Naracoorte Caves National Park is a national park near Naracoorte in the

Limestone Coast The Limestone Coast is a name used since the early twenty-first century for a South Australian government region located in the south east of South Australia which immediately adjoins the continental coastline and the Victorian border. The ...

tourism region A tourism region is a geographical region that has been designated by a governmental organization or tourism bureau as having common cultural or environmental characteristics. These regions are often named after historical or current administrati ...

in the south-east 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 ...

(

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

). It was officially recognised in 1994 for its extensive

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

record when the site was inscribed on the

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...

, along with Riversleigh. The park preserves 6 km² of remnant vegetation, with 26 caves contained within the 3.05 km² World Heritage Area. Out of the 28 known caves in the park, only four are open to the public. Other caves are kept away from the public eye as they are important for scientific research and also for the protection of the caves and their contents. Many of the caves contain spectacular stalactites and stalagmites.

History

European discovery

The caves, which are located within the boundaries of what is now the national park, were first encountered in 1845 with the discovery of

Blanche Cave Blanche Cave, previously known as "The Big Cave", "The Old Cave" and "Mosquito Plains Cave", is one of 26 caves to be found in the Naracoorte Caves National Park, a World Heritage listed site. Blanche Cave was the first of the caves to be disco ...

Naracoorte Forest Reserve

In 1885, the Department of Woods and Forests appointed a caretaker due to "the popularity of the caves and their vulnerability to vandalism".

National Pleasure Resort

In 1916, the control of the portion of the forest reserve which contained many of the caves and which consisted of about of land was transferred from the Department of your Woods and Forests to the Immigration, Publicity and Tourist Bureau who would manage it as a national pleasure resort under the ''National Pleasure Resort Act 1914'' until 1972. The change of control was gazetted on 1 Marchenfrwj 1917. The national pleasure resort's development into "an important regional tourist destination was greatly assisted by the discovery in 1969 in Victoria Cave of the largest known Australian Pleistocene vertebrate fossil cave deposit".

Conservation Park

On 27 April 1972, it was renamed as the '' Naracoorte Caves Conservation Park'' upon the proclamation of the ''

National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 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 ...

'' which repealed the former act along with other statutes concerned with

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 manageme ...

. In 1982, the conservation park was listed on the now-defunct

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

World heritage listing

On 17 December 1994, part of the conservation park, being an area of was "inscribed on the World Heritage List" along with the Riversleigh fossil site in Queensland as the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh/Naracoorte).

National Park

On 18 January 2001, the Naracoorte Caves Conservation Park was abolished and the land that it occupied was reconstituted as a national park because it was considered to be "of national significance by reason of the natural features of the land" and was assigned the name, Naracoorte Caves National Park.

National heritage listing

On 21 May 2007 The Australian Fossil Mammal Sites was one of 15 World Heritage places to be added to the

Australian National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

State heritage listing

On 17 May 2017, the extent of the national park was listed as a state heritage place on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

with the name of the ''Naracoorte Caves Complex''.

Visitor attraction

The park is a visitor destination in itself, with a camping ground and caravan park, dormitory accommodation for groups, picnic grounds and a licensed cafe. The range of visitor activities is extensive. Show cave tours are guided by professional interpreters through highly decorated caves with some tours visiting amazing fossil deposits. Modern technology has been utilised to show visitors the normally inaccessible interior of Bat Cave, where thousands of

southern bent-wing bat The southern bent-wing bat (''Miniopterus orianae bassanii'') is one of two subspecies of the Australasian bent-wing bat. Its population size has declined rapidly since the 1950s, and it is classified as critically endangered by the Australian g ...

s breed each year. Other opportunities include adventure caving, a selection of specialty tours and special events. The Wonambi Fossil Centre, the park's visitor centre, features displays of fossils and bones found in the caves and dioramas of extinct animals.

Structure

The limestone of the area was formed from coral and marine creatures 200 million years ago and again 20 million years ago when the land was below sea level. Ground water since then has dissolved and eroded some of the limestone, creating the caves. The caves, such as the Victoria Fossil Cave and

, are often not far below ground, and holes open up creating traps for the unwary. This is the source of the remarkable collection of fossils. Mammals and other land creatures have fallen into open caves and been unable to escape. The fossil record has been preserved in strata formed from eroded topsoil washed and blown in. In some places, the fossil-bearing silt is up to 20 metres thick. Some of these areas are being preserved for future research when better methods of dating and reconstructing fossil records may have been found. These fossil traps are especially significant for tracing

Australian megafauna The term Australian megafauna refers to the megafauna in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch. Most of these species became extinct during the latter half of the Pleistocene, and the roles of human and climatic factors in their extinction are ...

. The latest researchHeritage-listed Naracoorte Caves 500,000 years older than previously thought, research reveals
Jack D Evans,

ABC News Online ABC News, or ABC News and Current Affairs, is a public news service produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcasting within Australia and the rest of the world, the service covers both local and world affairs. The division of ...

, 2022-09-29 pushes back the date of the caves formation to at least 1.34m years.

References

External links

Official webpage

UNESCO site with information on Riversleigh, Australia

Naracoorte Caves National Park webpage on protected planet

Naracoorte Lucindale Tourism
{{authority control National parks of South Australia 1916 establishments in Australia Protected areas established in 1972 South Australian places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate World Heritage Sites in Australia Australian National Heritage List South Australian Heritage Register Limestone Coast Show caves in Australia Paleontology in South Australia Fossil museums Fossil parks in Australia Limestone caves Natural history museums in Australia Pleistocene paleontological sites of Australia Museums in South Australia