Woodside is surrounded by lush pastures that once featured huge dairy herds. The town’s origins, however, owe more to beer than milk. The Johnston brewers of neighbouring Oakbank laid out the town in the 1850s, looking for another place to site a hotel and sell their product. Today, you’ll find milk is still the key ingredient at Heritage Park, the reimagined precinct established by the Foristal family in the 1990’s. Originally built to process milk, it’s now home to Melba’s chocolate factory and Woodside Cheese Wrights, one of only four in the country licensed to produce raw milk cheese.

FAST FACTS!

• The Adelaide Hills are the traditional lands of the Peramangk Aboriginal people
• The buildings that are now affectionately known as Melba’s and Woodside Cheese were originally built by the South Australian Company in 1889 as the Onkaparinga Cheese, Butter and Produce Factory
• A country market is held on the third Saturday of each month at the Woodside Institute Hall