Charleston is a small town in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. It is situated on the Onkaparinga Valley Road between Woodside and Mount Torrens, on the main route from the Adelaide Hills to the Barossa Valley, and 3 km south-east of Lobethal. Charleston is very close to the source of the River Onkaparinga.
The town was laid out in 1857 by Charles Dunn (c. 1795–1881), a brother of the prominent miller John Dunn, in a subdivision of section 5197, Hundred of Onkaparinga, and may have been originally named named "Charlestown", but the current spelling has always been more common in newspaper reports.
Most of the local businesses are on the Onkaparinga Valley Road, while the largest number of houses are on Newman Road. Charleston is served by a community postal agency called the Bookpost which is also a bookshop, internet cafe and General Store. Next to The Bookpost is the Charleston Hotel which enjoyed some national attention as one of the main props in a car advertisement, based on Slim Dusty's famous song "Answer to a Pub With No Beer".
Charleston was served by the Mount Pleasant railway line from 1918 to 1953. It is also on the Onkaparinga Valley Road (route B34) and the Amy Gillett Bikeway on the former railway route.