Adelaide’s oldest, and smallest, online reservoir is the centrepiece to Hope Valley Reservoir Reserve, the state’s first metropolitan reservoir reserve to open for public access.

Easily accessed with a link from the O-Bahn Bikeway, Hope Valley Reservoir Reserve provides a range of trails stretching a total of 4.9 km which, together with tree-lined footpaths, provides a loop of the reservoir for easy access walking and cycling.

There’s a great outlook across the water to the hills from much of the trail, including the 800m dam wall which you can walk across. The trail here is ideal for walking and running with room for families to enjoy a picnic.

The flora graphic used here for Hope Valley are the Small scurf pea (Cullen parvum), River red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and Silky blue-grass (Dichanthium sericeum)

What sets Hope Valley Reservoir apart

Capacity: 2.9 gigalitres (that would fill around 1,400 Olympic swimming pools]

Located in the heart of Adelaide’s north eastern suburbs, Hope Valley Reservoir was completed in 1873 to become Adelaide’s second reservoir, and is our oldest in operation.

Hope Valley is interesting because it does not collect surface water from the local catchment but is filled with water diverted by the Gorge Weir on the River Torrens via a tunnel supplied from Kangaroo Creek Reservoir. In fact, you’ll notice a channel surrounding the reservoir which catches and diverts local surface water away from the reservoir. This helps control the quality of the reservoir water before it is treated at the Hope Valley Water Treatment plant situated next to the reservoir.

Hope Valley Reservoir is our smallest reservoir and one of only two in the metropolitan area, the other being Happy Valley which is more than four times larger at 12.6 gigalitres.

Water Quality

Hope Valley Reservoir is one of 16 across the state that help supply water to more than 1.7 million South Australians. Water from the reservoir is cleaned and filtered at the Hope Valley Treatment Plant before being supplied to customers living in the north eastern suburbs. Treating drinking water before it’s supplied to people’s homes, businesses, schools, hospitals and more is important to make sure it is clean and safe to drink straight from the tap. You can learn how SA Water treats water and maintains the quality its customers value and rely upon.