Ravine des Casoars (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: Ravine of the Cassowaries) is a

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

and an associated

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

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 west coast 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 ...

about west of Kingscote.

Description

The Ravine des Casoars is a steep sided valley of length with an east–west alignment and with a maximum depth of . The ravine drains a catchment area of approximately within the western end of Kangaroo Island. The ravine meets the sea on the west coast of Kangaroo Island via a gap of about width in the coastline’s continuous

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

line. A beach is located between the two headlands. The beach and an accompanying sand dune extends about back into the south side of the ravine to an elevation of about while a creek and an associated lagoon flows on the north side of the ravine. The base of the cliffs on the northern side of the beach had eroded with the result of caves being formed. As of 1965, two caves were described. The first known as ‘K5’ which accommodated at the time in this entrance, a

little penguin The little penguin (''Eudyptula minor'') is a species of penguin from New Zealand. They are commonly known as little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage and are also known by their Māori name . The Australian lit ...

rookery, was described as being wide and as having a ‘massive

rockfall A rockfall or rock-fallWhittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, 1984. . is a quantity/sheets of rock that has fallen freely from a cliff face. The term is also used for collapse of rock from roof or walls of min ...

’ and decoration including

flowstone Flowstones are sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in "solution caves", in limestone, where they are the most common speleothe ...

. The penguin rookery was also noted by author and naturalist Mervinia Masterman in her book ''Flinder's Chase Revisited'' (1972). Adjacent to ‘K5’ is ‘K16’ which was described as being long, wide and high with decoration consisting of

rimstone Rimstone, also called gours, is a type of speleothem (cave formation) in the form of a stone dam. Rimstone is made up of calcite and other minerals that build up in cave pools. The formation created, which looks like stairs, often extends into fl ...

and stalactites.

History

Aboriginal use

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 ...

at Ravine des Casoars. As of 1999,

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

of material recovered via archaeological excavation from sites at

Cape du Couedic Cape du Couedic is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located on the southwest tip of Kangaroo Island in the locality of Flinders Chase. It was named after a French naval officer, , by the Baudin expedition to Australia dur ...

and Rocky River to the south of the ravine’s catchment area suggest Aboriginal presence in the western end of Kangaroo Island from approximately 7,500 years BP to as recent as 350–400 years BP.

European discovery

The members of the Baudin expedition of 1800-03 were the first Europeans known to have visited the ravine. Baudin reportedly named the ravine after the numbers of the now-extinct

Kangaroo Island Emu Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

present at the time and which he mistook for the

Cassowary Cassowaries ( tpi, muruk, id, kasuari) are flightless birds of the genus ''Casuarius'' in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bones) and are native to the tropical forest ...

. Reliable witnesses have reported the existence of an inscription in one of the caves on the coast where Ravine des Casoars meets the sea bearing Baudin’s name and several other names of French origin. As of 1999, the inscription had not been located, possibly due to temporary obscurement by the movement of sand within the cave and other changes in the level of the cave floor.

Protected area status

Ravine des Casoars is currently located within the

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

of the same name - the

Ravine des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area Ravine Des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area is a protected area located on the west end of Kangaroo Island in South Australia about west of Kingscote. It was established in 1993 on land previously part of the Flinders Chase National Park. ...

References

{{Commons category, Ravine Des Casoars Kangaroo Island Canyons and gorges of Australia Penguin colonies