Regions of South Australia facts for kids

In South Australia, one of the states of Australia, there are many areas which are commonly known by regional names. Regions are areas that share similar characteristics. These characteristics may be natural such as the Murray River, the coastline, desert or mountains. Alternatively, the characteristics may be cultural, such as common land use. South Australia is divided by numerous sets of regional boundaries, based on different characteristics. In many cases boundaries defined by different agencies are coterminous.

Informal divisions

Convention and common use has divided South Australia into a number of regions. These do not always have strict boundaries between them and have no general administrative function or status. Many of them correspond to regions used by various administrative or government agencies, but they do not always have the same boundaries or aggregate in the same way. The generally accepted regions are:

• Adelaide Plains (the northern part is sometimes known as the Lower North)
• Adelaide Hills/Mount Lofty Ranges
• Barossa Valley
• Eyre Peninsula
• Far North
• Far West Coast (& Nullarbor), defined as such for tourism (including whale-watching the southern right whale); cultural (including a native title claim by the Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation as well as language revitalisation projects;) recreational fishing; weather forecasting; and other purposes
• Fleurieu Peninsula
• Flinders Ranges
• Kangaroo Island
• Limestone Coast is a name which came into use in the early 21st century, supplanting the names Lower South East and Upper South East
• Mid North
  • Clare Valley
• Murray Mallee
  • Murraylands
  • Riverland
• Yorke Peninsula
  • Copper Triangle

Most of the other regional divisions of the state use a combination of these same labels, sometimes grouped, and sometimes with precise boundaries that might be slightly different in each case.