Kingscote, South Australia

Kingscote is the largest town on Kangaroo Iceland, an island off the coast of South Australia, Australia. With not quite 1,700 inhabitants of the place is the social center of the island, the administrative center of Kangaroo Iceland Council and an important port of call for tourists. Kingscote is the oldest settlement in South Australia.

Geography and Nature

The village lies on the north coast in the central part of the island on a small peninsula between two bays Bay of Shoals and the Nepean Bay. Thanks upstream islets and running here south north coast, the situation is still somewhat protected. On the northern edge of the village is the small Cape Reeves Point.

In Kingscote there is a colony of little penguins. Through the daily feeding numerous pelicans are attracted.

History

On July 27, 1836, the South Australia Company founded at Reeves Point colony Kingscote as the first official European settlement in South Australia. The first settlers arrived with the Duke of York. Later, it was proposed that Kingscote could become the capital of South Australia. Since the island but did not have sufficient resources to a larger community, drew the South Australian Company about six months later to Adelaide, which had been proposed by the emitted scouts.

The history of the region, is shown in a small museum in Hope Cottage, a purpose-built building in 1850 in Kingscote. The historic site Reeves Point is among other things an old mulberry tree. The so-called Old Mulberry Tree was planted in 1836 and still bears fruit.

Infrastructure and Transport

In Kingscote there is a school, sports fields and an embossed by the tidal sea water swimming pool, a hospital, a supermarket, a post office and administration buildings. The Kangaroo Iceland Penguin Centre organizes tours to the penguin colonies, feeding the pelicans and maintain an aquarium. The ancestral Aurora Ozone Seafront Hotel with its statue of a mermaid was opened in 1907, directly on the waterfront in Kingscote.

The town has a shipyard, a pier, formerly served as a landing place for ferries, and the Island Airport Kingscote Airport.