Anstey Hill Recreation Park is a 362-hectare (890-acre) public park approximately 19 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Adelaide, South Australia. It is managed by the City of Tea Tree Gully, the Department for Environment and Heritage and a volunteer group—The Friends of Anstey Hill. The park is designed for recreational walking and there are no visitor facilities. It is part of Yurrebilla, the Greater Mount Lofty Parklands, and is a significant reserve of bushland in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges. Anstey Hill Recreation Park is home to rare or vulnerable native plants and animals, and problematic invasive species.
The park's land was gradually acquired by the Government of South Australia beginning in 1966, based on recommendations in a 1962 report. From 1981 onwards, plans were published that aimed to develop the area for commercial purposes, but public pressure led to its declaration as a public reserve in 1989. The last land added was a small area in 2003. Anstey Hill is a 371-metre (1,217 ft) high peak in the park's south. Both hill and park are named after a road built by agricultural pioneer George Alexander Anstey. Fire authorities regard the park as an "arson hotspot", and it is frequently burned by bushfires—mostly deliberately lit. There is no permanent water except for springs in Water Gully, adjacent to ruins of a nursery, although there are many seasonal creeks. Much of the land is steep, rising 200 m (660 ft) across the park's breadth, with gradients often steeper than one in three. Erosion and land movements due to a significant geologic fault zone created this land form. The Gun Emplacement, a listed Geologic Monument and remnant of an ancient land surface, lies in the southwestern corner.
The Adelaide–Mannum pipeline crosses the park and the Anstey Hill water filtration plant lies on its southern boundary; together they supply 20% of Adelaide's reticulated water. Significant historical uses of the area are preserved as ruins and highlighted with interpretive signs. The ruins of Newman's Nursery are all that remains of what was once the largest plant nursery in the Southern Hemisphere. Ellis Cottage is one of the earliest homes in the area, and the Rumps Bakery building housed the first bakery in Tea Tree Gully. Quarries supplied stone for significant Victorian buildings in Adelaide and aggregate for road building. Klopper's quarries in the southwest hosted plays for the Festival of the Arts in 1980 and 1988.
Read more about Anstey Hill Recreation Park: Today's Park, Foundation, Land Use
Famous quotes containing the words hill, recreation and/or park:
“John Anderson my jo, John,
We clamb the hill the gither;
And mony a canty day, John,
We’ve had wi’ ane anither:
Now we maun totter down, John,
And hand in hand we’ll go;
And sleep the gither at the foot,
John Anderson my Jo.”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)
“Playing snooker gives you firm hands and helps to build up character. It is the ideal recreation for dedicated nuns.”
—Archbishop Luigi Barito (b. 1922)
“Mrs. Mirvan says we are not to walk in [St. James’s] Park again next Sunday ... because there is better company in Kensington Gardens; but really, if you had seen how every body was dressed, you would not think that possible.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)