Explore the Fleurieu Peninsula
It might not have the renown of Mornington, Byron or the Hunter, but it’s this understated quality that makes the Fleurieu Peninsula so special. With the region going through a modern transformation, SALIFE hits the road to realise that the Fleurieu still captures the magic of discovery and a down-to-earth joie de vivre.
Some of the most poetic phrases of the English language are not only borrowed from the French but often reference life’s simple pleasures, from bon appétit to apéritif.
It is fitting then, that it was the French who coined arguably the most elegant place name in South Australia: the Fleurieu Peninsula. Named by Nicolas Baudin in 1802, the Fleurieu’s graceful title is suited to its beauty but also its bountiful offerings of life’s simple pleasures. Food and wine, ocean and sand.
Two centuries since European explorers first rounded the foot of the Fleurieu, the region is being re-discovered all over again. Most recent figures show the peninsula now attracts by far the most visitors of any South Australian region. This idyllic destination is on the rise.
Change is particularly evident along the Fleurieu’s western coastline where new homes are being built, the duplication of Main South Road is near completion, and the state’s first artificial surf park and wave pool is on the horizon.
The vibrant hub of Aldinga has an ever-growing mix of boutique offerings from Fall From Grace wine bar and restaurant to Goodness Coffee Co and the Slow Food Kitchen, just to name a few.
And tapping into the region’s ever-growing appeal and Mediterranean climate are new accommodation offerings such as the Mykonos-inspired Okeanos beach home at Moana.
Yet when SALIFE arrives at Silver Sands Beach, the construction activity and traffic of Main South Road fades into the background, replaced by the gentle crash of the surf and the cry of gulls; the expansive coast dotted with just a few cars and beach umbrellas.
Silver Sands Beach Club
Come summer, Silver Sands Beach Club is humming with visitors spread across the lawn and deck, soaking up the views of the cerulean ocean stretching to the cliffs of Sellicks and beyond. The restaurant-in-a-surf-club offers a considered menu, but the dress code is laid-back. Sandy feet, flip-flops and board shorts are welcome.
“Our season runs from Boxing Day to the end of Easter, and it’s just the best vibe,” says the venue’s co-founder Mark Kamleh. “Everyone’s in total relaxo-mode. People will be having lunch and go down to the beach for a swim mid-course. That was always our dream for this venue.”
Mark, who is also a DJ, and his business partner Nick Stock, a wine critic, took up the lease of the venue in 2022 when the forward-thinking surf club sought hospitality professionals to run their bar and restaurant.
Now in its fourth summer and having become a hit for its mix of restaurant-quality fare and beach club classics, the venue is the epitome of Aldinga’s developing food and wine landscape.
“The summers have been incredible. We have two speeds – our classic surf club meals like the fish and chips, the squid and the burgers; and then our bistro dishes like steak frites and flatbread topped with sardines,” says Mark.
“We also have a turbo 20-page wine list with the best wines in the region and the world always available. There are gems on that list and no region is untouched from Australia to Europe. That is thanks to Nick, who has travelled the world as a wine critic,” he says.
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“The mid coast and the Fleurieu have the most special beaches in SA and to be able to run an operation like we do here is pretty special.”
Seafood provenance has always been a focus at Silver Sands Beach Club, but the events of this year have brought it to the fore. “We are driven by quality and provenance is part of our mandate. The mullet is from the Coorong, for example, and we have a relationship with the fisherman who comes in and delivers the fish,” says Mark.
“Sitting here and just looking at those cliffs that extend all the way down to Myponga, it’s unbelievably beautiful. It’s a coast full of character but just a bite-sized drive from the city. It’s so close but you feel very far away.”
Pearl
Just two clicks down the coast is Pearl restaurant, the bold seafood-focused dining destination of local couple Jules Rydon and Bec Seidel.
This month marks Pearl’s sixth year of trading, but the story goes right back to the couple’s formative years, having both grown up in nearby Willunga. Jules and Bec left Adelaide and worked and travelled all over the world but kept finding their way back to the Fleurieu.
“We always found ourselves back here in summer – this is home for us,” says Jules, a chef who has earned his stripes in top restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne.
“We realised that the coast needed something. There was a Besser-block kiosk that stood here since the late ’60s and had become derelict. We often looked at it and dreamt of what we might do with the site.”
It took years, but the couple eventually won the tender for the derelict Crown land kiosk, which they demolished and set about building a new restaurant from the ground up, thanks to help from a few friends and family members. “It is a one-off opportunity that we had dreamt of,” says Jules.
Their resilience was tested when the Covid pandemic struck just weeks after opening in January 2020, but the couple held on to their dream of bringing world-class hospitality to the coast.
The restaurant offers elevated, share-style dining in a relaxed atmosphere. Guests can enjoy a long lunch, take a swim, and return to finish their meal. The offering is generous, super-fresh and wrapped up in a unique dining experience – a memory one takes away with them.
“It’s elevated but with a sense of familiarity like how you might share a family barbecue at home in the backyard,” says Jules.
Pearl champions local fishermen and producers. “People are more inquisitive this year. They’re more interested in how things are impacting fishermen and where fish are coming from. We know who’s caught our seafood and when, so we can pass on all that information,” says Jules.
“As parents and as locals, we’re focused on the future of the coast, the ocean and the fish stocks. We have developed an atmosphere where people feel comfortable and trust us that our produce is safe to enjoy.”
Bec says the popularity of Pearl has spread through word of mouth. They have chosen to forgo social media to preserve the element of discovery that is rare in the modern world. “We wanted to capture that romance of finding something special,” says Bec.
For Jules, the theme of discovery goes back to exploring the coast in his youth. “It is a small region but it’s full of different producers, people, food and wine, which make it fun and exciting to be able to tour and travel, but to live in as well,” he says.
“The region is changing but it still has an essence of discovery. For Pearl, the nice thing is that people come back and they’re bringing friends. For some it’s a yearly pilgrimage from winter in the northern hemisphere.”
As owner-operators, the couple is constantly in the trenches running the restaurant, with few opportunities to step back and appreciate what they’ve achieved. But when the deck is full of people, they don’t take it for granted. “We appreciate how special it is, especially knowing the grit, hard times and sacrifices it took to get here,” says Jules.
And when the sun comes out is when Pearl really kicks into overdrive. “We recently had our first sunset of the season, and the ocean surface was like a pond, with dolphins jumping and splashing about,” says Jules.
“I was trying to send dishes out, but no one was at their table, they were all out here taking photos. In those moments we realise wow, this is special. We’ve done it.”
Berg Herring
Since establishing their boutique Sellicks Beach cellar door five years ago, Berg Herring Wines founders Sam Dunlevy and Chloe Fitzgerald have noticed a change happening along the Fleurieu Peninsula’s western coast.
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With its sweeping views, the Berg Herring cellar door-in-a-church is among a flourish of the region’s new destinations that visitors can now link together in one day, or across a weekend.
“The increase in interest has been noticeable on weekends and the number of tourists coming down this way is growing quickly; there are more and more things popping up,” says Sam.
The couple purchased Sellicks Beach’s 1862 Methodist Church in 2015, moved into the old Sunday school out the back, and opened their Berg Herring cellar door in 2020. Since then, Sam has converted the car park into a lawned picnic area which features two unique wine-barrel tasting pods.
“The first thing he did was get rid of the car park and plant lawns and our gardens. Now, the lawn fills up with people in summer and on the weekends,” says Chloe.
“We thought it was going to be a challenge being located away from the main hub of McLaren Vale – off the beaten track. But we’re lucky to be steady throughout the year, and summer is a great vibe here. It’s all grown by word of mouth,” she says.
Visitors can take a structured wine tasting or buy a glass or bottle to enjoy on the lawn, with guests encouraged to bring their own picnic lunch or snacks.
Now, with the area changing so rapidly, a housing development is currently planned to be built right up to the couple’s fence line, with potential to block the views and open space that make their location so special.
“We’re proposing they plan to include a pocket of open space next to us here. We had a little petition running and got about 1300 signatures,” says Chloe. “It’s about maintaining a bit of character for everyone in the area, not just saving the view for ourselves.”
Being a small-batch producer gives Sam the flexibility to focus on the varieties he’s excited to work with, particularly alternative grape varieties from nearby vineyards. “I get a lot of enjoyment from working with new varieties that pop up or cool vineyards I discover,” says Sam.
“We are geared towards alternate varieties that tend to perform and drink well in the warmer climate. We keep the wines light, fruit-forward and easy drinking so people can experience what the varieties are all about. It’s a drink-now style, which is what many people are looking for,” he says.
With their idyllic cellar door location and with Sam working for other wineries a few days a week, they currently have no plans to expand. “We’re pretty happy keeping it the way it’s going; simple is good,” he says.
Chloe agrees: “It is nice when you see people out here having fun and literally just hanging out in our backyard. It was a bit of an adjustment at first, but now we love it.”
Fleurieu Gin
This month marks one year of operation for Fleurieu Gin, the destination cellar door and function space created by Shane Magor on his family’s picturesque farmland. Located in the hills between Myponga and Carrickalinga, Fleurieu Gin has some of the best views in the region.
“My grandfather purchased the land in 1950. I wasn’t going to be a farmer, so I had to think outside the square,” says Shane, who grew up on the property.
Previously a real estate agent, Shane had lost the drive for his career and needed a new challenge, which encouraged him to shift his focus to his property’s rolling hills.
“A friend offered me a gin and I really liked it,” says Shane. “I started making gin with a little still in the shed, where all good businesses start. We’ve been distilling and bottling there for four years. It was during Covid that I did all the research and testing, passing bottles over the fence to neighbours and friends.”
Fleurieu Gin now produces seven different gins, and many have won awards. Building such a large venue was a bold move but Shane had faith in the area’s appeal. “It was very stressful at times, particularly when the build was going over budget, but now that it’s open and I’m working up here with my children, it’s brilliant,” he says.
“The view is second to none. On a clear day, you can see right around to Outer Harbor with the naked eye. It’s still rural, but you’re only an hour from Adelaide.”
Visitors to Fleurieu Gin can enjoy a hit of golf or a game of bocce. “We wanted an activity to keep the kids occupied so we built one golf driving range and it was so successful that we had to build another. People come here from the other side of Adelaide just to see the view and have a hit of golf,” says Shane.
Shane says that when his father visits the distillery and sees what he has created on the family property, it brings a tear to his eye. “When he was walking the hills, he was too busy looking down for snakes or chasing stock. Now, when he comes here for a drink and looks at the view, he gets a little bit emotional. It just gets you sometimes,” says Shane.
As the sun dips towards the horizon, SALIFE heads back to Sellicks Beach where the sands are mostly free of people and only a handful waiting to enjoy a spectacular weeknight sunset. Bathed in golden hour, the picturesque cliffs could rival the best of the Mediterranean.
The question is, for how much longer will it be undiscovered?
This article first appeared in the January 2026 issue of SALIFE magazine.
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