Words By Mark Staniforth

Willunga National Trust has established a new exhibition-only Art Gallery in the heritage-listed Waverley Park Homestead in Willunga. The homestead was built for important local identity Thomas Smith Kell in the mid 1840s. It has an ongoing exhibition called Our District: Willunga District’s Built Heritage Art as well as holding four temporary exhibitions annually (each of three months duration) with exhibition openings in late January, April, July and October. There were three exhibitions in 2023 starting with the Jane Price Retrospective (April-July), then from July to October The Places we have Lost and finally the Heritage, Art and Wine exhibition (from October).

The first exhibition for 2024 will be local artist Roe Gartelmann Retrospective opening on Saturday 27 Jan 2024. During 2024 the Willunga National Trust will continue negotiations with the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra to borrow a small number of significant artworks under the Sharing the National Collection program introduced in 2023 by the Commonwealth Government. In July 2024 we intend to mount an exhibition called Know My Name: Willunga that showcases the work of now deceased South Australian women artists who were active in the Willunga Basin from the mouth of the Onkaparinga River south to Sellicks Beach and east to Kangarilla. If you have artworks by women artists such as Marjorie Gwynne, Kathleen Sauerbier, Maude Gum, Bessie Giles, Sandra Rose or others and you are prepared to loan them for the three-month exhibition (July- Oct) please email

Waverley Park Homestead also conducts a regular program of openings, talks, craft and folk music sessions and provides local community groups with a free venue for meetings, events and activities. The building is owned by the City of Onkaparinga and managed by the Willunga National Trust see the website. The exhibitions are curated by a team of volunteers from the Willunga National Trust and the gallery is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoon between 1pm and 4pm. Admission is free and the artworks are not-for-sale.

Supported by: Kay Brothers Winery, City of Onkaparinga, Awesome Foundation