South Australia’s firsts, bests and onlys

Twice the size of France, four times the size of the UK and with a population of only 1.6 million, South Australia proudly lays claim to many national and world firsts, bests and onlys.

A selection of world and national firsts, in no particular order, is below:

Best in the world:

- Coober Pedy is the world’s largest opal producer, supplying over 80% of the world’s opals.
- The Desert Cave Hotel, in Coober Pedy, is the world’s only underground hotel.
- Anna Creek Station, at 24,244 sq kms, (over six million acres) is the world’s largest cattle station, making it larger than the UK and almost the size of Belgium.
- Angove’s Nanya vineyard at Renmark is the world’s single largest vineyard, the equivalent of 200 football pitches.

World famous locations, brands and personalities:

- The Adelaide Oval, one of the world’s most famous Test cricket pitches
- The Barossa, Clare Valley, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra & the Adelaide Hills are among the world’s most famous wine regions
- RM Williams, Jurlique, Penfolds, Jacob’s Creek, Banrock, Peter Lehman & Wolf Blass are world renowned brand names.
- Rodney Fox, world renowned great white shark expert, survived a near fatal attack before going on to research, lecture and provide technical advice to both Steven Speilberg, when filming “Jaws“, and Universal Studios Florida when building their Jaws-themed adventure experience.
- Cheong Liew, the Adelaide-based chef and founding father of “Australian Fusion“ is regarded as one of Australia’s best and is rated by “American Food & Wine“ magazine as “One of the World’s Ten Hottest Living Chefs“.
- Sir Donald Bradman, who lived, played and died in Adelaide, is acknowledged as cricket‘s greatest batsman.
- Adelaide is the only city in the world where passengers can choose to board one of two trans-continental railways – The Ghan which travels north and south between Adelaide and Darwin, and The Indian Pacific (at 4,352kms one of the world’s longest train journeys) travels east and west between Perth and Sydney, stopping in Adelaide.
- The only place to swim with tuna is off the Eyre Peninsula.
- The Heysen Trail, at 1,500 kms, is one of the world’s longest continuous walking trails, whilst the Nullarbot Plain is home to the world’s longest stretch of straight road – 146.6 kms.
- The Flinders Ranges is the oldest mountain range in the world.
- Tindo, the world’s first solar-powered electric bus, is located in Adelaide.
- The Nullarbor Links, when it opens in 2009, will be the world’s longest golf course stretching 1,200 kms across 18 holes, from Ceduna in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia across the Nullarbor Plain.

The best in Australia:

- Kangaroo Island, renowned as Australia’s Galapagos, is the best place to see the largest selection of native, free roaming wildlife like kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, sea lions, penguins and echidnas.
- Swimming with sharks, tuna, sea lions and cuttlefish off the Eyre Peninsula, represents some of Australia’s best aquatic wildlife experience.
- The Louise, in the Barossa, is “Australia’s Top Luxury Accommodation” as voted in the 2008 “Qantas Australian Tourism Awards” , whilst the ~Good Life Pizza, Adelaide, is the holder of the “Best Pizza Restaurant Australia 2007” award from the prestigious ”Savour National Restaurant & Catering Awards for Excellence 2007”.
- Lake Eyre is Australia’s largest lake (9,500 sq kms,) and its saltiest, filling up once every 30-100 years.
- 1988 Penfolds Grange became Australia’s most expensive bottle of wine when in 2003 a record A$71,040 (£33,444) was paid for an Imperial (six litre) bottle.
- Coonawarra is home to Australia’s most expensive vineyard real estate, boasting 25 cellar doors along 16 kms.
- Maslin Beach became Australia’s first legal nude bathing beach in 1975 and now hosts the annual “Nude Olympics”.
- Tour Down Under, Australia’s equivalent of the Tour de France, is the southern hemisphere’s biggest, most prestigious international bike race and the only UCI rated pro cycling tour outside Europe.
- Arkaroola is Australia’s largest privately owned telescope.
- Coopers Brewery is Australia’s only remaining family-owned brewer.