Mount Osmond

Mount Osmond is a small suburb of 2, 497 people in the South Australian capital city of Adelaide.

Mount Osmond is a small suburb of 2,497 people in the South Australian capital city of Adelaide. It is part of the City of Burnside local government area and located in the foothills of the Adelaide Hills, five kilometres south east of the city centre. The suburb is high on the hill of the same name, which is the last hill on the right when approaching Adelaide down the South Eastern Freeway before the road levels out onto the Adelaide Plains. It is bounded to the north by the suburb of Beaumont, to the north-east by Burnside, to the east by Waterfall Gully, to the south by Leawood Gardens/Eagle On The Hill, to the south-west by Urrbrae, to the west by Glen Osmond and to the north-west by St Georges.

The suburb is at a high elevation in the Mount Lofty Ranges, and provides views over Adelaide as well as containing a renowned golf course and country club. Mining operations in the 19th century gave the area notoriety, but it has since developed slowly into a small, quiet and secluded suburb.

Mount Osmond is within the traditional lands of the Kaurna people, and forms part of the Mount Lofty Ranges and is therefore part of the Dreamtime story of the ancestor-creator Nganno. According to the legend, Nganno was wounded in a battle and laid down to die, forming the Mount Lofty Ranges.

When Adelaide was first planned and mapped out by Col. William Light, Mount Osmond received the three allotments 1070, 1277 and 1278. While much of Adelaide was relatively quickly bought (but not necessarily settled) Mount Osmond did not enjoy any early buyers. The first reported activity in the area was after the mining rush of Glen Osmond due to the Wheal Watkins and Wheal Gawler mines. Lot 1277 yielded a mine in Slaughterhouse Gully but it was worked only briefly. Subsequent finds of bluestone proved fruitful and the mineral was extracted until 1900, when mining ended and the last of the mines were either filled in or cordoned off.

Developers eventually bought the lots that composed Mount Osmond but once again interest in the suburb was minor. Attempts to bring in settlers culminated in the construction of Mount Osmond Road in 1882. It wound around the hills from where it began as an offshoot of Mount Barker Road in the South. Developers broke down the three large lots into roughly two hundred 1-acre (4,000 m2) ones in the hope of sales. A few lots were sold to quarrymen and gardeners around Mount Barker Road, but the vast remainder was leased to stockowners as pasture for their livestock. Much of Mount Osmond, along with a large portion of the surrounding area, was bought in 1907 by Ernest C. Sanders. His family made great use of the land, with his sons building houses on the vast property while raising sheep and growing hay. Considerable time was spent by the Sanders family in naming and mapping the area.

The Sanders family eventually decided to sell much of their portion of Mount Osmond, and around 1922–23 it was put on the market. Like earlier attempts at sales on Mount Osmond, little interest was received and none was sold until 1925. The land was developed into a golf course and Country Club with the assistance of the Burnside Council and its engineers. Credit to the novel idea went to H.E.S. Melbourne, Burnside's chief engineer at the time – who found support among numerous Burnside Councillors. The golf course and country club were developed on the highest part of the mount, on 85 acres (34 ha) of former Sanders estate. The remaining land was sold by the country club to buyers with strict rules on the development and maintenance of the properties – specific rules applying to aesthetic features, particularly gardens, are of note. Even with a golf course and country club in the vicinity, as well as electricity and a water supply from Waterfall Gully's first creek the eighteen marketed lots once again sold poorly.One of the last large land purchases was that of Ross Thiem in the 1940s. A club member, C.W. Lloyd, sold 200 acres (0.81 km2) around the golf course, which was again used as pasture by Thiem, who ran sheep on the property – and was the last to do so. The then Highways Department also acquired land in 1951, buying 200 acres (0.81 km2) of land above Beaumont for future transport planning. Thiem's land was eventually sold in the 1950s, to the Rossdale Property Co. Their subsequent attempts at selling the land were just as fruitless as those before, and once again the property changed hands to the Mount Osmond Heights Pty Ltd. The land was newly subdivided, and it was in the late 1960s that finally much of Mount Osmond was sold to residential buyers. Fifty-two out of the 116 new sites had been sold by 12 October 1968 at an average of $3,500, according to the Adelaide daily The Advertiser. Since the land sales of that era, Mount Osmond has developed slowly because of the scarcity of land and the housing and development restrictions of the Hills Face Zone. Now the suburb is home to large, extravagant, tree-filled houses and properties. With the upgrade of Mount Barker Road to become part of the South Eastern Freeway from 1997, Mount Osmond received its own freeway interchange as part of the development.

Mount Osmond contains a number of historical attractions; notably in the former mines and mining infrastructure that remains on the hillside as a reminder of its past. The mines continue up throughout the hills from Glen Osmond. While Wheal Gawler and Wheal Watkins are former open-cut mines (located in Glen Osmond), Mount Osmond contains more mineshafts which are up to sixty metres deep.Mount Osmond Golf Course is located on the very top of the suburb, and includes its peak. Its course is open only to members. The English-Manor style clubrooms provides meals, coffee and function and events facilities to members and public visitors.

Walking trails are numerous. While a historical walk through the mines can be taken from Beaumont or Glen Osmond, longer walks provide access to Waterfall Gully's falls, the Cleland Wildlife Park and the Adelaide Hills town of Crafers. Walking the Long Ridge track, between the valley of the South Eastern Freeway and Waterfall Gully provides views of Adelaide.The Old Toll House is located at the start of the South Eastern Freeway below Mount Osmond. The Suburb also has a small bed and breakfast, located at the northern end of Mount Osmond Road.