Nuriootpa

Nuriootpa is a community town in the true sense, with a community owned hotel, store, caravan park and oval complex. It is a well laid out town with an interesting blend of old cottages and modern houses. The main street with its complex of wineries at one end and the district high school at the other is a busy, efficient shopping centre providing goods required by both local people and tourists alike.

The town is home to much of the wine production in the Barossa and is the commercial centre of the region. The discovery of copper at Kapunda in 1843 and the consequent trade northwards led William Coulthard to establish his Old Red Gum Slab Hotel, around which the town of Nuriootpa grew in 1854. Its name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning the meeting place. The area was an important barter centre for the local Aboriginal people.