McLaren Vale, South Australia

McLaren Vale is a small rural town in South Australia famous for producing world class red wine. At the 2011 census, McLaren Vale had a population of 3,861.The township was formed in 1923 from a merging of the two original villages of Gloucester and Bellevue, which were established in the 1840s by British pioneers.The McLaren Vale wine region surrounds the town.Children's author Alexander S. Foxhall was born in McLaren Vale, as was former Newsboys frontman Peter Furler. The Coast to Vines rail trail passes through Mclaren Vale. There was a station at Mclaren Vale on the former Willunga railway line that it follows.The main road junction into the town, at Victor Harbor Road and Main Road, has over the years been notorious for fatal crashes. In 2011, construction stated on an overpass, to remove the threat of right hand turns through high speed traffic. The overpass opened in late 2012.There were once two supermarkets in the town, a Foodland and a BI-LO, until Foodland was sold, and Bilo moved into the vacancy. In 2006, BI-LO converted to Coles along with the national conversion. In 2011, it was announced that the shopping centre would be undergoing an upgrade, with a Target Country. Target Country will occupy the current Coles location, after a new, bigger Coles is built behind its current location. The complete shopping centre is expected to open in early 2013.