Cape du Couedic
|
Cape du Couedic South Australia |
|
|---|---|
Cape du Couedic at sunset
|
|
 Cape du Couedic
|
|
| Coordinates | 36°3′34.88″S 136°42′0.32″E / 36.0596889°S 136.7000889°ECoordinates: 36°3′34.88″S 136°42′0.32″E / 36.0596889°S 136.7000889°E |
| Elevation | 78 m (256 ft) |
Cape du Couedic is a headland located on the south west tip of Kangaroo Island in South Australia. It was named after a French naval officer, Charles Louis du Couëdic, the Seigneur de Kergoualer (1740–1780), by the Baudin expedition to Australia during January 1803. It is the site for the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse. It is currently located within the Flinders Chase National Park.
Cape du Couedic is located 96 kilometres (60 mi) south west of Kingscote. It is the most south westerly point of the Kangaroo Island coast. It is the termination for a pair of coastlines - the western coastline extending from Cape Borda in the north and the southern coastline extending from Cape Willoughby in the east. It is described as ‘a narrow promontory about 1 mile long' (i.e. 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi)) and that ‘its SW face slopes to the sea whereas its N and S sides are steep.’
Cape du Couedic was formed when the sea reached its present level 7,500 years ago after sea levels started to rise at the start of the Holocene. The cliff line which includes Cape du Couedic consists of a metamorphic rock belonging to the Kanmantoo group bedrock called Middleton Sandstone. The water adjoining Cape du Couedic drops to depths ranging between 20 metres (66 ft) to 30 metres (98 ft) at the base of its cliff face.
Cape du Couedic is one of twenty geological features on Kangaroo Island that have been listed as a geological monument by the Geological Society of Australia.
Aboriginal sites have been identified by the South Australian Museum at Cape du Couedic. As of 1999, radiocarbon dating of material recovered via archaeological excavation from sites at Cape du Couedic and Rocky River suggest Aboriginal presence in the western end of Kangaroo Island from approximately 7,500 years BP to as recent as 350–400 years BP.
...
Wikipedia