Adelaide, South Australia

Bridgewater

Bridgewater is known for the landmark Bridgewater Mill, and includes a hotel, shopping centre and assorted shops and supermarket. The area is leafy with stately European trees and gum trees and is a popular Adelaide Hills residential area. The town's beautiful 1860s flour mill today houses a restaurant and cellar door for Petaluma Wines.



Bridgewater is the end of the former Adelaide-Bridgewater railway line. Bridgewater station opened in the 1880s. The railway was converted to standard gauge in 1995 and continues to be the main line from Adelaide to Melbourne, but no trains stop at the now demolished Bridgewater railway station. The station closed on 23 September 1987, when the State Transport Authority withdrew services on the route between Belair and Bridgewater.

Where is it? located in the Adelaide Hills to the south-east of the Adelaide city centre.

The streets of one part of Bridgewater appear to have been named for Orient Steam Navigation Company ("Orient Line") steam ships: SS Omrah; RMS Ophir; SS Orontes; SS Orotava; (though Oratava Street), SS Orsova; SS Orvieto;, SS Osterley; SS Otranto; and SS Otway.


(Walks SA)

Heysen Trail hike to the summit of My Lofty

A hike along the Heysen Trail. Starting from Old Bridgewater Mill, the trail follows the old mill run to Cox Creek. After passing through the first of two tunnels, the trail passes the Fairy Garden in Deanery Reserve, before entering the second tunnel into Mt George Conservation Park with it s dense tall forest. After walking through Stirling Golf Course the trail enters the Scout s Woodhouse Activity Centre, then follows quiet country lanes past Piccadilly houses, before ascending to the summit of Mt Lofty.

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Bridgewater Inn

Established in 1855, the Bridgewater Inn is one of South Australia's most historic pubs. With cosy open fires blazing in winter and the shady vine covered pergola by the creek in summer, the Bridgewater Inn is a venue for all seasons.

The story goes that in March 1842, a young man with a sense of humour built a hotel near the south corner of what is now Arbury Park. His name was Benjamin Dean and he named his inn The Rural Deanery. In terms of the people who patronized it, any resemblance to a Deanery was somewhat more than remote. It had been originally established to cater for the passing bullock teamsters who battled their teams traversing the Old Mount Barker Road at the refreshing waters of Cocks Creek (later Cox's Creek), but it soon became the mecca for a clientele who consisted of a mixed bag of the toughest and most dissolute of early colonists.

The Tiers, as the Mount Lofty Ranges used to be called, provided the hiding place for ex-convicts, run away sailors and ne'er do wells of every kind, many of them dedicated to cattle rustling and extortion. Dean dispensed rum to these characters "in outsize pannikins" and they stayed to carouse until all hours. Until a few years ago, a depression in the ground adjacent to the Deanery Bridge, which marked the site of the Inn could still be detected. Today, no sign of the depression remains and little of the tiny village of Cox's Creek that grew around the Inn. Until about 1855 Cox's Creek consisted of a cluster of colonial cottages, a Post Office and a tiny school conducted by a Mrs Bruce, the wife of a local orchardist. When, in 1853, the new coach road through Stirling and Aldgate (the present Mount Barker Road) was completed, Dean's successor, one Addison, moved his business there, lock, stock and barrel. Most of the village followed, and within 5 years the hotel on the new site became "The Bridgewater Inn", believed to have been so named after Addison's home town in Somerset.

In 1859, John Dunn set about building the Bridgewater Mill, the mill with the wheel next door. He had the land around the Inn laid out as a township, taking its name in turn from the Inn. That was the end of the old village of Cox's Creek. So, for over 150 years, The Bridgewater Inn has traded on its present site, very much as it is today, as a congenial spot for a tasty lunch, hearty dinner, or a refreshing drink with friends.





Adelaide Hills Wine Region

Wine grapes were first planted in the Adelaide hills in the early 1840s. Situated east of Adelaide, the long and narrow Adelaide Hills region runs through the southern Mt. Lofty ranges. It is one of South Australia's largest wine growing regions, stretching from the edge of the Barossa and Eden Valleys in the north, to the boundaries of McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek in the South. The high altitude combines brilliantly with the favourable climate, to allow grapes to mature at a slower pace than other regions, giving the wines intense elegant flavours and characteristics.

One of the earliest wineries and vineyards in the area is mentioned in the Adelaide papers for sale as follows: 1865 - Swithen Farmer - Section 6131 "Chain of Ponds". Winemakers plant complete with several thousand gallons of wine, wine presses, fermenting vats, casks, large boilers. Wine vintages 1863-1865. 16 acres of vineyard.

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