Adelaide Plains

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Adelaide Plains, known by the Kaurna people as Tarndanya, is a flat plain in South Australia. It sits between the Gulf St Vincent coast to the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges to the east. The southern edge reaches the Adelaide suburbs, including Brighton at the base of the O’Halloran Hill escarpment, while the northern edge is near the Wakefield River.

The plain is fertile and gets about 460 millimetres of rain each year. Several rivers cross it—Onkaparinga, Sturt, Torrens, Little Para, Gawler, Light and Wakefield—but many dry up in summer.

Historically the Kaurna people lived here, and Tarndanya is their name for the plain.

Adelaide Plains can be divided into three parts. The southern part is now the city of Adelaide. The central area is the breadbasket of South Australia, with market gardens and wineries around Virginia and Angle Vale. The northern part is mainly farmland growing cereals such as wheat, barley and canola, and sheep.

The term often refers to the central, non-metropolitan area. The local government area, Adelaide Plains Council, covers about 932 square kilometres from the Gawler River in the south to Wild Horse Plains, Long Plains, Grace Plains north of Dublin and Mallala.

See also: Adelaide Plains Football League; Adelaide Plains wine region; Temperate Grassland of South Australia.