The peninsula on the official map

The Yorke Peninsula lies inside the Northern and Yorke landscape region, which covers 38,500 square kilometres and about 1,300 kilometres of coastline. Besides the peninsula it takes in large parts of Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent, the Mid North, the southern Flinders Ranges, the Barossa and the northern Adelaide Plains.

It is farming country. By the landscape board’s count, about 80 per cent of the region is under cropping and grazing, producing a quarter of South Australia’s agricultural earnings. Kadina, Moonta and Wallaroo are among the main towns the board lists. The Yorke Peninsula Council sums up its own district as “agriculturally rich, naturally beautiful”.

The peninsula is Guuranda to the Narungga people, its Traditional Custodians. Its southern end is known as the foot: sea on three sides, and unbroken farmland running north from it.

Rows of pale cereal stubble on red soil, rising to a golden paddock with scattered dark trees under a clear blue sky
Cereal stubble in rows after harvest, with scattered trees on the rise beyond. Photo by 12019 on Pixabay

Five paddocks, five questions

A working farm brings its own set of rules. Each paddock on the plan holds one of them, and each has its own page.

  1. Land tax and primary production

    Land of at least 0.8 hectares used for a primary production business can be exempt from South Australian land tax, and outside the defined rural area RevenueSA applies the exemption to qualifying parcels without an application.

  2. The landscape levy

    Councils collect the landscape levy on their rates notices for the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board; it used to be called the NRM levy.

  3. Declared weeds and pest animals

    Landholders carry a legal responsibility under the Landscape South Australia Act 2019 to control declared plants on their land.

  4. Foreign ownership of farmland

    A foreign investor who buys agricultural land registers it with the ATO within 30 days of settlement, whatever the price.

  5. Searching a rural title

    Anyone can search South Australia’s land records through SAILIS, the state’s land information system, including the history of a block of land.

What this guide is

YP Real Estate is general information drawn from the official pages listed at the foot of each page. It is not tax, legal or financial advice, and it describes rules rather than properties: there are no listings, prices or appraisals here.

Each topic has an official home, named on its page: RevenueSA for land tax, the local council and the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board for the levy, the board and PIRSA for declared weeds and pests, the Australian Government’s foreign investment guidance and the ATO for foreign buyers, and Land Services SA for titles. A registered tax agent, a lawyer or a conveyancer can say how the rules fall on one particular property.