Cleland National Park, national park in South Australia, Australia

Cleland National Park is a large protected area in the hills near Adelaide featuring tall forests, shaded gullies, and numerous marked trails suitable for different fitness levels. The park supports diverse native wildlife including kangaroos, koalas, and bird species, with a separate wildlife park section where visitors can view and interact with animals.

Collet Barker made the first recorded European ascent of Mount Lofty in 1831. From 1856 Arthur Hardy grazed sheep and built Mount Lofty House, and Samuel Davenport later planted orchards and experimented with tobacco, mulberries and grapes in the gullies. The government bought the land only in 1945, naming the park after naturalist John Burton Cleland; it became a national park on 26 November 2021 by merging with Eurilla Conservation Park.

Cleland Wildlife Park sits on the shared boundary of the Kaurna and Peramangk peoples, who used the area as a meeting and trading place and hold dreaming stories tied to the Mount Lofty Ranges. An Aboriginal guide leads a cultural walk along the Yurridla trail, telling dreaming stories about dingos, emus, koalas and Yurrabilla, the creation ancestor; night walks are also offered.

Most trails are steep and can be slippery, so sturdy footwear is essential; bring adequate water and check mobile coverage in remote sections as signal can be weak. The park offers cottage accommodation for groups, while trails vary in duration from one hour to several hours depending on fitness level, making it wise to carry paper maps or download offline trail guides.

Cleland National Park holds some of the last intact swamps and bogs in the Mount Lofty Ranges. These wetlands shelter the king fern, coral fern and naked sun orchid, and give the endangered southern brown bandicoot a place to live. Visitors heading for Mount Lofty Summit or the Waterfall Gully trail usually walk past them.