Karkoo Nursery business secured after plans to open new location at Mt Lofty Railway Station

The owners behind the hugely popular Oakbank cafe and garden centre are planning a new Hills project – again inside a heritage building.

Karkoo Nursery in Oakbank, in the Adelaide Hills.

The owners of the hugely popular Karkoo Nursery in Oakbank are behind a move to turn a long-vacant former Adelaide Hills train station into a cafe.

Since moving to Oakbank in 2021 after the future of their Blackwood site could not be secured, Karkoo has become one of the Hills’ most popular garden cafes and has expanded its menu and offerings of gifts, homewares, clothes and plants at the sprawling, historic Johnstons Brewery.

Now owners Peter and Jane Rowat have lodged plans to open a cafe inside the heritage-listed Mt Lofty Railway Station at Stirling.

Karkoo Nursery Karkoo Nursery owners Peter and Jane Rowat with daughters Imogen and Isla. Picture: Colin James

The Mount Lofty Railway Station would be turned into a cafe by the family behind Karkoo Nursery at Oakbank under new plans.

Ms Rowat said she was excited to open the new location after fearing their Blackwood site would close “month to month”.

Their Blackwood location will close this year, but Ms Rowat said she was relieved to be able to move staff to the station site.

“We have some great staff and we wanted to keep them, great customers too,” she said.

Ms Rowat hopes to create “not just a nursery but a tourist attraction” in Stirling.

“It will be really good for the Hills,” she said.

“You’ll be able to sit inside with a coffee and look out across the platform.”

The train station closed in 1987 and has been vacant for years, most recently used for train-themed tourism accommodation from 2000 to 2018.

Under the new plans, the train station – known for its gable-end corrugated iron roof and verandas – would receive new life as a cafe and garden centre.

No kitchen is planned, with the cafe serving coffees and cakes while the station’s other side would display garden and homewares for sale.

Plants for sale would be scattered around the outside, under the cover of Stirling’s lush trees.

Inside the Mount Lofty Railway Station.

Inside the Mount Lofty Railway Station.

The Mount Lofty Railway Station would be turned into a cafe by the family behind Karkoo Nursery at Oakbank under new plans.

No exterior alterations or additions are proposed for the existing building, which was opened in 1883 and substantially refurbished in the 1990s and is owned by the state government.

The plans show two new fences would be built between the train station cafe and the railway line, which is still in use by freight trains and the Overland.

The iconic picket fence alongside the station will be retained and repaired.

A secondary, smaller building with basement on the site would be used as staffroom, with internal stairs likely built, and new toilets installed.

Ms Rowat hopes to open the new site in winter this year.

Public submissions are open until April 19.