Red Kangaroo

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Lore & Background

The native population that once occupied the island (sometimes referred to as the Kartan people) disappeared from the archaeological record sometime after the land became an island following the rising sea levels associated with the Last Glacial Period around 10,000 years ago. It was subsequently settled intermittently by sealers and whalers in the early 19th century, and from 1836 on a permanent basis during the British colonisation of South Australia. On 23 March 1802, British explorer Matthew Flinders, commanding HMS Investigator, named the land 'Kanguroo (sic) Island', due to the endemic subspecies of the western grey kangaroo, Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus, after landing near Kangaroo Head on the north coast of the Dudley Peninsula. He was closely followed by the French explorer Commander Nicolas Baudin, who was the first European to circumnavigate the Island and who mapped much of the island (which is why so many areas have French names). A community of sealers and escaped convicts existed on Kangaroo Island from 1802 to the time of South Australia's colonisation in 1836. A sealing gang led by Joseph Murrrell are reported landing at Harvey's Return in 1806–07, and they established a camp on the beach. The sealers were rough men and several kidnapped Aboriginal women from Tasmania and mainland South Australia. The women were kept prisoner as wives and virtual slaves. At least two contemporary accounts (Taplin 1867, Bull 1884) report reputed crossings of Backstairs Passage from Kangaroo Island to the mainland by kidnapped women seeking to escape from their captors. 'A fine specimen of her race' was pointed out to J. W. Bull as having swum the passage in 1835, and a woman and her baby were found dead on the beach after a presumed crossing in 1871. In 1803, sealers from the American brig Union built the schooner Independence, the first ship built in South Australia, at what is now American River.

In Their Own Story

Long ago, Ngurunderi's two wives ran away from him, and he was forced to follow them. He pursued them and as he did so he crossed Lake Albert and went along the beach to Cape Jervis. When he arrived there he saw his wives wading half-way across the shallow channel which divided Naroongowie from the mainland. He was determined to punish his wives, and angrily ordered the water to rise up and drown them. With a terrific rush the waters roared and the women were carried back towards the mainland. Although they tried frantically to swim against the tidal wave they were powerless to do so and were drowned. This mainland Aboriginal dreaming story tells of the Backstairs Passage flooding. The island is subject to bushfires in the summer, and had two particularly devastating fires in 2007 and 2019. The largest town, and the administrative centre, is Kingscote.

Reader's Guide

Kangaroo Island is 145 kilometres (90 mi) long west/east and between 0.94 and 54 km (1 and 34 mi) from its narrowest to widest north/south points. Its area covers 4,405 km2 (1,701 sq mi). Its coastline is 540 km (336 mi) long, and its highest point of 307 m (1,007 ft) is in Flinders Chase National Park, west of the junction of the Playford and West End Highways. The second highest point is Mount MacDonnell at 299 m (981 ft) above sea level. It is separated from Yorke Peninsula to the northwest by Investigator Strait and from Fleurieu Peninsula to the northeast by Backstairs Passage. A group of islets, the Pages, lie off the eastern end of the island. A network of limestone caves hidden beneath the surface, especially along the southern and western coasts of the island, are estimated to have formed between one and two million years ago. They were formed from shell fragments from the exposed seabed around this time, after the dunes hardened over time, and rainwater dissolved the soft limestone to create the caverns. Before the 2020 bushfires, 120 caves had been discovered. Speleologists who have been exploring the land devegetated by the fires had found a further 150 caves by December 2025. They have also found previously undocumented species living in the caves. Most of these caves are not open to the public, but Kelly's Hill Caves have been a tourist attraction since the early 20th century. The northern coast of Kangaroo Island contains important fossil-bearing deposits, dating from the late Lower Cambrian, such as the Emu Bay Shale (late Botomian, 517 million years old).

Did You Know?

• Kangaroo Island is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island.
• The island was named 'Kanguroo (sic) Island' by British explorer Matthew Flinders on 23 March 1802, due to the endemic subspecies of the western grey kangaroo.
• The first lighthouse built on the island was at Cape Willoughby in 1852, which was also the first lighthouse erected in South Australia.
• The greatest loss of life from a shipwreck occurred with the wreck of Loch Sloy on 24 April 1899 at Maupertuis Bay, when 31 people were drowned.
• Speleologists had found 150 new caves by December 2025 after the 2020 bushfires, bringing the total discovered to 270.