Map of Marble Hill, SA 5137 - Census Demographics - Melway, Sydway, Brisway, Ausway, Street Smart (original) (raw)

Marble Hill was the Vice-Regal summer residence for the Governor of South Australia from 1880 to 1955. It is also the name of a district of the Adelaide Hills Council, named after the residence and in which the residence is located. It is about 20 km east of Adelaide between the towns of Ashton and Cherryville, and has expansive views of the Adelaide Hills to the North and East, and the Adelaide Plains to the West.

Governor William Jervois is said to have given the hill its name during construction of the residence, when informed that marble had been found during the excavation of the site. To this he remarked "Then we shall call it Marble Hill". In fact, there is no true marble at Marble hill. The Governor's informant had merely misidentified the locally abundant quartzite. An alternative account contends that it was instead named for the hill's rounded top, which resembled a marble when viewed from a distance.

The residence was destroyed during the Black Sunday bushfire of 1955. Subsequently the site was managed by the National Trust from 1967-1992, and the Department for Environment and Heritage from 1992-2009. A volunteer Friends of Parks group, Friends of Marble Hill, ran open days and maintained the site from 1994-2008. To date, the main building has never been fully restored, but the National Trust undertook restoration of the tower and the nearby stables in the 1970s. Successive State Governments have not been prepared to restore the building, as the expense involved would not be considered responsible use of public funds. Marble Hill was sold to a local family, who plan to reconstruct and re-use the building, in 2009.