The Pages
 The Pages
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| Location | Backstairs Passage |
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Australia
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The Pages is an island group in the Australian state of South Australia consisting of two small islands and a reef located in Backstairs Passage, a strait separating Kangaroo Island and the Fleurieu Peninsula. The island group has been located with the protected area known as The Pages Conservation Park since 1972.
The islands were known to the indigenous Kaurna people as Metalong. In Aboriginal lore the islands are those of two women that Nurunderi had saved, but who had subsequently eaten forbidden food and fled him. Nurunderi tracked them for days to the Fleurieu Peninsula where they tried to enter the spirit land, but Nurunderi chanted the song of the winds to raise the sea and sweep the women into the ocean. Nepelle then turned the women to stone and their petrified bodies remain as a warning to women to never eat forbidden food.
They were named “The Pages” by Matthew Flinders on 7 April 1802 from their fancied resemblance to pages guarding their strategic position at the eastern entrance to the strait.
The Pages consist of two main islands, lying about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) apart, are similar in size. North Page is about 400 metres (1,300 ft) long, 200 metres (660 ft) wide and 24 metres (79 ft) high while South Page is about 450 metres (1,480 ft) long, 170 metres (560 ft) wide and 20 metres (66 ft) high. A reef which is located south-west of South Page includes two adjacent wave-washed islets, rising 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) or so above sea level, with a combined length of 380 metres (1,250 ft). Geologically, The Pages are constituted of phyllites of the Brukunga Formation, formed from metamorphosed Cambrian sedimentary rocks. The islands are rugged; they contain no beaches and access by sea is difficult. There is a navigational aid on the top of South Page Island.
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