Escape to Adelaide for its koala encounters, award-winning cheese, fresh fruit and wine

ADELAIDE, Australia – Wandering through world music festival Womadelaide in March, I stumble upon dancers Chloe Loftus and Florent Devlesaver entwined in an embrace metres above the ground. Held aloft by cables, they caress, twirl and contort before Loftus pulls away, balancing with a flourish on Devlesaver’s wheelchair.

Elsewhere, an unselfconscious crowd sways and chants to the call-and-response of Meganesia, a dance workshop by Papua New Guinea and indigenous Australian artists.

It is high noon at the family-friendly festival, yet the air teems with club-like energy. Who says sober partying is just for the Gen Z set?

The festival is an apt metaphor for the appeal of South Australia’s capital, where locals, unbothered by the city’s lack of iconic sights, champion its relaxed pace and cultural moxie.

In February and March, the annual Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Fringe Festival draw global performers, and attractions such as the Adelaide Botanic Garden and Art Gallery of South Australia (both free) are a six- to 10-minute walk from shopping arcade Rundle Mall.

Adelaide is also Australia’s first and only UNESCO City of Music, where pop star Sia launched her career and rock band AC/DC’s lead vocalist Bon Scott found fame.

New hotels have come up, such as Adelaide Marriott (str.sg/uYyi, rooms from $260 a night), which opened in August 2024 in the former Adelaide General Post Office building. New property Crystalbrook Sam by Australian hospitality company Crystalbrook Collection is slated for a late 2026 opening and Mayfair Hotel Adelaide will reopen as Kimpton Mayfair Adelaide in the same period after a refurbishment.

Among international visitors more familiar with Melbourne and Sydney, the city might still be overlooked.

But if you are the sort who prefers Chiang Mai’s artsy cool to Bangkok’s bustle, or who skips Taipei in favour of Taichung, Taiwan’s second-largest city and museum capital, Adelaide will not disappoint.

Here are three things to include in your South Australia itinerary.

Pat a koala at Cleland Wildlife Park

Koalas are synonymous with Australia, but South Australia is one of only three states where you can hold one of these furry marsupials.

Cleland Wildlife Park offers koala encounters ranging from A$36 (S$33) for a 15-minute “meet a koala” photo session to A$447 for an “exclusive private koala hold experience” that includes park entry and a guided park tour.

The park, located a 30-minute drive from central Adelaide, is home to 55 koalas during my visit in March, including Florence, who graces my encounter. She is a grand dame aged 11 – the marsupials typically live around 10 years in the wild and can survive into their teens in captivity.

As part of my behind-the-scenes koala experience (A$117 a person, excluding park entry at A$34.50), I am guided to pat Florence gently on her hind quarters while she munches on gum leaves.

During human interactions, she receives only the freshest shoots at the tips of branches, which are like candy to koalas, says senior koala keeper Ashleigh Rice, who also illuminates her origins during the 30-minute session.

Florence was found orphaned in the wild at around six months old and grew up in the park as her mother, whom koalas usually live with for at least a year, could not be located.

Her story is not unique. Seven of the park’s koalas are survivors of the 2019-2020 South Australia bushfires, out of around 40 that were taken in. The park also works with universities to conduct research on koalas, including studies of their gut health and their response to drones used to survey wild koala populations.

There is debate about the ethics of paid animal interactions, but the costs of conservation are high and these charismatic animals have the ability to win hearts – and tourism revenue – to support the park’s other initiatives.

These include the breeding and release of red-tailed phascogales, a small nocturnal marsupial that was extinct in South Australia for many years.

Since 2024, the park has helped to release more than 100 red-tailed phascogales into the wild, in partnership with the Department for Environment and Water and the Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangered Species.

“We have to balance welfare for the animals with the opportunity for visitors to be educated. People will be interested in conserving only something they care about,” says Mrs Rice.

Wildlife lovers can also visit Monarto Safari Park (A$54 an adult and A$30 a child aged four to 14) – the largest open-range wildlife park outside Africa, with more than 500 animals from Australia and around the world.

Alternatively, catch a 30-minute flight or 45-minute ferry to Kangaroo Island, where you might spot kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, fur seals and sea lions in the wild.

Snack on award-winning cheese in Adelaide Hills

Native Australian green ants, lemon myrtle and edible flowers are just a few of the ingredients that cheesemaker Kris Lloyd has incorporated into the products at Woodside Cheese Wrights, where she has been at the helm for 28 years.

The local ingredients, incorporated as part of a strategic bid for the China market, have won her international acclaim.

Anthill (A$20 for 120g), a fresh goat cheese topped with green ants flavoured with kaffir lime and lemongrass, was awarded Best Australian Cheese at the World Cheese Awards 2022, out of a field of 4,430 cheeses.

It is unavailable during my visit as the ants, harvested in North Queensland, are in short supply due to flooding – but Ms Lloyd says their citrusy flavour complements the richness of the cheese. Having tasted the ants in Seven Seasons Green Ant Gin from Australia, where they add a lime and coriander accent, I am inclined to agree.

I enjoy instead the Lemon Myrtle Buffalo Marinated Cheese (A$11, or $18.98 from Little Farms in Singapore for a 200g jar), savoury with a hint of tang from the lemon myrtle which is sourced from Tumbeela Native Bushfoods, also located in Adelaide Hills.

The cheese was awarded Best in Class at the World Championship Cheese Contest held in March in Wisconsin in the United States, one of a long list of wins the company has accrued.

These awards are validation for Ms Lloyd, who also created the Monet line of cheese (A$18 for 120g) and other accoutrements such as crackers, salt and butter, all adorned with an explosion of colourful florals. It was her way of introducing elegance to a male-dominated industry where, in her younger days, she was not always respected.

“I’d go to the dairy shows and, a lot of the time, I was not treated the way I would have liked. Many times, people turned their backs on me and I just didn’t go away,” she says.

She adds: “After years of wearing hairnets and gumboots, I asked myself, ‘Can you make cheese pretty?’”

I return to the creamy goat cheese, spreading it onto cracker after cracker. The late summer version I sample is savoury from the combination of flowers and herbs such as marigold, geranium, thyme and dill, while in winter, violets, pansies and violas lend a perfumed bouquet. Here, beauty is backed by substance.

Adelaide Hills, around 30 minutes from central Adelaide, is home to numerous cellar doors, farms, restaurants and bakeries, where you can easily spend a whole day. For more information, go to www.visitadelaidehills.com.au

Enjoy fresh fruit and wine in Barossa Valley

While Ms Lloyd has had a long career in her craft, married couple Ellie Neindorf Agnew and Owen Agnew are in the early stages of theirs. The duo bought fruit orchard Gully Gardens Barossa in 2024 and continued growing stone and pome fruit such as apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, apples and pears.

When I arrive, chef and customer Ryan Edwards is grating mature zucchini to pickle, which extends its shelf life.

To the mix he adds vinegar, sugar, spices, mustard seed, coriander seed and turmeric, and when we return from our walk around the orchard an hour later, it is ready for bottling.

I expect the tartness of achar or kimchi, but instead, the sauce is gently sweet, like onion jam – perfect in a sandwich or with barbecued meat, says Mr Edwards.

The orchard adopts a similar zero-waste approach to the fruit it grows, turning them into products such as jams and sun-dried snacks. This allows them to utilise imperfect fruit by cutting off parts that have been bitten by ants or earwigs since they do not use insecticides, says Mrs Agnew.

The couple describe themselves as custodians, rather than owners, of the 120-year-old orchard. They kept their day jobs to finance the purchase of the land – he as a winemaker, she as an operations coordinator at a pastry manufacturer.

The days are long and the labour intensive, but the result is fruit more flavourful than supermarket produce. Walking through the orchard is a veritable fruit buffet that includes some of the best peaches I have had.

Mrs Agnew also lets me dip into their secret stash of Turkish white figs, which grow from a single tree. There is not enough to sell, so they keep the harvest for themselves, plucking the ripest figs to nibble on and turning the rest into jam. For their pains, it is a small, precious reward to be savoured.

For opening hours and more information, go to www.gullygardens.com

The Barossa Valley is a renowned wine-producing region about an hour’s drive from central Adelaide, with a plethora of cellar doors. Notable stops include Wonderground Gallery and Mirus Vineyard (www.wondergroundbarossa.com), an art gallery and cellar door that offers wine tastings (from A$20) and grazing platters (A$15). Reservations are essential.

If you have less time, drop in for a tasting flight at Artisans of Barossa, a restaurant that showcases independent winemakers. I sample four wines for A$25, including a delicious rose from Lienert Vineyards that blends the region’s signature shiraz with the more climate-resilient grenache, and pair this with a hearty three-course set lunch for A$75.

The flank steak is tender, the view is expansive and it feels just as a vacation should.

Getting there

Singapore Airlines flies non-stop from Singapore to Adelaide in around 6½ hours. Round-trip flights in September cost around $1,500, based on checks by The Straits Times.