Thorndon Park Reserve — Attraction in Adelaide

Facility type: Feature Park; Park; Toilet; Tourist Attraction; Walking Trail

Thorndon Park is our City's principal park, as well as the most accessible and inclusive park in our City. Featuring the historic reservoir and a brand new all-inclusive play space, the park is a major attraction for all ages and abilities.

Please note, dogs, bikes, fishing and swimming are prohibited at Thorndon Park at all times. Registered guide dogs are permitted.

The Thorndon Park Reservoir, constructed from 1857 to 1860, was the first reservoir built in South Australia to supply Adelaide with piped water.

When the European settlers arrived in 1836, they used the River Torrens as their water supply but as  the new settlement grew the quality deteriorated as the river was used for many other purposes  besides drinking water.  Disease spread quickly and dysentery was rife.  There were soon calls for a more reliable supply that could be piped to homes and businesses.  A number of options were considered including the damming of Brownhill Creek, but a site for a reservoir in the Athelstone area was...

Extremely bad experience for a group of 15 adults and 10 young Kids. We visited the reputed reserve for birthday celebration. Spent 2 hours this Sunday most of which was with terrible smoke. Some insensitive visitors started coal fire in several pits they got from home. They occupied the central area of park and unfortunately we were seated in direction of wind. The smoke was so bad that kids stopped the celebration and scattered all over. Our request to manage / reduce the acute smoke was tuned down. After several attempts from several of us to reach council, I succeeded in registering a complaint but no action was taken. We had no choice but to vacate the park as some of us were asthmatic. Council should deploy patrol or act swiftly. Our reserves are designed for fresh air after all, not to inhale foul smoke. There are adequate barbecue points and visitors should make use of them. Individual coal / wood fire pits should be avoided. After speaking to more friends about the incident, we realised it’s a regular occurrence. We Won’t go there ever again....

Not a great park for young kids. The playground is extensive and unfenced, and right next to an open body of water. The park is often crowded and so it’s easy to lose young kids if you look away for 1 second, or if you’re trying to watch 2 kids who split up.

The wet play area, and nearby muddy lake, mean you have to constantly herd kids away from getting messy or otherwise prepare for a change of clothes. It’s definitely not a “set and forget” type of park where you can let them go in a fenced area and watch from a nearby bench where they never leave your sight.

Also, I didn’t feel like the place was super family friendly. There are plenty of families and kids, but also miscellaneous groups of adults and teens who blast out all sorts of music.

As others have said, the facilities are super spread out too, meaning long walks to the toilet etc.

Overall, it’s worth experiencing once or twice, but for most reasons I’d want to go to a park, there are many better options around Adelaide that I’d...