Historical Account of Waterfall Gully. 
By W. H. Selway 
IN the days before Adelaide had its electric, or even its horse- 
drawn, tramways, and when Cartwright’s buses plied between 
Adelaide and its suburbs, the principal holiday resort in the 
nearby hills was the Waterfall Gully at Burnside. True, there 
were spacious sections of land, such as ‘Tiles’s Paddocks,” in 
the vicinity of the present Kensington Gardens, where Sunday 
schools were wont to hold their picnics, and “Watts’s Paddocks,” 
of park-like appearance, between Marryatville and Knightsbridge, 
used largely as a short cut to the waterfalls by those journeying 
from the west. Either of these open areas was a tempting resort 
for a quiet picnic, but to the active walker, and more especially 
to the youth of both sexes, the waterfalls presented a greater 
inducement. In the earlier days there was little in the way of 
paths up the gully, and the road was bad. The stream had to be 
crossed many times, sometimes on water-worn boulders or 
pebbles, sometimes on narrow planks. There was, indeed, at 
that time a touch of adventure in the walk, especially when the 
stream was swollen with heavy rains and the gallants of the 
party, as in duty bound, helped the fair maidens to negotiate 
safely the turbulent waters. 
Probably to-day the chief element of adventure is to avoid 
the numerous motor vehicles and push bicycles which frequent 
this resort. Here and there paths for pedestrians have been 
made, but a fenced-off track for the walkers, all the way, seems 
essential to safety nowadays. 
These falls are situated in the Mount Lofty Ranges about 
seven miles south-east of Adelaide. The reserve consists of 
Section 920 in the Hundred of Adelaide, and the area is ninety- 
six acres. It was gazetted as a recreation reserve on February 
14, 1884, and placed under the control of the District Council 
of Burnside, but was resumed from that control in April, 1911 
(vide Government Gazette of April 6, 1911). Nothing further 
was done in the matter until it was gazetted a public pleasure 
resort in 1915 (vide Government Gazette of July 15, 1915). 
The reserve is reached from the city by an electric tramway 
approximately four and a half miles in length from the corner 
of King William Street and Grenfell Streets to the terminus at 
Burnside, after which a journey of about two and three-quarter 
miles along the gully is necessary to reach the reserve itself. 
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