Sunday September 1, 2019

Road video and map – Penola to Adelaide

Much of today was spent driving the 245 miles to Adelaide but the one stop I made, at Naracoorte Caves National Park, was fascinating.

Everyone knows that there are many species of plants and animals that are unique to Australia but there were many more large animals, called megafauna, that used to roam the country until about 40,000 years ago and the fossils in the caves at Naracoorte have helped us learn about these unique, extinct species. These limestone caves are unusual because rain water created wide solution tubes through the thick (up to 18 metres/60 feet) roofs and these became pitfalls for animals. As a result some areas of the cave floors are covered with the fossils of all the species that lived here while to pitfalls were open.

Apart from background information and informative displays at the visitor centre there are several self guiding walks and other cave tours but the tour I mainly came for was the Victoria Cave guided tour. The main pitfall here was open for 500,000 years and the fossils found are so important that it was designated as South Australia’s only World Heritage Site in 1994.

Many of the megafauna found here are depicted as they would have appeared in a large diorama in the visitor centre.  Some of the larger animals include a 2m (6′ 6″) tall kangaroo, giant koalas and this hippo sized marsupial, called a Zygomaturus.
The Victoria Cave contained a number of impressive formations, including this area where the cave height is about 5 metres (16 feet).
The floor in parts of Victoria Cave is 90% fossils and took 40 years of scientific research before the cave was opened for tours.