Stirling is one of the Adelaide Hills’ most colourful villages, with its lively café culture, boutique shops (everything from handmade chocolates to second-hand books) and luscious autumn leaf display.

Just 20 minutes from the CBD, it’s a mix of country living and city sophistication and has been this way since the late 19th century. Adelaide’s wealthiest families favoured Stirling for its cooler summer climate, and you can still see huge Victorian-era properties with manicured gardens. There’s no mistaking the country vibe on the fourth Sunday of every month, when the centre of Stirling comes alive with 80 market stalls loaded with artisan goods and locally grown fare.

FAST FACTS!

• The Peramangk are the indigenous Australian people whose traditional lands are primarily located in the Adelaide Hills
• Stirling was originally a town of orchards and market gardens. When the railway came through in 1883, it became the perfect place for grand summer houses
• Nearby Woorabinda Bushland Reserve has great walking trails and a lake where members of the Stirling Marblehead Yacht Club race beautiful remote-controlled yachts each Wednesday
• Steamroller Park is named for the colourful engine. It was sold cheaply to the council after its engine seized near here; the driver had called into a local pub and forgot to lubricate the engine…
• The Stirling Hotel (established 1859) was originally called the Halfway Inn, used by bullock cart drivers travelling between Adelaide and Mount Barker