Dudley Peninsula (known as Presquila Gallissoniere and as the MacDonnell Peninsula from 1857 to 1986) is the
peninsula forming the eastern end of
Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...
in the Australian state of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. It was occupied by
Aboriginal Australians
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...
as recently as 3,100 years
BP but was found to be unoccupied by the first European explorers to visit it in the early 19th century. It was first settled by Europeans as early as the 1830s. As of 2011, it had a population of 595 people.
Extent
Dudley Peninsula is the eastern end of Kangaroo Island. It is connected to the main body of the island via an
isthmus
An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmus ...
which itself forms the southern side of
Pelican Lagoon. The peninsula is bounded to the west by Pelican Lagoon, American River and
Eastern Cove all within
Nepean Bay
Nepean Bay is a bay located on the north-east coast of Kangaroo Island in the Australian state of South Australia about south-south-west of Adelaide. It was named by the British navigator, Matthew Flinders, after Sir Evan Nepean on 21 March 1 ...
, to the north-east by
Backstairs Passage
The Backstairs Passage is a strait in South Australia lying between Fleurieu Peninsula on the Australian mainland and Dudley Peninsula on the eastern end of Kangaroo Island. The western edge of the passage is a line from Cape Jervis on Fleurieu ...
from
Kangaroo Head
Kangaroo Head is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located at the north-west tip of Dudley Peninsula on Kangaroo Island. It was named by the British explorer, Matthew Flinders, on 23 March 1802.
Description
Kangaroo Head i ...
in the west to
Cape Willoughby in the east and to the south by the body of water known in Australia as the
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...
and by international authorities as the
Great Australian Bight
The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia.
Extent
Two definitions of the extent are in use – one used by the International Hydrog ...
.
[DMH, 1985, chart 11][BIA, 2005, page 184]
Naming
The first reported European name for the Dudley Peninsula is "Presquila Gallissoniere" which was given by the
Baudin Expedition. In 1857, it was named the "MacDonnell Peninsula" by
William Bloomfield Douglas after
Richard Graves MacDonnell
Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell (; 3 September 1814 – 5 February 1881) was an Anglo-Irish lawyer, judge and colonial governor. His posts as governor included Governor of the British Settlements in West Africa, Governor of Saint Vincent, Go ...
, the sixth
governor of South Australia. On 20 March 1986, it was renamed as the "Dudley Peninsula" to be "in keeping with local usage."
History
Aboriginal use
The archaeological record indicates that Kangaroo Island was occupied by Aboriginal Australians as early as 16,110 years BP. European explorers visiting in the early 19th century found no evidence of human occupation as evident by lack of smoke from fires which was common along the Australian coastline at the time, overgrown vegetation that had not been managed by "firestick farming" and animals such as seals and kangaroos "appeared unused to human presence". Aboriginal sites have been identified by the South Australian Museum
The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...
and others on the Dudley Peninsula. As of 1999, radiocarbon dating of material recovered via archaeological excavation from a site called Pigs Waterhole on the peninsula suggest aboriginal presence in the eastern end of Kangaroo Island as recently as 3,100 years BP.
European discovery and settlement
Dudley Peninsula was first visited by European navigators in 1802 when the British navigator, Matthew Flinders, explored its north coast during March 1802. After meeting Flinders at Encounter Bay
Encounter Bay is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia located on the state's south central coast about south of the state capital of Adelaide. It was named by Matthew Flinders after his encounter on 8 April 1802 with Nicolas Baudi ...
in April 1802, the Baudin expedition visited the peninsula's north coast later in April 1802 and explored its south coast during January 1803.[Robinson et al, 1989–90, page 49]
Formal settlement commenced in 1836 with a fleet under the control of the South Australian Company
The South Australian Company, also referred to as the South Australia Company, was formed in London on 9 October 1835, after the '' South Australia (Foundation) Act 1834'' had established the new British Province of South Australia, with the S ...
arriving at what is now Kingscote further west on Kangaroo Island. Some of the people who had been living on that part of Kangaroo Island prior to 1836 moved to the peninsula to avoid being within the jurisdiction of the South Australian Company and thereby making it "most prosperous part of the island and the scene of its first significant agricultural and pastoral development."[
The full extent of Kangaroo Island was gazetted on 13 August 1874 as the cadastral division known as the County of Carnarvon simultaneously with the creation of another cadastral division, the Hundred of Dudley, which covers the full extent of what is now the Dudley Peninsula.][ In 1875, land in the Hundred of Dudley near the north coast of the peninsula was surveyed and given freehold title in response for the demand for agricultural land.][Marsden, 1991, pages 10–11]
The town of Penneshaw
Penneshaw is a township in the Australian state of South Australia located on the northeast coast of the Dudley Peninsula on Kangaroo Island about south of the state capital of Adelaide. It is the island's main ferry port with regular services ...
was proclaimed on 12 January 1882. On 7 June 1888, the local government area of the District Council of Dudley was established. This was subsequently merged in 1996 with the District Council of Kingscote to create the Kangaroo Island Council
The Kangaroo Island Council is a local government area in South Australia that covers the entirety of Kangaroo Island, 13 km off the coast of the mainland. The council was formed on the 28 November 1996 by the amalgamation of the District ...
.[
]
Natural geography
Geomorphology and geology
The Dudley Peninsula came into existence about 9,500 years BP when Kangaroo Island became separate from what is now Fleurieu Peninsula
The Fleurieu Peninsula () is a peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia located south of the state capital of Adelaide.
History
Before British colonisation of South Australia, the western side of the peninsula was occupied by the ...
due to the rise in sea level following the end of the last ice age.[DEP, 1987, page 7]
The peninsula has a plateau covering its northern half with a maximum height of about while the southern half has a maximum height in the order of . Its coastline consists of a cliff-line in the order of to in height with the exception of sandy bays such as Nepean Bay in the north-west coast, Antechamber Bay in the north east coast and Pennington Bay on the south-west coast.
The peninsula has a geological basement of Tapanappa Formation sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
s (from the Kanmantoo Group) which were laid during the early Cambrian period. The basement stratum has undergone extensive erosion to create laterite based soil which covers the northern half of the peninsula. The southern half of the peninsula has a Bridgewater Group limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
which was laid over the basement stratum during the Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
and which has eroded to form a dune field.[
]
Climate
The Dudley Peninsula has a mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
(Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
Csb)[ ''(direct]
Final Revised Paper
'' As of 2002, Penneshaw received an annual rainfall of and this average is considered to increase to at the top of the peninsula's plateau.[Henschke, 2002, page 1]
Human geography
Settlements
Settlements on the Dudley Peninsula consist of Penneshaw which overlooks Backstairs Passage on the north coast with the following being located on the north west coast overlooking Nepean Bay (from east to west) – Baudin Beach, Island Beach and Sapphiretown.
Demographics
At the 2011 census, the Dudley Peninsula had a population of 595 with 276 persons located in Penneshaw and the remaining 319 located on the remainder of the peninsula, being the localities of American Beach, Antechamber Bay, Baudin Beach, Brown Beach, Cuttlefish Bay, Dudley East, Dudley West, Ironstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be con ...
, Island Beach, Kangaroo Head
Kangaroo Head is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located at the north-west tip of Dudley Peninsula on Kangaroo Island. It was named by the British explorer, Matthew Flinders, on 23 March 1802.
Description
Kangaroo Head i ...
, Pelican Lagoon, Porky Flat, Sapphiretown, Willoughby and Willson River.
Land use
As of 1989, most of the northern side of the peninsula above a line from Cape Willoughby in the east to Strawbridge Point at the junction of American River and Eastern Cove in the west had been progressively cleared for agricultural purposes, while the southern side had retained most of its native vegetation. Subsequent clearing of native vegetation on a broadacre
Broadacre in Australia is land suitable for farms practicing large-scale crop operations. The key crop segments in this category are as follows:
* oilseeds - canola, sunflowers
* winter and summer cereals - wheat, barley, oats, triticale, sorgh ...
scale ceased in 1990 with the proclamation of the ''Native Vegetation Act 1990''.[ As of 2014, majority of the land on the Dudley Peninsula has been zoned by law for agricultural use (i.e. "primary production") followed by ]conservation
Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws.
Conservation may also refer to:
Environment and natural resources
* Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...
including most of the coastal perimeter with exception to some parts of the Nepean Bay coastline and by residential use.
Transport
Roads
The peninsula is served by a road network extending from both Penneshaw on its northern coast and from Hog Bay Road, a road maintained by the South Australian Government
The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...
. Hog Bay Road which follows the peninsula's north-western coastline connects Penneshaw and the settlements overlooking Nepean Bay with the town of Kingscote and the rest of Kangaroo Island.
Sea
As of 2014, port infrastructure at Penneshaw was being used by Kangaroo Island SeaLink who operates the ferry service between Penneshaw and Cape Jervis on the South Australian mainland. Navigation aid
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...
s located on the peninsula's coast include lighthouses
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Lighthouses mar ...
at both Cape St Albans
Cape St Albans (also called Cape St Alban in some sources) is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located on the north coast of the Dudley Peninsula on Kangaroo Island in the gazetted locality of Willoughby about south-east o ...
and Cape Willoughby.
Aviation
As of 2014, no public airfields were located within the extent of the Dudley Peninsula with the nearest and the only one available being the Kingscote Airport on the western part of the island in the locality of Cygnet River.[Kangaroo Island Council, 2013, page 17]
Governance
The Dudley Peninsula is located within the jurisdiction of the Kangaroo Island Council
The Kangaroo Island Council is a local government area in South Australia that covers the entirety of Kangaroo Island, 13 km off the coast of the mainland. The council was formed on the 28 November 1996 by the amalgamation of the District ...
and within the following electorates – the state district of Finniss and the federal division of Mayo.[DPTI, 2014, page 15]
Protected areas
As of 2015, the Dudley Peninsula contained the following conservation parks – Baudin, Cape Willoughby, Dudley
Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...
, Lashmar, Lesueur, Pelican Lagoon and Simpson
Simpson most often refers to:
* Simpson (name), a British surname
*''The Simpsons'', an animated American sitcom
**The Simpson family, central characters of the series ''The Simpsons''
Simpson may also refer to:
Organizations Schools
*Simpso ...
. Also, as of 2015, an area of privately owned land appropriately equivalent to that of the above conservation parks has protected status due to being subject to native vegetation heritage agreements.
See also
* Dudley (disambiguation)
Citations and references
Citations
References
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{{Commons category, Dudley Peninsula
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