Australia For Visitors > Kangaroo Island, SA

Kangaroo Island
South Australia

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Kangaroo Island, Australia's third largest island (after Tasmania and Melville Island off Darwin), is relatively undeveloped and unpopulated (there is only one person per square kilometer of land).

Around 150 km long and 15 km wide, the island offers the visitor a spectacular, wild and untamed coastline with high cliffs, sheltered beaches, good swimming, surfing, diving, fishing, wildlife and shipwrecks, all set in an untouched and peaceful environment.



Admiral's Arch, Kangaroo Island (image)

Admiral's Arch, Flinders Chase National Park, Kangaroo Island


Due in part to its isolation from the mainland and consequent protection from many diseases and predators such as rabbits and foxes, Kangaroo Island has remained a great place to see huge variety of Australian wildlife -- kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, fairy penguins, fur seals, sea lions, emus, echidnas, possums, platypuses, and snakes. Southern right whales cruise by. There are over 200 species of birds.





A Little History

When Europeans first arrived, there were no Aborigines living on the island, but archaeologists have discovered stone implements which show that Aborigines lived on the island more than 10,000 years ago, only to disappear (it appears) at a couple of thousand years ago.

Early European inhabitants included whalers, sealers, and escaped convicts. The coast of the island was surveyed by the French navigator Nicolas Baudin in 1802-03 and named many features on the island (as evidenced in the many French names still remaining, such as Cape Couedic, Vivonne Bay and D'Estrees Bay).

The British navigator, Matthew Flinders, passed by at almost the same time (1802) in his ship, the Investigator, and named the island after the many kangaroos he has seen there.

In 1803, some American sealers landed on the island at a point which was to be later named American River. They constructed a boat, the Independence, from pine wood. This was the first boat built in South Australia.

Places to See

Kingscote
Includes: Reeves Point Historic Site, Hope Cottage, St Alban's Church, Flinders Memorial,...

The Dudley Pensinsula
-- Pennington Bay
-- Penneshaw
-- Antechamber Bay
-- Cape Willoughby

The South Coast Road
-- Murray's Lagoon
-- Little Sahara
-- Vivonne Bay
-- Kelly Hill Conservation Park

Flinders Chase National Park
-- Remarkable Rocks
-- Admiral's Arch
-- Cape Borda Lighthouse

The North Coast Road
-- Harvey's Return
-- Cape Torrens Conservation Park
-- Western River Cove
-- Snellings Beach
-- Stokes Bay
-- Pardana
-- Emu Bay


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Author: David Paul Wagner
(David Paul Wagner on Google+)






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