The suburb has attracted a railway station (see below) and tram line (now disused), racecourse, and Anglican Church during its colonial history.

[2] The Gawler South Station is now still a stationyard for housing trains for the TransAdelaide line to Adelaide.

The shopping precinct along Adelaide Road provides a grid-fashion at approximately 45 degrees to the south-westerly grid.

The shopping precinct is still very commercially viable, extending Gawler's central business district across the Adelaide Road Bridge (on the South Para River) along an almost one kilometre road length.

Some streets on the eastern side align to the contours where the land is too steep to build.