessed 13/11/2024

History of Mount Crawford

The Indigenous name for Mount Crawford was Teetáka. The mount was given its present name in 1839 by Charles Sturt after James Coutts Crawford (1817–1889). Crawford had a Royal Navy background. He and his drovers arrived overland from NSW in April 1839 with 700 cattle, setting up a hut and cattle run at the base of the mount. Crawford soon moved on to be a pioneer of Wellington, New Zealand.

In February 1840 Crawford’s hutkeeper, an old soldier, was bailed up by bushrangers Curran, Hughes, and Fox, who robbed him of his arms and rations. Curran and Hughes were executed by hanging at Adelaide on 16 March 1840 for an armed robbery committed earlier near Gawler.

Pioneer families during the first decades of closer settlement included surnames Coleman, Hammat, Rankine, Polden, Murray, Warren, and Whyte. The subsequent history was one of mining and pastoralism, until being largely replaced by forestry and recreation activities.

An alluvial goldrush occurred in the area in the late nineteenth century, and fossicking still goes on in the area today.