| Balhannah South Australia | |||||||||||||||
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 Onkaparinga Valley Road at Balhannah | |||||||||||||||
  Balhannah | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 34°59′S 138°49′E / 34.983°S 138.817°E | ||||||||||||||
| Population | 1,660 (UCL 2021)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 1839 | ||||||||||||||
| Location | 30 km (19 mi) SE of Adelaide | ||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | Adelaide Hills Council | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Kavel | ||||||||||||||
| Federal division(s) | Mayo | ||||||||||||||
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Balhannah is a town in the Adelaide Hills about 30 km southeast of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was established in 1839 as a farming community by James Turnbull Thomson, who built the first hotel. The town soon grew to incorporate two once adjoining towns: Gilleston (named for Osmond Gilles) and Blythetown, named for James Blythe, another Scottish settler.[2]
It is on the main interstate railway between Adelaide and Melbourne. In the past it was the junction for a branch line that ran up the Onkaparinga Valley and beyond to Birdwood and Mount Pleasant.[3]
Much of Balhannah is along Onkaparinga Valley Road, although there are some other residential streets, and Greenhill Road terminates near the town centre. One of the larger businesses in the town is a long-established hardware store, now part of the Mitre 10 chain. The fruit cold store built in 1914 was one of the first in Australia and is still in use. Features Kidman Flower Co, a Native Flower Farm that allows tourists and is home to Nepenthe Winery and Shaw + Smith Winery.
Peramangk and Kaurna peoples are the Traditional Custodians of the Adelaide Hills.
- ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Balhannah (urban centre and locality)". Australian Census 2021.
- ^ "Towns, People, and Things We Ought to Know". The Chronicle (Adelaide). Vol. LXXVI, no. 4, 011. South Australia. 28 September 1933. p. 13. Retrieved 23 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia. An interesting article with much more information on the history off Balhannah
- ^ Sallis, Roger (1998). Railways in the Adelaide Hills, 1st edition. Openbook Publishers, Adelaide. ISBN 0-646-35473-6.
