Blair Athol is located about north of the Adelaide CBD, South Australia. Blair Athol borders the suburbs of

Gepps Cross Gepps Cross (pronounced 'Jepps Cross') is a suburb and major road intersection in the north of Adelaide, South Australia. Gepps Cross is traditionally seen as the end of the inner suburbs and the start of the outer northern suburbs, as it was hom ...

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

, Prospect and Kilburn. The suburb is rectangular, stretching from

Grand Junction Road Grand Junction Road is the longest east–west thoroughfare in the Adelaide metropolitan area, traversing through Adelaide's northern suburbs approximately 8 kilometres north of the Adelaide city centre. Route Travelling from the Port Adelaide r ...

in the north to Angwin Avenue in the south between

Prospect Road Prospect Road is a north–south road in the inner north suburbs of Adelaide, Australia. Route The road commences at the intersection with Waldaree Street in the industrial suburb of Gepps Cross and heads directly south, crossing Grand Junctio ...

on the west and

Main North Road Main North Road is the major north-south arterial route through the suburbs north of the Adelaide City Centre in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. It continues north through the settled areas of South Australia and is a total of long, fro ...

on the east. Blair Athol's main and longest street is Florence Avenue.

History

Blair Athol was originally a private subdivision of section 357 in the

Hundred of Yatala The Hundred of Yatala is a cadastral unit of hundred in South Australia covering much of the Adelaide metropolitan area north of the River Torrens. It is one of the eleven hundreds of the County of Adelaide stretching from the Torrens in the sout ...

in the vicinity of today's Lionel Avenue. The suburb name was formalised in 1944 at which time the boundaries stretched from Grand Junction Road to Irish Harp Road (now

Regency Road Regency Road (and its eastern section as Muller Road) is a main east-west road forming a continuous connection between the inner northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Located approximately north of the city centre, Regency Road carries ...

). In 2000, the portion south of Angwin Avenue and its easterly projection to Main North Road was annexed by Prospect. The historic area known as Gepp's Cross (named for the busy intersection of Main North Road and Grand Junction Road) overlaps the north east corner of the modern suburb and includes the historic Gepps Cross Hotel (also known as Gepp's Cross Inn). The modern suburb of

occupies only the land north of the intersection. Blair Athol Post Office opened on 15 June 1955 and was renamed ''Blair Athol West'' in 1966. At that time the existing ''Enfield'' office (open since 1852) was renamed ''Blair Athol'' and it was replaced by the ''Enfield Plaza'' office in 1997.

Reserves

Blair Athol has two reserves, Blair Athol Recreational Reserve and Barton Street Reserve. The Blair Athol Recreational Reserve is a large reserve covering a total area of approximately . It features a football oval, a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

ground with batting cages, two

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

courts, and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

courts which are exclusively used by members of the Kilburn tennis club. The reserve also has two playgrounds, a gazebo, the Kilburn Footy Club and a large parking lot. Barton Street Reserve features a large grass field and a playground with several benches. This reserve covers a total area of approximately .

Government

Blair Athol is run by the

City of Port Adelaide Enfield The City of Port Adelaide Enfield, located across inner north and north-western suburbs of Adelaide, is one of the largest metropolitan councils within South Australia. It was established on 26 March 1996 by the amalgamation of the City of Port ...

. The council was set up in 1996 and one of its main offices is located in

. The South Australian Education Department helped set up the school system in Blair Athol and Kilburn. Blair Athol has three main schools. Gepps Cross Primary School and St. Paul Lutheran Primary School cater for levels 1–7. Gepps Cross Senior School is the only secondary school in Blair Athol and is partners with

Enfield High School Enfield High School is a secondary school established in 1893 in Enfield, Connecticut. The Enfield High School campus is located in the Connecticut River Valley, on Enfield Street ( U.S. Route 5) in Enfield's Historical District. The school h ...

Shopping

Blair Athol has one of the few family-owned hardware stores left, Randall's Hardware, next to another family-owned business Pets Everywhere. There was formerly a Coles Supermarkets located on the corner of Florence Avenue and Prospect Road. This supermarket ceased operation in July 2016, with the site to be redeveloped. It was reopened in 2017 as an IGA featuring products from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Kilburn Post Office is located across the road from it.

Transport

Blair Athol is serviced by the G10

bus line A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

between Adelaide and

, travelling via Prospect Road and also bus routes 221, 222, 224, 225, 226, 228 and 229, G10, G10A, G10B which travel between Adelaide and various destinations in the Northern suburbs via Main North Road. Residents of Blair Athol can also catch the train line to and from the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

. The station is located in Kilburn, several hundred metres from Prospect Road.

References

External links

City of Port Adelaide Enfield
{{City of Port Adelaide Enfield suburbs Suburbs of Adelaide