| Adelaide Plains South Australia | |
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Aerial view of Adelaide. The city centre is the cluster of buildings in the centre, the Adelaide Hills are centre-right, the eastern suburbs on the far left and the southern suburbs far centre. Northwest regions of the Adelaide Plains. The built-up area in the bottom left corner is Greenwith. The dark dotted areas in the background are the northern suburbs of Adelaide, corresponding to the City of Playford centred around Elizabeth and the mid-area of the Adelaide Plains are further in the background. | |
  Adelaide Plains | |
| Coordinates | 34°56′21.69″S 138°35′51.25″E / 34.9393583°S 138.5975694°E |
The Adelaide Plains, called Tarndanya by the Indigenous Australian Kaurna people, is a plain, a flat area, in South Australia. It lies between the coast (Gulf St Vincent) on the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges on the east. The southern end of the plains is near the southern suburbs of Adelaide, around Brighton, near O'Halloran Hill. The northern edge is near the South Hummocks Range and Wakefield River.
The Kaurna people lived here first. Many rivers and creeks run through the plains, but some dry up in summer. The main rivers, from south to north, are Onkaparinga/Ngangki, Sturt/Warri, Torrens/Karra Wirra, Little Para, Gawler, Light/Yarralinka and Wakefield/Undalya. The land is good for farming and gets about 460 millimetres (18 in) of rain each year.
The plains can be split into three parts:
- The south part is where the city of Adelaide is, which is the capital of South Australia.
- The middle part is known as the "breadbasket" of South Australia. It has many vegetable farms and wineries, especially near the towns of Virginia and Angle Vale.
- The north part is mostly used for growing grains like wheat, barley, and canola, and for raising sheep.
When people say "Adelaide Plains," they often mean the middle part that is not part of the city. The Adelaide Plains Council is a local government area covering 932 square kilometres (360 sq mi) from the Gawler River in the south to places like Wild Horse Plains, Long Plains and Grace Plains north of Dublin and Mallala in the north.