Ardrossan Lookout

About five kilometres south of Ardrossan, a short signposted detour climbs to a lookout with one of the stranger double views on the peninsula. To the west yawns the vast open-cut dolomite mine, begun by BHP in the 1950s to feed its steelworks at Whyalla and Port Kembla — a man-made canyon of pale benched rock. To the east lies the blue sweep of Gulf St Vincent, framed by Ardrossan's famous red clay cliffs.

On a clear day the view runs south along the coast to Black Point and clean across the gulf to the low blue line of the Adelaide Hills. It's a quick, easy stop — a car park, interpretive vantage and big skies — but it explains Ardrossan better than anything in town: a place where deepwater shipping, mining and farming have always shared the same horizon.

Time it for late afternoon, when the cliffs glow brick-red, then head back into town for fish and chips on the foreshore or a walk out along the coast at Tiddy Widdy Beach.