Park 27
English name: Bonython Park (plus smaller parts named Kate Cocks Park and Helen Mayo Park)
Kaurna name: Tulya Wardli (meaning "Police home")
Features: Bonython Park playspace, picnic facilities, model boat pond, site for circuses and other major outdoor events, the old Adelaide Gaol, Billabong, remnants of a 19th century olive grove; site of the former 1917 SA Police barracks, including the former horse paddock for police "greys"; now the site for construction of a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Bounded by: North Terrace, Port Road, and the River Torrens/Karrawirra Parri
Park 27 - including Bonython Park / Tulya Wardli, Kate Cocks Park, Helen Mayo Park, the ‘Biomedical Precinct’, Adelaide Gaol and Thebarton Police Barracks
Park 27 - including Bonython Park / Tulya Wardli, Kate Cocks Park, Helen Mayo Park, the ‘Biomedical Precinct’, Adelaide Gaol and Thebarton Police Barracks
Guided Walks
Shane Sody
Our Park Ambassador, Shane Sody leads a guided walk in this Park once per year. Check the schedule of Guided Walks.
But don’t wait for the next Guided Walk. Take your own self-guided walk at any time, using our Trail Guide. Click or tap on the image below.
Take a two-hour self-guided walk through this Park, using our Trail Guide. Start at the Bonython Park kiosk (location #1 on the map above) and follow these guide notes: https://www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/park-27-tour
This park has suffered from massive alienation of land - losing many hectares to railyards, police barracks, the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the SAMRI centre etc.
From 1837 up until the late 1950s this area was used and abused for many purposes, and rarely resembled a park.
It was only in the late 1950s that a determined effort was made to turn it into a Park, before finally gaining its current name of Bonython Park in the 1960s.
Prior to this it was known as “Hemsley’s Paddock” after the Clerk of the Sheep and Cattle Market that operated in this area.
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