Williamstown, South Australia: Travel guide and things to do

Williamstown is a pleasant, quiet, sleepy little town which is located on 51 km from Adelaide at the edge of the Barossa Valley and the Adelaide Hills. This is a town which is really little more than a quiet place beside a river.

Prior to European settlement a small number of Aborigines were well established in the district. They lived on a diet of grass seeds (made into a kind of damper), kangaroos, wallabies, possums, lizards and fish and protected themselves against the winter cold with possum skin rugs. Their life was simple but perfectly in tune with the climate, flora and fauna of the region.

Soon after the arrival of colonists in South Australia in July, 1836 expeditions were sent out to explore the hinterland. By December 1837 explorers had reached Lyndoch and by 1838 other explorers had reached the Murray River passing through the Barossa Valley. The valley was named by Colonel Light after Barrosa (Hill of Roses) in Spain where he had fought against the French in 1811 in the Peninsula War. The spelling mistake was never corrected.

By 1839 Colonel Light, the Surveyor General of South Australia, was selling off large tracts of land in the valley. The first person to settle at Williamstown was Thomas Adams who called the place Victoria Creek. The land was considered of such little value that Adams traded the land for a mob of horses and a man named Johnstone cut the land up into allotments. He named the small town after his eldest son, William and Elizabeth Street he named after his wife.

The Williamstown Craft Market operates on the third Sunday of each month on Commonwealth Reserve in Nelson Place.

Things to see

Williamstown Hotel
Built in 1848 this historic pub is worth visiting for the red gum block floor and the historic photographs on the walls.

Barossa Reservoir and Whispering Wall
The Whispering Wall is located about 5 km west of Williamstown and is an acoustic miracle. It is the huge curved retaining wall of the Barossa Reservoir and is about 140 metres long. The acoustics are such that you can speak in a normal voice and people at the other end of the wall can hear you clearly. The trick with this is that there have to be people at either end of the wall - so go with a friend. The idea is that one person stands on one side of the wall and the other person walks across the dam to the other side. The effect is remarkable. You can speak in a normal voice and be heard quite clearly at the other side. It is one of those strange effects which has been produced by a delightful accident.

Parra Wirra Recreation Park
Located to the west of the town this 1410 hectare recreation park has some good walking tracks and some remnants from the goldrush which occurred in the area in the 1860s.

Hoffnungstahl
Follow the road to Lyndoch and turn right into Hoffnungstahl Road. In the hills is the old Valley of Hope where a number of German settlers established a Lutheran congregation in 1847. It lasted for only six years. In 1853 floods wiped the settlement out and the inhabitants moved north to Lyndoch.

Winery
Twin Valley Estate
Located in the Hoffnungstahl Valley (in German this means the Valley of Hope - a suitable name for a place where people fleeing from religious persecution were to live) about halfway between Lyndoch and Williamstown (take the Hoffnungstahl Road) this winery was established in 1969 and specialises in both red and white table wines derived from cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and chardonnay grapes. It is open seven days a week for tastings and sales. For more details contact (08) 8524 4636