park location

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park map

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park history

The area now known as Belair National Park was acquired by the South Australian Government in 1840, after which the land became known as Government Farm. In 1869 a summer residence for the Governor of South Australia was completed (today known as Old Government House).

By the 1880s, with the new summer residence at Marble Hill completed, the Farm was deemed no longer useful, and it was proposed to subdivide it into small holdings. However, Walter Gooch of Belair, and others, opposed this plan and campaigned vigorously for ten years for the land to be put aside as a public recreation area for picknickers and naturalists.

On 19th December 1891, the Government Farm at Belair was transformed by Act of Parliament into South Australia's First National Park. It was the second National Park in Australia (Sydney's Royal Australian National Park being the first in 1879), and the 10th in the world. Belair was redesignated as a recreation Park in 1972, but in 1991, the Centenary of SA Parks, it was again named Belair National Park.