51 ways you can tell you’re from the Adelaide Hills

Maybe it’s all the wine and cheese ... but the Adelaide Hills has a very different vibe to the rest of SA. Here are 51 telltale signs you’re from the Hills.

The Adelaide Hills is one of the world’s most beautiful places to live. It’s more than incredible views, wineries, coffee shops, bushfire threat and freezing cold winters - it’s a lifestyle. And it has its own distinct way of life different to the rest of Adelaide.

And you know you’re from the Hills when...

1. You’ll drive several kilometres out of your way to avoid Hahndorf at the weekend

2. You bought a dog so you can fit in when you get coffee in Stirling on Saturdays

3. You go to the cinema in Mt Barker if you’re on Hahndorf side of Bridgewater, but if you’re not, you’ll go to Norwood

4. You know Stirling in autumn would sure look amazing... if you could actually see the trees through the fog

5. You’ve heard the rumours Mel Gibson owns a house in Hills somewhere, but no one agrees on which house

6. You know someone whose kids go to school with the Hilltop Hoods’ kids

7. You ignore seeing Callum Hann in Stirling but your kids won’t stop looking at him

8. You’ve given up trying to make sense of “that” statue in Mount Barker

We don’t know either. Hydris, one of the sculptures in Mount Barker on the Adelaide Hills sculpture trail.

Code named the “splatue”, its real name is Splash and can be found at Littlehampton, on the Adelaide Hills Sculpture Trail.

9. You never “just rock up” to the Crafers on Friday or Saturday night to “see if we can bag a table”.

10. As above, but Fred’s in Aldgate on a weekday.

11. You’re spoilt for choice if you’re eating out. But when it comes to takeaway you’ve got about three options, and one usually just closed down.

12. You enjoy muttering to yourself that no one else knows how to enter the freeway.

13. You speed up slightly when the car behind you on the freeway pulls into the right-hand lane, especially if it’s just before an exit.

14. You always check the freeway on Traffic SA before leaving for work and plan a route around that morning’s truck breakdown accordingly.

A normal commute on the South-Eastern Freeway. Picture: Tait Schmaal

15. Someone’s always cold, even in summer

16. You start stockpiling wood around March and by June tell yourself next year you’ll start in February. Yeah, right.

17. The neighbour is always chainsawing or chopping

18. Trees falling on Bridgewater homes is part of winter

A frustratingly common scene in Bridgewater. Picture: Supplied

19. You swam in the Bridgy waterhole but you’ve never seen the “car” that’s meant to be down there

20. You have at least one friend who buys their clothes at Horseland

21. You know three couples who both wear puffer jackets all the time from April to September and are ALWAYS holding a store-bought coffee

22. The male of the couple only ever wears sleeveless puffer jackets

23. You’re sure it wasn’t this cold last winter

24. You know it’s nearly ALWAYS foggy in Crafers

Oh look, fog at Crafers, how surprising. Picture: Brenton Edwards

25. You’ve never gone for a walk without coming home with a bundle of sticks you found for kindling

26. The smell of smoke in June/July = good. In any other month, it sends you straight to the CFS app to see how long you have

27. That app is on your phone’s home screen

28. That app is the most-used app during summer

29. You’re either in the CFS, or feel guilty you’re not in the CFS, and your Dad was definitely in the CFS

Smoke rises in the Adelaide Hills, as seen from Montefiore Hill in North Adelaide.

A depressingly familiar sight .... a CFS volunteer and, yes, that’s a koala, watch on as the Cudlee Creek fire front approaches Beal & Co winery in the Adelaide Hills. Photo: @sa_countryfireservice

30. You know someone who’s taken a cheese-making class

31. You know which Foodland is the posh one

32. You have more than one rainwater tank

33. You’ve been in the Courier at least three times

34. A garden gnome on top of a local business’ store is just normal

35. A chair in front of a driveway = to give away. A chair at a bustop = for an older person, and no one touches it

36. You either hate cats or have a cat

37. You either hate ivy or have ivy in your yard

38. You’ve given up on getting rid of the soursobs

39. You know which wild blackberries weren’t sprayed yet

40. You know never to eat any wild mushrooms, no matter what your cousin’s “expert” mate reckons

A sign at Mount Lofty Botanic Garden warning about poisonous mushrooms. Picture: Supplied

41. Depending on which town you’re in, you know instinctively which coffee shop to go to

42. You know those ageing hippies only have that house because they bought it in the ’70s

43. You know which wineries are kid-friendly and either avoid or go only there

44. You went to birthday parties at Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens, Cleland, Warrawong and Belair as a kid

45. You go to birthday parties at Kuitpo as an adult

46. You NEVER go near Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens in autumn, because where would you park?

47. You or your kids went to Farm Barn for a school excursion

48. You know that European wasp will just be replaced by another one if you kill it

49. You know that that bridge in Oakbank flooding isn’t news

50. You know that the fog will be gone by 11am

51. You know someone who used to be a Hills “footy legend”