Wilpena Pound Resort

Pound Resort is located within the Flinders Ranges National Park in South Australia, approx 430kms north of Adelaide. Wilpena Pound Resort has a long history in Australia, formerly owned by the highly respected Rasheed family who pioneered tourism development in the Flinders Ranges.

The Visitors Centre at Wilpena is great; it has heaps of brochures of this area and other areas around South Australia.

The staff are very friendly and are always happy to help out. I had a bit of a blank brain when we went in to check into the camp site (pay our car and camping fees), the staff were very patient and friendly!

The General store is located right next to the Visitors Centre and is open from 8am to 6pm, with general goodies from soft drink to beanies and postcards.

Where to stay in Wilpena Pound Resort

You can either stay in the Resort in Wilpena or camp or stay in the caravan park.

The Resort has 60 comfortable rooms just in case you don’t feel like camping. The Resort reception is open from 7:30am to 7:30pm to assist with check in, check out and any enquiries you have including bookings tours and activities.

The camp ground are well set up – although we were a little confused as to if we had camped in the powered or unpowered sites, I couldn’t see a power point so I figured it was unpowered??

The bathrooms are large and very clean (except when the Kangaroos come in to have a nice drink from the toilets.. ew..silly animals.. ), the bathrooms have a toilet block and shower and just outside of the bathrooms are a washing machine and dryer and larger drinks machine.

If you camp you will get up and close with the local Kangaroos, who are very friendly and like to come up and freak you out! (well not really, but one freaked me out!)

Keep in mind if you are camping it might not be as quiet as you might think; we had difficulty sleeping due to a rowdy bunch of oldies in the caravan park across from us.

What to Do around Wilpena Pound Resort

As mentioned the resort reception or Visitors Centre are more than happy to help with suggestions or booking of tours.

You can either go on a bush walk, there are many different tracks to choose from with varying difficulty,  St Mary’s peak is highly recommended as you do get the best views but it can be a difficult hike and can take 6-7 hours to complete so best to start early.

You can hire a bike and ride part of the famous Mawson Trail, which runs from Adelaide to Blinman passing behind the resort campground, or ride to Old Wilpena Station then take the self-guided walking trail around the old buildings

Alternatively seeing Wilpena from the air is something I personally recommend, you can either take a scenic flight or go on a Hot air balloon… We couldn’t recommend Hot air ballooning enough! You go a lot slower than in a plane so you get to really enjoy the view! Wilpena do have their own airstrip, the visitors centre are more than happy to help you book one of these flights.

Or you could go 4WD or on a scenic drive along the Moralana scenic drive or the Bunyeroo and Brachina Gorges or our personal favourite Willow Spring Station’s Skytrek.

If you want to be whisked away to see the sunset and enough some nibbles,  you could book the Sunset tour with nibbles for $55  p/p where you are taken to a good view point over Wilpena Pound to enjoy some nibbles and he sunset.

Where to Eat in Wilpena Pound Resort

There are 2-3 options for food at Wilpena Pound Resort.

The Restaurant which is open for breakfast and dinner 7 days a week.. The evening menu is a little more “fancy” and offers table service.

Or the Poddy Dodger’s Bar which is open from midday to late everyday for drinks, serving bistro-style meals and light snacks during the day. In the evenings they serve pub style foods, this is bar service (where you go to the bar to order). It’s a little more rowdy in here.

Last but not least the General store, which sells little bits a pieces to eat.

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