Australian Hiker

Nearest Town

Parachilna, South Australia

Starting Location

• The Heysen Trail trailhead is where this walk starts and is 13.9km from Parachilna, Sotuh Australia
  • The car park will hold about 8-15 cars
• Parachilna is 471km form the Adelaide GPO

The road into the trailhead is weather dependant and after big rain events can be closed due to flooding

Tim at the northern trailhead at Parachilna ready to start walking

Finish Location

• Hawker, South Australia

The General Store in Hawker

Best time of the year to walk

• May-October
• Check the conditions of the trail before heading to the trailhead

Parachilna to Hawker Review

Due to injury what was supposed to be a thru hike of the 1200km Heysen Trail became a much shorter affair and a walk from the Heysen Trail northern trailhead at Parachilna and finishing at Hawker just under 142km later.

This walk was unique in so many ways due to the heaviest rainfall in around 30 years occurring about a month before I started. While flooding of the northern river and creek systems is a common occurrence, this heavy period of rainfall turned what was typically an arid region into a relatively lush landscape – it was more more green than red providing an unexpected landscape as well as some challenges that in a normal year wouldn’t have been an issue.

Travel to the Trailhead

Distance Walked: 598 metres

While I have friends and relatives in Adelaide I wasn’t about to asked them to do a 970km round trip to drop me off at the trailhead. So I took the commercial option and after to flying from Canberra to Adelaide I caught an afternoon bus to Port Augusta. After spending a night in Port Augusta, I met my transfer just after midday to take me to the northern trailhead at Parachilna.

The trip took longer than I expected and I, along with two other hikers who were starting at the same time, arrived at the trailhead at approximately 4:30pm. After the obligatory social media and trailhead photos it was off for what turned out to be a 598 metre walk (according to my GPS) to the walk-in campsite. There ended were only two hikers camping this night; Michael, the Tasmanian hiker who was doing Parachilna to Quorn due to timing constraints, and myself. The woman from Melbourne had pushed on to the next camp and given her speed, was making short work of it.

My campsite was overgrown due to the heavy rains of the past month which apparently dropped a massive amount of rain the locals said they hadn’t seen in 30 years. I must admit that while I knew about the heavy rains, I didn’t realise the impact it could have on the environment.

The campsite itself was basic containing a water tank with a satellite sensor so the level could be checked remotely, and that was about it. While there was a lot of vegetation the tents sites were bare earth. After chatting for a while and having dinner it was time to sleep.

My hotel Port Augusta

My room is on the end

Tim at the northern trailhead

Information kiosk at trailhead

Information kiosk at trailhead

Water tank at trailhead campsite

My campsite pad at trailhead campsite

Parachilna Walk-in Campsite to Aroona Campsite

Distance Walked: 18km

Given how early I went to bed last night I slept in blocks until the alarm went off just before 5:45am. I get dressed and packed my gear. Today I’m heading to Aroona Campground about 18 km away which is one of my shorter days of this trip and a good way to ease myself into what will be my biggest hike to date. The day itself went well and I am feeling mentally and physically up for this trip. I am not travelling as fast as I used to and throughout the day including breaks I’m averaging just over 3 km per hour. Given I have just started and am carrying unwanted body weight, I expect my speed to increase as the hike progresses. It does provide a good marker for my speed. I need to leave camp to get to my destination by 4:00pm which allows me to set up and get organised before dark. The first half of this day I was powering along but I did slow down as the day went on.

Signage wise the trail is easy to follow but I discovered early on that when you come to a fork in the trail, you don’t just need to think left or right but also ‘middle’. I had a few times when I should have gone up the centre but I went right rather than take one of the branches in the creek bed. I didn’t go far as I was presented with a three metre tall fence in the creek bed so turned around and found the proper route. I also had one instance where there were no trail markers, possibly due to the heavy rains and took the risk which proved to be correct.

The other issue with the trail markers at the movement is that the vegetation is so dense sometimes they are very hard to spot.

The recent rainfall has also resulted in water channels in some sections of the trail with the biggest one being about two metres wide and almost the same depth which requires a sidetrack down towards the creek and then back up on a more gentle gradient.

Wildlife was pretty minimal on this day with just one emu being sighted along with some lovely parrots. I did hear a number of other birds but don’t have the knowledge to work out what they were from their song.

Temperature wise it was a good day and at no stage did I feel hot or get sweaty – this is why I like to hike in late winter. In fact if I had been sitting for an extended period, I would have needed to put my rain jacket on. Later in the afternoon the cloud cover increased and the temperature dropped a little. At one stage I had about ten spots of very light rain but thankfully that was all.

Vegetation wise apart from being lush in some sections, the main trees were native conifers. This conifer dominates this part of South Australia and creates a unique environment.

I reached the on-trail water source after midday, stopped for lunch and then continued on to Aroona which snuck up on me as I crossed a fence and saw the ruins about 90 metres to my right. I had a quick look around the ruins before heading down into the valley to the Aroona Campsite.

This is a paid site managed by the SA Parks Service and in all honestly isn’t designed for hiking tents, but vehicle campers and caravans. Ideally tent platforms are needed here to cater for small hiking tents. I ended up crossing the creek bed and camping on a grassy flat area which while not as good as it looked from the other side, was far better than anything on offer in the campground.

After setting up and sorting my water out, I had dinner just after 4:00pm but not long before another hiker turned up who was also doing the entire walk and in this case it was her second time. I was in bed by 5:30pm after a tiring day. I did some podcast recordings and settled down for a much needed sleep.

Heysen wildflower

Rock formation on side wall of creek bed

Hop Bush on the Heysen

Native Daisy

Trail marker

Flowerng just starting

Trail example on the way to Aroona

Close up of Callitris gracilis – this was a dominant tree for much of this walk

Trail example on the way to Aroona Campsite

Water source on the way to Aroona Campsite

Over the fence. From here you turn left

Signage at Aroona Ruins

Historic huts approaching Aroona Campsite

Aroona Campground toilets

Tim’s tent at Aroona Campground

Aroona Campground to Yanyanna Hut

Distance Walked: 25.2km

Today was an early start as I tried to get away at 7:00am and ended up leaving not long after. One hiker headed off before me and another after. A much cooler night last night and when I woke up I had ice on the roof of the tent inner from my breath freezing on the mesh. My hands were freezing as I packed my tent away but that didn’t last long. I did however have a good night sleep, in blocks as usual, because I was in my sleeping bag for over 10 hours.

Another great day as far as weather is concerned which looks like continuing for the next week. And still not hot – while I don’t know what the actual temperatures are until I get to Wilpena Pound, it’s definitely under 20 degrees Celcius during the day.

I started the day with a walk up the nearby hill and then made my way around the adjacent hills and valleys. The trail is so narrow in places that I had one tracking pole down the slope and one up because they won’t fit on the trail. In a couple of places I wouldn’t have wanted to slip as there was a drop off that would have resulted in serious damage if you went over. Eventually this narrow track descended down into a creek bed which I followed for a while before heading back up the hill again through the sparse bushland.

Once I cleared the hills I was walking through the Ilkara-Flinders National Park which also included passing the Ediacaran Global Boundary which is a geologically significant location where trace fossils of a diverse community of previously unrecognized lifeforms (later named the Ediacaran biota) were first discovered in 1946. Its status as an official geological period was ratified in 2004 by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), making it the first new geological period declared in 120 years.

From there it was lunch at the Tremont Campsite where I came across two cyclists riding the Mawson Trail which is the cycling equivalent of the Heysen Trail. One thing worth noting is that the signage changes in the national park and while it’s a bit understated, it still works.

This pattern continued on for the day until I eventually came out onto hard packed road before walking about 1km to Yanyanna Hut. I don’t know what it is about me but I keep being asked by drivers if I need a lift or some water. It happened on the Bibbulmun Track and now the Heysen!

As far as wildlife goes another emu and other assorted birds, oh and a small lizard but nothing else. Flora wise the plants are heading towards flowering but apart from the ever present Hop Bushes, there aren’t a lot of other flowers out although it won’t be too long.

I made it into Yanyanna Hut just on 4:00pm and given the distance my travelling speed is now 3.2 km per hour. Slow compared to what I used to do and slower than others on the track but I expect this to pick up as my fitness improves and I lose some weight.

Yanyanna Hut is a simple metal shed with a wooden platform outside where we all cooked dinner. All three of us slept inside which meant that we didn’t have to pack up a wet tent the next day. We all took precautions with our packs/food just in case rodents were around but the only one I saw was out in the fields.

Another early night after a warm meal!

Leaving Aroona Campground and heading up hill

Love the colours in arid Australia

Re-route trail signage

Down into the creek bed

Native Solanum species in flower

Hut ruins on trail

Trail signage in the National Park

Break time

Ediacaran Global Boundary

Middlesight Water Hut. I past this hut not long after lunch

Trail signage including Mawson Cycling Trail which parallels at least part of the Heysen Trail

Pest control warning. This is mainly a warning for hiking at night

Yanyanna Hut

Inside Yanyanna Hut

Yanyanna Hut to Wilpena Pound

Distance Walked: 22.5km

Today saw me head the just over 22.5km to Wilpena Pound. Even though I had only been walking for a few days, I am looking forward to a rest and to pick up my food resupply. I was last out of camp which is not surprising as I do my videos and take photos for social media.

Another sunny mild day after a cool night – there was frost on the timber platform outside. I left Yanyanna at 7:21am (so much for my 7:00am start). It didn’t take long for the sun to crest the surrounding hills. I must admit that the large mountain range behind forms a spectacular backdrop in the morning as the light creates all sorts of vibrant colours.

The first half of the walk was up and over a couple of hills but it was the down that was the problem. The descent on the second hill down to the creek bed was steep in some sections and if it had been raining, it would have been be a bit treacherous and slippery.

I finally reach the creek bed below and for about 10 minutes the trail was confusing. After checking my online maps I knew I shouldn’t go up the hill again but it’s not really clear that the creek bed is the route. I travel back about 30 metres and sure enough, there is small text at the bottom of the directional sign partially hidden in the lush growth that says to use the creek bed. I’ve already mentioned this but the rampant growth is creating havoc with the signage so you really do need to make sure to check the fine print.

I made my way down the creek bed which at the start had water flowing but there was enough dry ground to hop about and stay dry. Eventually the creek widens and it was much easier going. One advantage on going last was that I have footprints to follow and it’s interesting to see what I consider to be logical is what other hikers did as well. One thing to consider was that at some point the trail leaves the creek bed requiring the need to scan about for the ‘off ramp’.

Once I left the first creek walking section I came across two section hikers. The first was relatively new to multi-day hiking and was walking from Wilpena Pound to the trailhead at Parachilna. The other was walking from Quorn to Parachilna. In all honesty while I expected to see people on the trail, I didn’t except to see so many people so soon.

After seeing the first hiker it was up and over another hill and on the down hill slope I came to a sign that said I have done 50km of the entire trail. This is a really good feature and one I hope continues down the trail!

The trail pattern continues until about 10:00am when I reached management road which was the bulk of the walking for the rest of the day. While management road sounds boring, the terrain was anything but. I am really surprised and loving the change and the different landscapes over a relatively short distance.

Animal life was again limited to birds but this time they were more noticeable. Corellas, and what turned out to be Red Cape Robins. In addition I got swooped by a wattlebird (?) or at least something that looked like one. Oh and don’t forget the obligatory emu. In this case the first I knew was there was a large thudding coming from behind me and all I could think was where is this going to end up? I finally saw it as it ran past about five metres to my left. I wasn’t sure what was going on here because it did the same thing a second time and I would not have seen it if I hadn’t moved.

Not long after lunch I came across Wilcolo Campsite which is a paid site. People often use this camp when they don’t want to spend much time in Wilpena which is a further 7km on. This site doesn’t look like its getting much use and is very overgrown when I went through. Eventually the road walking gave way to walking through a fairly open forest in what looked like old farm land and after one last stint open hillside walking, I made it to Wilpena Pound.

You first enter the resort caravan park area and then onto the information centre and the supermarket, before heading down the internal road about 300 metres to the motel style accommodation. I checked in and had a shower before going down to the supermarket for a snack. I ran into Michael who was one of the hikers I had been travelling with as he was checking his emails and making calls. The website states that there isn’t wifi in the rooms but certainly there was in my room – I had good 4G-4 bars wherever I checked. I also had phone reception when I checked 5km out.

Micheal reminded me about my resupply box so I headed back to reception to pick it up only to discover that it was still in the nearby town of Hawker so I decided to check in the morning to see what’s going on.

I had dinner at the local pub/restaurant and while not cheap it was good hearty food. On the reverse side, the food at the supermarket was reasonably priced which given it’s in a remote area was a surprise. In fact, I’d discover in the coming days it was cheaper than the food in Hawker!

I spent the rest of the day working my way through just on 200 emails and starting my social media catch up before eventually heading to sleep.

You can just see the trail and yes the grass was wet!

50km sign

Trail example Heysen

Afternoon road walking to Wilpena

Approaching Wilpena Pound in the trees ahead

Motel accomodation Wilpena

My room at Wilpena

Dinner time

Wilpena Pound rest day

Distance Walked: 0km

My first rest day today and while I didn’t need it physically, my next section is a longer one to Quorn so I needed today to release the first of the on-trail podcasts. I had a really bad night sleep last night and only dropped off after 2:00am. Strangely enough I didn’t feel tired and that was because I had long, if broken sleeps, over the past few days. I stopped in at the reception this morning after opening and the learned that the location of my food resupply box wasn’t looking good so decided to check later.

If it can’t be located it would mean I have to purchase food from the IGA supermarket to get me through the three days to reach Hawker to hopefully pick up my resupply box or purchase more food. Lesson learned is that I need to physically phone to make sure the resupply box has arrived particularly when it’s going to be the weekend!

I checked out what was on offer at the supermarket and purchased breakfast. While I was hoping for my food box to turn up, I checked what was available just in case.

Today I spent most of the time doing social media and putting together and releasing my first on-trail podcast. Most people who were here last night have gone so it was very quiet. Speaking of quiet, my bathroom window opened out onto a small enclosed alley and the sound echoed. It wasn’t a problem last night but tonight there are some conversations that I didn’t need to hear even though I wasn’t trying!

One of the tasks that I undertook this morning was to find out where to access the trail tomorrow. I have a 27km day and will be starting at 6:00am for what will end up being a 9-ish hour walk to Red Range Camp. Given the food issue, I will work through the next section to Quorn to see if I can even out the days, distance wise, as I have a 16km day and then a 34km day which I need to average out a bit.

Food options at the Wilpena store

Taping my feet at Wilpena

Food drop

Wilpena Pound to Red Range Campsite

Distance Walked: 27.7km

It’s day six and I’m back on-trail just after 6:30am. Today was the longest day of the trip so far travelling just on 28km to Red Range Camp. Given this I taped my feet to prevent hot spots which I know I will get doing this sort of distance this early in a hike. I expected today to take around nine hours which would have gotten me into camp some time around 4:30-ish pm.

The taping process takes me around 20 minutes but it pays the dividend at the end of the day. After about a week on-trail my feet have toughened up so it’s only a short process.

My mild panic over the last two days was resolved with my resupply box being ‘found’ here after all – it just needed the right person to locate it. Lesson learned; I’ll double check prior to turning up to make sure it’s there. As such I don’t need to go into Hawker to buy food. I will however change a campsite which will even out what was supposed to be 34km and 16km days. I don’t know why I did that but the new campsite makes much more sense.

The other change is that I now expect to be on my own given the other hikers on the trail are a day ahead of me but given I’ve come across five people so far, you never know. There are more people on the trail than I ever expected.

Off I go!

Signage out of Wilpena

Trail out of Wilpena

Eucalyptus flower buds

Tim looking happy

Rocky trail, this reminds me of the Larapinta Trail but with more plants

About to head down into the valley

Native plant in flower

Native in flower

Red Kangaroo on the hop

Red Range Campsite

Toilet at Red Range Campsite

Red Range Campsite to Mayo Hut

Distance Walked: 18.2km

Today I left Red Range Campsite and made my way to Mayo Hut. Although it was only supposed to be 17.2km it was hard due to much of today being spent walking through very large creeks up to 80 metres wide with larger boulders. I must admit I would love to see these creeks in full flow but wouldn’t want to be walking when they were.

I had two off-trail adventures today. The first was me missing a detour sign that cost me about 1km in extra distance by the time I was back on-track. The second was by choice with the trail being so overgrown it made sense to cross the creek early.

Wildlife wise I saw two emus today and around 100 goats. I first saw about 20 goats that were grazing just off the creek – they bolted across to the other side and proceeded to make their way up the steep hill away from me. Then after I had gone a short distance, I saw a very large number of goats grazing further up the left side of the creek and far enough away that I wasn’t a threat. I had considered doing the extra three-ish km to Wonoka Station which is a privately run campsite to shorten the next day but my feet needed a rest and in all honesty, I’m glad I chose not to.

Just after I had turned out my light and settled into sleep another hiker turned up, dropped off by a local as he was road walking. He had started the Heysen as a section walk from the southern trailhead and loved it so much he kept on going.

Mayo Hut is an excellent hut being constructed of the local stone and around 10m x 6m in size. It has timber sleep platforms including a loft that would comfortably sleep around 10 people. It has two water tanks including the one attached to the outdoor toilet. Overall it has a great feel about it and while this is a bold statement, I think as far as huts go, this one is hard to beat.

More creek bed walking

Shingle Back Lizard sunning itself on the trail

This was by no means the worst example but due to all the lush growth there were a number of signs that were very hard to see

Creek bed walking

Front of Mayo Hut

Rear of Mayo Hut

Mayo Hut toilet

Inside Mayo Hut

Mayo Hut to Jervis Hill Lookout Trailhead

Distance Walked: 22km

Without a doubt this was the hardest day on this trip so far. Before I get into that, this trail continues to surprise with another day that was recognisable as being an arid landscape but also unexpected and different.

The day started early with me leaving Mayo Hut at 6:44am given I had just over 22 km to travel. As usual I was creek bed walking, first past Wonoka Station that provides private accommodation and located about 3km in. The creek bed at this stage was consistent with what I have done over the past week consisting of sand and or rocks.

I came across another hiker about 90 minutes in who was walking from the highway crossing point near Hawker and heading to Mayo Hut before turning around and heading back to his car. He was working his way north and doing the Heysen Trail section by section in this fashion.

The morning started off being misty and every so often a very light and very hazy rain would come in and then disappear which occasionally required me to put my rain jacket on. For the first time it was a bit of a challenge with the creek bed to avoid permanent water bodies and slippery rocks due to some short rain showers and a change in rock formations in the creek bed that are slippery when wet. Around three hours in it was time to turn off but the signage and exit wasn’t clear so after checking the Far Out app I managed to locate the turn about 20 metres back.

After a short distance I crossed the main road and I crossed over. Its worthwhile mentioning that this is a decision point on this trail. The alternative option is to walk along the edge of the main road into Hawker which appears from the people I talked to is the main choice. The walk that crosses over the main road is the more ‘scenic’ route.

I had a few kilometres of fence walking and opted to sit on a stile for lunch before I headed bush. I had a picture of heading up the hill, over the saddle and down into the valley below but that was not the case. My journey continued upwards till I hit the start of the ridge line which meant that of much of the afternoon was all about making my way along the 5km ridge line with only a very few sections being flat or downhill.

When I say ridge line I mean type 2 fun!

In fact there were some stages that if you lost footing it wouldn’t have been a good outcome and would have involved serious injury or worse. A warning here that if you are afraid of heights, you should definitely take the Hawker bypass option. While I don’t have a fear of heights, I did take it slowly. I was travelling so slowly that I ended up taking just on 11 hours for the entire day.

I had two goats towards the top look at me very strangely as if saying ‘what are you doing here’. I would have liked to take more photos and videos but I was more focused on my safety!

Finally I came off the hill and onto management road which was also the starting point to the Jarvis Hill Lookout which is what I passed on the way down. It was at this stage when I hit the flat road that I realised I had done something to my leg. At that stage I thought that it was my hip playing up but ended up being a torn right quadricep muscle.

I did continue on to the next campsite but realised the next day that this section was going to be the end of my longer trip. So I made my way back to the Jarvis Hill Lookout start point and arranged to be picked up by one of the accommodation providers in Hawker who all seem to offer this service.

You can also walk into town but it’s along a very boring dirt road so the pick up option is the best choice.

Trip Over!

Early morning creek bed walking

Wonoko Station. This is a privately run accomodation option about 3km further on from Mayo Hut

More creek bed walking

Walking the fence

Heading up

Goats on the ridge

Ridge walking

This is the trail and there is a steep drop off on the left!

Looking back the way I came

Jarvis Hill Lookout on the way down from ridge walking

Pick up point for Hawker. You can wait in this area and sort out a pick up with one of the Hawker accomodation options, turn left and walk into town, or turn right and continue on the Heysen Trail

Final Thoughts

While my original plan was to walk the entire Heysen Trail starting in Parachilna and finishing at Cape Jarvis 1200km to the south this wasn’t possible. I did end up doing was a very enjoyable trip in the arid section of this trail and doing so in a rare once in a 30 year rain event that created a very lush landscape. This rainfall made everything green and lush including hillsides that were usually barren.

The rainfall created two other issues with this section of the trail. Both reasonably minor but both impacting the hike. The first was that in some sections there were water channels where the trail ran across the hillside and while most were fairly minor I did come across one that was about two metres wide and about 1.5 metres deep which meant I needed to go down hill to the river bed, go around and come back onto the trail.

The second issue was that because the vegetation was so abundant some of the signage was obscured. I had a couple of occasions where I needed to spend a few minutes trying to find the trail marker as it wasn’t apparent where I should be heading. This included one that I spent around 15 minutes before I could locate the trail and it was only when I backtracked to the bottom of the hill that I had just come down did I find the marker which had text on the bottom of the sign that indicate that I should follow the creek. I had originally discounted this course of action given what the creek looked like.

Its worth noting that in late August 2026 the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park was closed due to a second heavy rain event which caused some Heysen Trail hikers to change the direction they were walking on this trail from south to north.

My final comment on my 142km walk is that the experience changed every day either due to the weather, the landscape, or the vegetation. This is something I hadn’t expected, at least not to this extent. I came across more people than I expected and a number of them were walking northwards from Quorn or Hawker and finishing at the northern trailhead at Parachilna or earlier at Wilpena Pound.

While you may not want to walk the entire Heysen Trail you can certainly pick and choose and do just a few nights or a few weeks. This northern end of the trail is definitely worth considering!

Why do this Walk

This northern section of the Heysen Trail is all about the arid landscapes!

Trail Video

This slide show provides an overview of the Parachilna to Hawker section of the Heysen Trail

Getting there

Getting to the trailhead is a bit of a logistical affair. If you don’t have someone to drive you the 970km return journey to the trailhead you can use commercial operators. See below:

• Bus from central Adelaide to Port August – Stateliner Premier Coach Services
• Transport from Port Augusta to the Heysen Trail northern trailhead – Angorichina Village
  • This service runs on Wednesdays each week

Google Map directions from the Adelaide City GPO is about 485km

Campsite Bookings

SA Government campsite bookings

Things to Know

• Phone: Variable although you can usually get satellite messages out (Telstra)
• Water: You need to bring your own water or a filter for when on trail water is available
• Toilets: There are toilets at some but not all campsites, bring a trowel and toilet paper
• Showers: Only at commercial campsites e.g. Wilpena Pound
• Trail: This walk is mostly on formed track, management road, and creek beds
• Dogs: Dogs NOT allowed
• Other: 
  • Pay close attention to the weather as large rain events can close some parts of this trail
  • This trail is not available during times of high bushfire warnings. This is usually about mid November through to mid April

Disclaimer

This walk was undertaken by the team from Australian Hiker

Published

31 August 2026

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