Fleurieu Peninsula Camping: Deep Creek, Beaches and the South Coast

Getting your bearings

The peninsula runs south-west from Adelaide to Cape Jervis. The west coast faces Gulf St Vincent, with sheltered beaches and small towns such as Normanville, Second Valley and Rapid Bay. The south coast faces the open ocean, with high cliffs, surf beaches and the larger towns of Victor Harbor, Port Elliot and Goolwa on Encounter Bay.

In between are farmland, forest and the McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek wine areas. Distances are short, so one or two bases can cover most of it.

Deep Creek and the wild south coast

Deep Creek is the largest area of natural bush on the peninsula, with steep valleys running down to a rugged coast, kangaroos at dusk and long views across Backstairs Passage to Kangaroo Island. It has several campgrounds, from car-based sites with toilets to walk-in camps, and all of them are booked and paid online through National Parks South Australia.

Some of the access roads are steep, unsealed and narrow, so check which campgrounds suit a two-wheel-drive campervan before you set off, and leave the big caravan at a sealed site. The Heysen Trail starts nearby at Cape Jervis and runs through the park, so day walks on it are easy to fit in.

Newland Head and Waitpinga

Further east, Newland Head sits between Deep Creek and Victor Harbor, with campgrounds behind the dunes near Waitpinga Beach. The beach is beautiful and powerful, with strong rips, so it is a place for walking and watching the surf rather than swimming.

Like Deep Creek, it is a national parks campground with online bookings and limited facilities, so arrive with water and everything you need.

Beach camps on the gulf

The gulf side is calmer and better for swimming, snorkelling and fishing. Rapid Bay has a beachfront campground run by the council, close to the old jetty that divers and snorkellers visit, and Second Valley and Normanville have caravan parks a short walk from the water.

These are popular with Adelaide families, so book well ahead for summer weekends, long weekends and school holidays. Midweek outside those times you can often find a site at short notice.

Victor Harbor, Port Elliot and Goolwa

Encounter Bay's towns have the most caravan parks and the most facilities, with powered sites, cabins and easy shopping. Victor Harbor is the base for Granite Island and, from about June to October, for watching southern right whales close to shore.

Goolwa sits near the Murray mouth, where the river meets the sea and the Coorong begins. From here it is a short step to the coastal route east towards Melbourne, or north to the Riverland for more river camping.

Cape Jervis and the Kangaroo Island ferry

Cape Jervis is the tip of the peninsula and the departure point for the vehicle ferry to Kangaroo Island. Many people camp a night on the Fleurieu before an early sailing, which makes the crossing far less rushed.

Book the ferry well ahead in summer, check whether your hire company allows the vehicle on it, and plan your Kangaroo Island campsites before you go. The Kangaroo Island guide covers the island itself.

When to go and what to watch for

Spring and autumn are the best times, with mild weather and fewer crowds. Summer brings warm beach days, busy campgrounds and high fire danger, and total fire bans are common. Winter is cool, wet and windy on the south coast, but quiet, green and good for whales.

Swim at patrolled or sheltered beaches, stay off the cliff edges in wind and keep a gas stove for fire ban days. Most campgrounds sell out on long weekends, so book those early.

Plan the trip in AussieCamps

AussieCamps lists 1,838 campgrounds and 745 national parks from the state park agencies, plus 5,552 rest areas from road authorities, with each place's facilities, fees and rules as the agency publishes them. You can filter by cost, save places to a trip and see the driving distance between stops.

The iPhone app is free to download, with in-app purchases.

Places along the way