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Lesueur Conservation Park, formerly the Cape Hart Conservation Park and the Cape Hart National Park, is a
protected area 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 ...
located on the
Dudley Peninsula
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 in the Australian state of South Australia. It was occupied by Aboriginal Austr ...
on
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 ...
.
It was dedicated in 1971 to conserve a representative example of the soils and coastal vegetation of the southern part of the eastern end of the island. It is characterised by impressive coastal cliff scenery.
[ Its name was changed on 28 March 2002 in honour of ]Charles Alexandre Lesueur
Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1 January 1778 in Le Havre – 12 December 1846 in Le Havre) was a French naturalist, artist, and explorer. He was a prolific natural-history collector, gathering many type specimens in Australia, Southeast Asia, ...
, a member of the Baudin expedition to Australia.
Description
The conservation park has an area of including a length of coastline.[ It lies about south-west of Cape Willoughby, the easternmost point of Kangaroo Island, and 15 km south-east of 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 ...
. Geologically, the conservation park lies on 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 ...
, with granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
boulders along the coast. The vegetation is mainly an open scrub of '' Eucalyptus diversifolia'' (Soap Mallee), with low shrubland containing '' Melaleuca gibbosa'' on the coastal cliffs. There are patches of ''Eucalyptus cneorifolia
''Eucalyptus cneorifolia'', the Kangaroo Island narrow-leaf mallee, is a native tree of Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
Description
The mallee tree will grow to in height, it has an upright habit and can have a single or multiple stems with a ...
'' / ''Melaleuca uncinata
''Melaleuca uncinata'', commonly known as broombush, broom honeymyrtle or brushwood, is a plant in the Melaleuca, paperbark family (biology), family native to southern Australia. It is harvested from the wild, and grown in plantations, for broom ...
'' open heath
A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler a ...
and ''Allocasuarina verticillata
''Allocasuarina verticillata'', commonly known as drooping she-oak or drooping sheoak, is a nitrogen fixing native tree of southeastern Australia.
Originally collected in Tasmania and described as ''Casuarina verticillata'' by French naturalist ...
'' low open forest. Kangaroo Island kangaroos and Tammar wallabies inhabit the conservation park and Australian sea lions frequent the coast.[
]
See also
* Cape Willoughby Conservation Park
*Protected areas of South Australia
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 sepa ...
References
External links
Lesueur Conservation Park webpage on the Protected Planet website
{{Protected areas of South Australia
Conservation parks of South Australia
1971 establishments in Australia
Protected areas established in 1971
Dudley Peninsula