I recently walked the main street of Gawler north of Adelaide. It is on the Sturt highway -- the A20 which is an Australian national highway. It is where the North Para River joins the South Para River to form the Gawler River.
What used to be seen as a country town in the mid-north region of South Australia is now probably the northern fringe of the city of Adelaide, as it is only 40 kilometres from Adelaide's CBD, just north of Elizabeth and is the main gateway to the Barossa Valley.
I was struck by the number of empty shops when I was walking around. The township itself was full of people and energy. It had a buzz that was such contrast to the empty shops.
There were lots of coffee shops, pubs and service centres for ICE cars. I had the sense that Gawler was envisioned as a “future urban growth area”, is undergoing a surge in residential developments, a surge in its population. It is part of the Great Adelaide region as Adelaide is rapidly spreading north as well as south.