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ABOUT US

Come and lose yourself in my village!

About Hahndorf Walking Tours

Hahndorf Walking Tours (HWT) is a business providing visitors to Hahndorf, the most visited location in South Australia, with a memorable and personalised walking tour of our unique Germanic village.

Owner/operator, Sharon Pippos, commenced the walking tours in 2011, to share the intriguing stories of Hahndorf’s history for the curious visitor and discerning traveller. We hope that is you!

A walking tour gives you the meaning and information to build your appreciation for any area you are visiting. This is certainly the case in Hahndorf. Dig Deeper.

On the walking tour, you’ll be rewarded with intriguing storytelling, and fantastic photographic opportunities to make your visit even more special.

Hahndorf is nestled in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia.  It’s a great base from which to explore.

There is a wide choice of accommodation options in the area but why not stay right here in the village where you’ll have easy access to all Hahndorf, and the region, has to offer.

Every path beckons you on to something new, revealing around each corner a new delight and a promise of more to come.

Sometimes it’s best to slow down and take it all in. Defy the ordinary, stay a while, and take the time to absorb the atmosphere.

 

Please note:

Tours are accessible to vision impaired travellers and those with mobility concerns. You are welcome to make contact to discuss your situation.

 

The Owner, Sharon Pippos

The guide standing in front of a store

At an early age, family history and a desire to learn about people was instilled in Sharon by her mother, Clara Lorna Hill (nee Caporn). Over the years this interest in history grew and a desire to learn more about people and places.

On both sides of Sharon’s family tree, there are early South Australian colonists who came to Australia as British free settlers.

On her maternal side, David and Sarah Smith left Horsley, Gloucestershire, arriving with their family on the Lady Emma in 1837.On the paternal side, John Hill left Sithney, Cornwall, on the Lady Bruce in 1846, later marrying Eliza Snell at the historic St James Church in Blakiston, only 10 km from Hahndorf. They, like many others, saw coming to South Australia as a great opportunity.

In 1979, Sharon married Evangelos (Angelo) Pippos. They lived in four different rural areas of S.A. due to Angelo’s work as a police officer- Nurioopta, Ceduna (where their two children Jared and Leah were born), Hawker, and Naracoorte. So this was fertile ground to learn about the state and of course more about people.

In the year 2000, the family returned to Adelaide for their children’s education and to pursue further career opportunities.

The Adelaide Hills had always held a real attraction to Sharon because of special childhood visits to the area so a dream was realised when they built a home in Hahndorf.

Great Aunt Amelia Caporn had been the first matron in the local Private hospital in Hahndorf so there was some family history in town as well as in surrounding villages of Mount Barker and Meadows.

In 2006, whilst on holidays in Canada, Sharon took a walking tour with a local resident in the town of Jasper. This rekindled an idea originally sparked several years earlier whilst living in Hawker.The idea being to start a walking tour business. It was not until several years later, in 2011 when  a university degree was completed, and both children had left college, that it was to come to fruition in Hahndorf. A village bursting with stories and history.

Knowledge for the tours was gained by reading many history books including those written by Hahndorf residents Reg Butler, Annie Luur Fox and the late Allen Wittwer; the story of the Prussian immigrants fleeing to South Australia to escape religious persecution.

In 2015, Sharon continued her research by visiting the Brandenburg area in Poland where the immigrants had fled. This story is very special to her own philosophy; the ability to live out one’s Christian faith.

 A few years had passed since that initial idea was formed but in 2011 Hahndorf Walking Tours was launched in readiness for the Heysen Festival.