Brachina Gorge

The world's geological reference point for the Ediacaran Period — the moment in Earth's history when the first complex multi-cellular life evolved — sits on the southern bank of Enorama Creek in Brachina Gorge, marked by a brass plaque (the Golden Spike) placed in 2004. It is the only Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point in the Southern Hemisphere. The twenty-kilometre Brachina Gorge Geological Trail through Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park drives through 350 million years of near-continuous sequence — Ediacaran fossils in the gorge walls, the glacial Elatina Formation at Etina Creek, the buckled western end where the rocks have been faulted. Around five hours' drive north of Adelaide, on Adnyamathanha Country, in a park whose name (Ikara — "meeting place") acknowledges the Adnyamathanha people's 65,000-year custodianship. The Flinders Ranges has been on the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list since 2021.

This is a 20km self-drive geological trail with interpretive signs, not a walk. Most roads through the park are unsealed and can be rough enough to trouble a low-clearance car; after rain they may need a 4WD or be closed altogether. Yellow-footed rock-wallabies are the drawcard and your best chance is early morning or late afternoon, when they shelter in the shade of the gorge walls.