Mawson Trail

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The Mawson Trail is a long-distance cycling trail in South Australia starting just east of Adelaide in the Adelaide Hills and extending to the Outback town of Blinman in the Flinders Ranges. The Mawson Trail is the ideal option for mountain bikers wanting to travel through South Australia's regional and remote rural areas. Close to nine hundred kilometres long, the trail includes little-used country roads, State forest and national park fire trails, farm access tracks and unmade or unused road reserves. The trail avoids traffic and bitumen roads and leads cyclists into the remote areas of the Mount Lofty and Flinders Ranges.

The trail starts at the upstream end of the Torrens Linear Park on Gorge road. The trail takes riders through the Adelaide Hills, traversing forests, farmland and historic towns such as Lobethal and Birdwood. It passes the world famous Barossa Valley wine region to the Mid North towns of Kapunda and Burra, winds pass the towns of Hallett and Spalding through the Bundaleer Forest and into the Flinders Ranges.

The Mawson Trail is designed for mountain bike or sturdy touring bike use - it is not suitable for road bikes. There are several steep uphill sections, and prolonged or heavy rain on unmade tracks will make cycling very slow or impossible. However, spectacular views, abundant wildlife, unique flora and extensive vistas always reward the hard physical work.

The trail is open all year round, however the months of January to March can be fiercely hot and are best avoided.

In order to safely plan and undertake a ride on the Mawson Trail it is essential to have the official Mawson Trail maps. The maps are 1:750000 scale and have been specially designed to complement the recent signage redevelopments.

The trial is named after the famous explorer Douglas Mawson.