Hervey Bay Car Hire
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Adelaide · South Australia

Adelaide: The Flinders, the Eyre and the wine country

Adelaide is small enough to leave in minutes and placed so that three quite different trips start from the same patch of bitumen: the ranges north, the long peninsula west across the gulf, and the wine valleys folded into the hills behind the city.

That compactness is the point: the Barossa by mid-morning, outback country by afternoon, and the city never really gets in the way.

Where this depot puts you

  • The Flinders Ranges

    North of the city the highway runs up through the Clare valley to the Flinders, where the ranges rise out of the plain in long red walls and gorges cut through them. Wilpena Pound is the centre of it. Past the sealed ends the roads turn to gravel and creek crossings, and the northern tracks want high clearance and low range.

  • The Eyre Peninsula

    West across the top of Spencer Gulf, the peninsula runs south for a long way: grain towns inland, quiet beaches on the gulf side, and surf breaks and oyster towns down the western coast to Port Lincoln. Towns are far apart, and the gaps are what the trip is planned around.

  • The Barossa and Clare valleys

    The Barossa is close enough to be a day out, old vine country around Tanunda and Angaston with cellars down side roads and hills that look soft until you drive them. Clare is further north on the same road and quieter. Both are short hops that fit around a longer drive.

Worth knowing before you book

  • The depot is at Bowden, just north of the centre, so the ring route out to the north and west is close at hand.
  • Flinders roads turn unsealed past the sealed ends and creek crossings can run after rain, so ask locally first.
  • Eyre Peninsula towns are far apart, so plan fuel and food around the towns rather than assuming a stop will appear.
  • The wine regions are short hops that slot in at either end of a longer trip.

What you can drive

Every depot is stocked from the same national fleet — campervans, 4WD campers and a five-seat car. What is actually available on your dates is confirmed by the search, not assumed from a list.

The full fleet, with specifications · All pickup locations

Adelaide is one of the network's pickups — the locations page lists the rest, and Hervey Bay is not among them, so vehicles for the bay come out of Brisbane.

The depot page for Adelaide