Arkaba Conservancy

Arkaba sits within the Ikara-Flinders Ranges, 60,000 acres of ancient outback shaped over 600 million years, and hosts just 10 guests at a time. Four rooms sit in the original 1850s stone homestead, each named for an early European explorer or past owner, with a fifth in a separate stone Coach House in the garden. Arkaba was a sheep station until 2009, when new owners returned the land to conservation instead of grazing. There's a pool and deck for the heat of the day and a fireplace for winter evenings. Contemporary Australian dishes and South Australian wines are served on the terrace at an old wool-classing table, a holdover from the station's working days.

Bushwalks through river red gum creek beds and safari drives into craggy sandstone country are guided by Arkaba's own conservationists or, on request, a local Adnyamathanha elder, tracking kangaroos, emus and the near-threatened yellow-footed rock wallaby at the property's natural waterholes. A separate multi-day walk, one of the Great Walks of Australia, follows the Heysen Trail.