Littlehampton Tunnels | Short walk with three tunnels to explore!
By Claire Davill
A short drive up the freeway to Littlehampton, just outside of Mount Barker, brings you to a fantastic group of tunnels that you can walk as a family. There’s plenty to explore here and lots of photo opportunities.
We recommend parking at the end of Childs Road in Littlehampton, just down past the brickworks. Here you will find an amazing 75 metre long pedestrian tunnel that takes you underneath the South Eastern Freeway. The entire tunnel has been painted by street artist Wendy Dixon-Whiley, in a scrawling black and white pattern that creates an amazing effect as you walk along the corrugated iron lining. This tunnel is well lit, stroller friendly and will have you posing for photos along the whole length!
When you reach the opposite end of the tunnel, turn right. Follow the bike and pedestrian path down the slope.
Just before you reach a culvert that goes underneath the old train line, look for a small path up onto the tracks to the right of the bike path, as shown in this picture.
The path is a little steep and slippery, so take care. If you can’t traverse this, you can backtrack, and drive around to Cameron Road to the south, and hop on to the old railway tracks there.
Once you’re up on the old tracks (and don’t worry, they’re not usually in use! The SteamRanger train does use these tracks very rarely, so check their website to see if a train is going to come through or not), you’ll see the 96 metre long tunnel. You don’t need a torch to walk through this one, but you might want one to see where your feet are – a phone light is sufficient. There may be some broken glass on the ground, so we recommend everyone wears closed shoes. There’s plenty of colourful graffiti in here, and a nice echo for little voices. Make sure to take pictures, there’s a reason this is one of the most Instagrammed spots in the Adelaide Hills!
This tunnel takes you back underneath the freeway, and out the other side, we highly recommend walking further along the tracks. The soil is compacted up to the sleepers along most of this section, making it much smoother and easier to walk on. The scenery here is beautiful, and you can walk all the way up to the Old Princess Highway, along the back of the brickworks if you want.
Double back to the tunnel, and if you look down to the left (the north eastern side of the tunnel), you’ll find a third, smaller tunnel. This rectangular tunnel was an old stormwater tunnel, and has old telegraph wires running along the top of it as well! This one is smaller and darker, and you’ll definitely want a torch or phone light for this one. You can walk all the way through, and there’s lots of graffiti in here too. At the southern exit you can walk back up to the train line through the trees to end up back at the southern entrance to the railway tunnel. This path isn’t steep, but it may be a bit overgrown at times.
From here you can walk back down to the bike path, and back up to the first tunnel, and back to your car.
The whole walk is less than a kilometre (less than two kilometres if you walk north along the trail lines), and packs in so much to explore. We highly recommend checking out all three tunnels when you’re visiting this part of the Adelaide Hills.
For more information and all enquiries please visit the Mount Barker District Council website
What: Littlehampton Pedestrian and Railway tunnels
When: Anytime
Where: Childs Road, Littlehampton
Who: Everyone
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
Image Source: Play & Go Adelaide
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