Kangaroo Island - South Australia - Islands of Australia

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Kangaroo Island is a huge island about thirteen kilometers off the southern coast of the state of South Australia – the third largest island in Australia, in fact. It is roughly 145 kilometers long, and 57 kilometers wide at its broadest point.

Kangaroo Island is a little over 100 kilometers south west of Adelaide, and can be reached either by ferry or by airplane. Nearly five thousand Australians make it their permanent home. The climate is temperate, usually quite warm during the days, but the brisk breezes off the sea in the evening can be cool or even cold.

Kangaroo Island, as its name might suggest, is largely a destination for lovers of nature and wilderness. It is home to no fewer than twenty six of Australia’s 3200 conservation parks, protection areas and reserves, which make up nearly a third of the island’s area. The vast majority of the area within these parks is open to the public year round, and offer walking tracks, picnic spots, and camping areas either in or nearby the wilderness areas. Koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, seals, echidnas, platypus and goannas are just a few of the animals which roam free here
Bushwalking, camping, bird watching, ocean fishing, and other activities involving nature are very plentiful, and there are plenty of interesting human attractions as well. Kangaroo Island appears to have only been visited by recent Aboriginal Australians, as there are no signs of permanent settlement there, only a few ancient campsites dating as far back as 16000 years ago. The island was first discovered by Western explorers in 1802, when the English captain Matthew Flinders gave the wild island its current name; only a few weeks later, French explorer Nicolas Baudin encountered Flinders, and explored the southern coast, giving many of its features French names.

The island’s first settlers were sealers, runaway sailors and escaped convicts. The first formal settlement at Reeves Point, in 1836, struggled for four years and was eventually abandoned.

Several attempts were made to make settlements on the island profitable, by exploiting various natural resources: salt mines were excavated, farms and fishing grounds established, eucalyptus oil and yacca gum harvested, but life on Kangaroo Island remained a sparse and isolated existence. Eventually, successful gypsum mines were established, bringing islanders their first real prosperity, and when global tourism became the new trend of the 1900s, the island truly found its place.

Large-scale agriculture has almost disappeared, as the poor soil was never capable of competing with the huge mainland farms. However, there are increasing numbers of tiny, specialized “hobby farms”, exploring new ways of producing small crops of both traditional and unusual products, such as lavender, olive oil, and much more. In addition to agriculture, small-scale sheep farming, dairy farming, marron (crayfish) farming, and beekeeping have thrived here, as have a handful of wineries. Today, of course, the tending of millions of tourists every year is the mainstay of the island’s economy.

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