21st Century Jacobsweg

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The Australian Commonwealth is about the size of the contiguous United States but is comprised of only has six states and three mainland territories. These states and territories are a very closeknit family and have their own personalities:

• New South Wales and Victoria are the popular twins that have a rivalry so intense it’s absurd;
• Queensland is the sibling you’re pretty sure was raised by wolves;
• Western Australia is the cool older brother who moved far away so you don’t see him often;
• Northern Territory is the cousin whose culture is so distinct it’s hard to believe you’re related;
• Tasmania is the kid brother who’s easy, but not fun, to bully. New Zealand, on the other hand, is the little bro it’s fun to pick on, but only because he can hold his own! (They can join the Commonwealth at any time, y’know…)

And then there’s the forgotten places:

• The Australian Capital Territory, the land of roundabouts only created because of the rivalry between Vic and NSW;
• The Jervis Bay Territory, a tiny territory on the east coast many Australians are unaware of;
• And finally, there’s South Australia.

Okay, I’m making a joke – people obviously know about it, but South Australia has exceptional “middle child” energy. Not only because it’s awkwardly wedged in the middle of the country (and used to stretch to the north coast until 1911), but also because it receives much less attention than the other states in the Australian Commonwealth.

MIDDLE CHILD SYNDROME

There’s not much about the state that makes it stand out at first glance. The top half is desert, but people think of the Northern Territory when you mention red sand. It has the hazardous Birdsville Track, but Western Australia has the more infamous Canning Stock Route. And it has mountainous vineyards, but so does Victoria and New South Wales.

There’s no proximity benefits to living there. Flights to Europe and Asia are both costly, bands don’t perform concerts here, and Amazon deliveries aren’t instantaneous. So, South Australia doesn’t bother to compete, but rather goes about its own thing, just like a middle child.

But looks can be deceiving. For there is an interesting and unique history connected to an island not too far from Adelaide – the third largest in Australia, in fact (after Melville Island in the NT and Tasmania). This Island is known as “Kangaroo Island”, which was discovered by British explorer Matthew Flinders in 1802.

Well, ‘discovered’ in the sense of bringing it to the attention of the British. Naturally, other Europeans had seen it before him, and the Aboriginals on the mainland knew about it for a long time. Regardless, Flinders explored the island and had no negative interactions with local Aboriginals on Kangaroo Island, mostly because there was nobody living on it.

Considering there’s archaeological evidence that Aboriginals lived on Kangaroo Island up until 10,000-2,000 years ago, it’s odd that the island was devoid of humans. One theory suggests the island was connected to the mainland until the end of the Ice Age, when the sea levels rose and cut the area off from the mainland.

Following that, the island’s resources couldn’t sustain the population, so the locals either died out or relocated to the mainland…or tried to. The Kaurna people call it the “Isle of the Dead”, which is terrifying. Was there a mass death event associated with leaving the island that prevented future generations from going back? It’s interesting (and scary) to think about. Regardless, nobody returned, leaving it devoid of human presence for thousands of years.

AN ISLAND REDISCOVERED

With the apex (and only) predators gone, the kangaroo population grew and became docile docile. No other human stepped foot on the island until Matthew Flinders explored it during his circumnavigation of Australia aboard the Investigator. He was eager to explore it, considering he missed the landmass during his mapping of the area in the 1790s.

He was amazed by the ridiculous number of gentle kangaroos, who were so friendly they practically let the explorer slaughter dozens of them. Grateful for the abundance of fresh meat (since its incredibly important to have fresh meat on your journeys), Flinders named the island after them.

How can you have a name that’s as grisly as it is unimaginative?

Here’s a better question: If a British explorer investigated the island, what’s up with all the French names, including Cape du Couedic, D’Estrees Bay, Baudin Beach and Vivonne Bay? Simple – a Frenchman was there at the same time as Flinders during the same thing. Nicolas Baudin, the famous French explorer, was sailing the Géographe doing similar work to Flinders. And they ran into each other in 1802.

Now, a Brit and a Frenchie running into each other is bound to end poorly under normal circumstances, but this time was different. See, when they had left their native countries, France and Britain were at war. They had been fighting for close to a decade as a result of the French Revolution and Napoleon’s conquests. Although at the time of the meeting, there was a lull in fighting (just before Napoleon faced off against the Third Coalition), but neither of these men were aware of the uneasy peace in Europe.

A few things prevented a hostile encounter. First, although Australia was “British” territory, the only settlements at the time were found around Sydney – Baudin was safe from British attacks. Also, unlike most naval expeditions at the time, the majority of the expedition crewmembers were civilians. This made it easier for Flinders and Baudin to put scientific pursuit above politics and greet each other in peace.

They shared what they had found with each other about the south Australian coast. Turns out Baudin had circumnavigated Kangaroo Island and named it Île Borda (after the French Mathematician) while Flinders was exploring the interior, including climbing its highest point. Baudin had also landed near present-day Penneshaw, carving a rock to commemorate the expedition and collecting flowers and whatnot. The waters in which the encounter took place was called “Encounter Bay.”

Bet it took them a while to think of that name…

Anyway, the Investigator and Géographe went their separate ways and continued exploring. Not long after their meeting, Sealers and sailors had made unofficial/temporary settlements on the island, the first humans to live there in thousands of years. They brought with them the first Aboriginals to set foot on the island in a long time: Women who were kidnapped and used for forced labour and marriage.

In 1803, another group of people came along – Americans! They were sealers aboard the Union, who weighed anchor at what they thought was a river (in reality a bay) and built the Independence, the ‘first’ ship to be built in South Australia. I don’t know what happened to the Yanks after this, but the town which is situated where they camped is now called American River.

Not a lot of original naming going on in this post, is there?

A NEW COLONY…?

Anyway, In July 1836, the first official British settlement on the island was founded – Kingscote. It was intended to be the capital of a new colony that would be partitioned from New South Wales. It was located on an Island in a strategic position relative to the southern coast and easily defendable, so the location made sense.

However, it became quickly apparent that Kingscote’s could not become the colonial capital. Attempts to grow food were still failing after months – the soil and weather conditions were hardly favourable. And even with all the kangaroos, the island’s natural resources couldn’t supply Kingscote’s fledging population – how would it support a potentially sprawling metropolis? Answer: It couldn’t.

In December 1836, Adelaide was founded by the Old Gum Tree in what is now the suburb of Glenelg. Adelaide’s express purpose was to be the capital of a new colony that was situated in southern Australia, aptly titled the Colony of South Australia.

I’m starting to think Australians just aren’t good at coming up with great names…

Anyway, South Australia would start off with some strange borders, but would eventually encompass the entire middle of Australia, claiming huge tracts of land that were already inhabited by people like the Larrakia in Darwin, the Anangu at Uluru and the Ngarrindjeri along the Murray River.

Adelaide grew rapidly – not as rapidly as it’s slightly older sister Melbourne, who managed to discover vast tracts of gold in nearby Ballarat – but fast enough it became unproductive to settle Kangaroo Island. Towns, farms, telegraph poles and roads spread like wildfire across the southern mainland, but Kangaroo Island was left alone by new settlers.

That doesn’t mean the island wasn’t important. Its proximity to the mainland and the capital made it an important landmark for sailors, so three lighthouses were built from the 1850s onwards. These lighthouses are fully automated now, but they continue to prevent shipwrecks in the southern laneways to this day. Before they went up, there were a lot of shipwrecks along the south Australian Coast, so much so that it’s become a tourism route. That’s pretty morbid, but then again so is worshipping a murderer.

As a sidenote, these southern laneways were invaded by Nazis during WWII, where they laid mines and traps to screw with supply lines. Given how far away Australia was from the main theatres, it was relatively easy to remove these obstacles, but it was still incredibly dangerous.

Near Beachport on 1941, two sailors (Danswan and Todd) were killed during an attempt to disarm the German mines, resulting in the first WWII casualties due to enemy action on Australian soil. This was several months before the Japanese bombed Darwin and sent submarines into Sydney Harbour!

A GARDEN OF EDEN

Because of the lack of settlement, it’s become a vast natural reserve. Apart from kangaroos, many native animals call the Island home. Koalas are a common sight, which is good to see. Although they aren’t indigenous to the island, they’re endangered in their traditional habitats on the mainland due to illegal foresting. Don’t go touching the koalas, however – many are infected with contagious chlamydia (and good lucking trying to explain how you got chlamydia from a koala!).

Seals from New Zealand breed at near the Admiral’s Arch, and penguins live on the island as well. And the western portion of the island is barely populated, with only a few camping sites and roads available. You’d think Kangaroo Island is a veritable Garden of Eden, one of the few places left on Earth untouched by civilisation. And it was…until it was destroyed In Summer 2020.

Remember those bushfires in 2020? Y’know, the bushfires where everyone thought half of Australia was on fire due to misleading maps? Misleading as those maps were, they were devastating – I remember sitting on my couch being choked by fumes from a blaze over a hundred kilometres away. It was a combination of a particularly hot and dry season and government ineptitude that resulted in entire national parks being burnt to the ground and nearly half a billion native animals dying.

Kangaroo Island was one of the worst affected by the 2020 Bushfires. 98% of the western half was burnt and so many animals perished. The only part untouched was Cape De Couedic, where most animals found sanctuary from the inferno. The landscape is still traumatised by the ordeal, with grey pikes poking above new growth. It’s been three years, but Kangaroo Island has barely healed.

But life continues on the island. The lighthouses guide the ships, the Penneshaw ferry carries people from Cape Jervis to the island and Kingscote remains the largest settlement on the island. It’s moved slightly from its initial location, which has since become a Heritage Site known as Reeves Point, which houses ruins and an old cemetery amongst other things.

The Old Mulberry Tree is one of the original trees planted from the attempt to settle the land and is an historical relic. It’s surrounded by rope, which is usually means “don’t touch this thing.” Imagine my frustration upon seeing people pull up, jumping into the roped area and eating the mulberries!

Can’t believe I have to say this, but: Do not eat historical artefacts! I thought we learned from eating Egyptian mummies! Yes, that actually happened: The British elite ate mummies in the 1800s and early 1900s…

But despite having less than 2,000 people living in it, Kingscote will always have the title of the first permanent European settlement in South Australia, nestled on an island steeped in historical and natural wonders.

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