Naracoorte-Caves-Nationalpark

The Naracoorte Caves National Park is a national park in the southeast of the Australian state of South Australia, 313 km south-east of Adelaide, 83 kilometers north of Mount Gambier and 15 km south-east of Naracoorte. In 1994 the area was declared because of its exceptionally extensive fossil finds to the National Park and classified along with Riversleigh in Queensland as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park is 6 km ² remaining vegetation protected; the World Heritage Area contains 26 caves to 3.05 km ².

Facilities and Attractions

The park is a top tourist attraction and has a campground, an RV park, accommodation for groups, picnic areas and a café. The number of points of interest is huge. Cave tours are offered by trained guides. There you can see caves, which are filled with a large number of interesting fossils. With the help of modern technology, you can show visitors the inside of the normally inaccessible Bat Cave, where thousands of bats breed each year. In addition, there are cave tours for the more adventurous, several special tours and special events.

Formation

The limestone of the area was made ​​up of coral and other sea creatures 200 million years ago and again, when the country was below sea level again before about 20 million years ago. Groundwater has since solved part of the limestone, thus creating the caves. These caves, such as the Victoria Fossil Cave or the Blanche Cave, often lie not far beneath the earth and it opened holes, were the dangers for the unwary. The result was a remarkable collection of fossils. Mammals and other terrestrial species fell into the open holes and could not escape. The fossils were preserved in benches into washed from the surface and blown soil. In some places the fossil -bearing layer is up to 20 m thick. Some of these areas are preserved for future investigations when better methods are available for dating and reconstruction of the fossil record available. The fossil traps are particularly important for the study of the Australian megafauna.