| Ravine des Casoars | |
|---|---|
 Ravine des Casoars | |
  Ravine des Casoars | |
| Length | 3 kilometres (1.9 miles)east–west |
| Area | 96 square kilometres (37 square miles) |
| Depth | 100 metres (330 feet) |
| Geography | |
| Coordinates | 35°47′34.72″S136°34′44.57″E / 35.7929778°S 136.5790472°E |
Ravine des Casoars (English: Ravine of the Cassowaries) is a gorge and an associated drainage basin in the Australian state of South Australia located on the west coast of Kangaroo Island about 95 kilometres (59 miles) west of Kingscote.
The Ravine des Casoars is a steep sided valley of 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) length with an east–west alignment and with a maximum depth of 100 metres (330 feet). [1] The ravine drains a catchment area of approximately 9,600 hectares (24,000 acres) within the western end of Kangaroo Island. [2]
The ravine meets the sea on the west coast of Kangaroo Island via a gap of about 120 metres (390 feet) width in the coastline’s continuous cliff line. A beach is located between the two headlands. The beach and an accompanying sand dune extends about 600 metres (2,000 feet) back into the south side of the ravine to an elevation of about 100 metres (330 feet) while a creek and an associated lagoon flows on the north side of the ravine. [1]
The base of the cliffs on the northern side of the beach had eroded with the result of caves being formed. As of 1965, two caves were described. The first known as ‘K5’ which accommodated at the time in this entrance, a little penguin rookery, was described as being 50 feet (15 metres) wide and as having a ‘massive rockfall’ and decoration including flowstone. [3] The penguin rookery was also noted by author and naturalist Mervinia Masterman in her book Flinder's Chase Revisited (1972). [4]
Adjacent to ‘K5’ is ‘K16’ which was described as being 400 feet (120 metres) long, 40 feet (12 metres) wide and 10 feet (3.0 metres) high with decoration consisting of rimstone and stalactites. [1] [3]
Aboriginal sites have been identified by the South Australian Museum at Ravine des Casoars. As of 1999, radiocarbon dating of material recovered via archaeological excavation from sites at Cape du Couedic and Rocky River to the south of the ravine’s catchment area suggest Aboriginal presence in the western end of Kangaroo Island from approximately 7,500 years BP to as recent as 350–400 years BP. [5] [6]
The members of the Baudin expedition of 1800-03 were the first Europeans known to have visited the ravine. Baudin reportedly named the ravine after the numbers of the now-extinct Kangaroo Island Emu present at the time and which he mistook for the Cassowary. [7] Reliable witnesses have reported the existence of an inscription in one of the caves on the coast where Ravine des Casoars meets the sea bearing Baudin’s name and several other names of French origin. As of 1999, the inscription had not been located, possibly due to temporary obscurement by the movement of sand within the cave and other changes in the level of the cave floor. [8]
Ravine des Casoars is currently located within the protected area of the same name - the Ravine des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area. [9]
Protected areas of South Australia consists of protected areas located within South Australia and its immediate onshore waters and which are managed by South Australian Government agencies. As of March 2018, South Australia contains 359 separate protected areas declared under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972, the Crown Land Management Act 2009 and the Wilderness Protection Act 1992 which have a total land area of 211,387.48 km2 (81,617.16 sq mi) or 21.5% of the state's area.
Flinders Chase National Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located at the west end of Kangaroo Island about 177 kilometres west-south west of the state capital of Adelaide and 110 kilometres west of the municipal seat of Kingscote. It is a sanctuary for endangered species and home to a few geological phenomena. It was the second national park to be declared in South Australia.
Lincoln National Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located about 249 kilometres (155 mi) west of the state capital of Adelaide and about 9.5 kilometres (5.9 mi) south of the municipal seat of Port Lincoln. It consists of a mainland area on the Jussieu Peninsula on the south eastern tip of Eyre Peninsula and a number of nearby islands. The national park contains significant sites of natural, indigenous and early European heritage.
Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga, is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, 112 km (70 mi) southwest of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Point in Backstairs Passage, which is 13.5 km (8.4 mi) from the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Ravine Des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area is a protected area located on the west end of Kangaroo Island in South Australia about 80 km (50 mi) west of Kingscote. It was established in 1993 on land previously part of the Flinders Chase National Park.
Cape du Couedic is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located on the southwest tip of Kangaroo Island in the locality of Flinders Chase. It was named after a French naval officer, Charles Louis du Couëdic de Kergoualer, by the Baudin expedition to Australia during January 1803. It is the site for the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse. It is currently located within the Flinders Chase National Park.
Investigator Strait is a body of water in South Australia lying between the Yorke Peninsula, on the Australian mainland, and Kangaroo Island. It was named by Matthew Flinders after his ship, HMS Investigator, on his voyage of 1801–1802. It is bordered by the Gulf St Vincent in the northeast.
Cape Borda is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located in the gazetted locality of Cape Borda on the north west tip of Kangaroo Island about 70 km (43 mi) west of the municipal seat of Kingscote. It was named after Jean-Charles de Borda (1733–1799), the French mathematician, physicist, naturalist and sailor, by the Baudin expedition to Australia during January 1803. It has been the site of an operating lighthouse since 1858 and is currently located within the Flinders Chase National Park.
The 2007 Kangaroo Island bushfires were a series of bushfires caused by lightning strikes on 6 December 2007 on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, resulting in the destruction of 95,000 hectares of national park and wilderness protection area. The fires occurred mainly across the western side of the island near Flinders Chase National Park, Vivonne Bay, D'Estrees Bay, Western River and Riverleas.
Loch Vennachar was an iron-hulled, three-masted clipper ship that was built in Scotland in 1875 and lost with all hands off the coast of South Australia in 1905. She spent her entire career with the Glasgow Shipping Company, trading between Britain and Australia. The company was familiarly called the "Loch Line", as all of its ships were named after Scottish lochs. The ship was named after Loch Venachar, in what was then Perthshire.
The Mount Lofty woodlands, or the Peppermint Box Grassy Woodland of South Australia, is an ecoregion in South Australia, which includes woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Fleurieu Peninsula, and Kangaroo Island.
Cape Gantheaume is a headland located on the south coast of Kangaroo Island in South Australia. It was named after Vice admiral Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume (1755–1818) by the Baudin expedition to Australia during 1803. It is currently located within the protected area known as the Cape Gantheaume Wilderness Protection Area.
The Casuarina Islets, also known as The Brothers, is a pair of islands located in the Great Australian Bight immediately off the south-west coast of Kangaroo Island in South Australia approximately 96 kilometres south-west of Kingscote. The pair is currently part of the Flinders Chase National Park.
Cape Bouguer Wilderness Protection Area is a protected area located on the south coast of Kangaroo Island in South Australia about 84 kilometres south-west of Kingscote. The wilderness protection area was proclaimed in October 1993 under the Wilderness Protection Act 1992 in order to ‘protect and preserve the outstandingly high wilderness qualities of the area.’ It was created on land excised from the Kelly Hill Conservation Park. It is classified as an IUCN Category Ib protected area.
The Rocky River is a stream in the Australian state of South Australia located on the west end of Kangaroo Island in the locality of Flinders Chase.
Maupertuis Bay is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia located on the south-west coastline of Kangaroo Island.
Cape Borda is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on Kangaroo Island about 192 kilometres south-west of the state capital of Adelaide.
Flinders Chase is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the south-western coast of Kangaroo Island overlooking the body of water known in Australia as the Southern Ocean and by international authorities as the Great Australian Bight. It is located about 210 kilometres south-west of the state capital of Adelaide.
Karatta is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the south coast of Kangaroo Island overlooking the body of water known in Australia as the Southern Ocean and by international authorities as the Great Australian Bight. Karatta is located about 191 kilometres south-west of the state capital of Adelaide.
Edith Mervinia Masterman (1901–1998) was an Australian writer, naturalist and illustrator, best known for her two illustrated books dedicated to the natural history of Kangaroo Island: Flinder's Chase, Kangaroo Island, South Australia: Place of enchantment for nature lovers (1950) and Flinder's Chase Revisited, Kangaroo Island, South Australia: Nature-lovers' sanctuary (1972). Masterman also gave public lectures on the subject. The Advertiser described her original 1950 work as "a charming book" and columnist Eleanor Barbour described her as "an artist of no mean calibre" with a talent for "fluent descriptive writing". The book was advertised and distributed nationally.
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| Related and uncategorised | |||||||||
Australian places named by French explorers in the 18th and 19th centuries | ||
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| South Australia |
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| Western Australia | ||
Only places with the name still in use in either the original or anglicised version are listed above. Many names have been anglicised; for these the original French name appears in brackets. | ||
