Remarkable Seals: Kangaroo Island

The ferry ride across Backstairs Passage takes the shortest route possible, but once there many tourists head to the furthest part of the island and it's little wonder why. Set in the majestic Flinders Chase National Park, Cape Du Couedic at the south-western tip of Kangaroo Island is a wild and remote place. It's also home to one of the Island's best known landmarks. And it's here under the shadow of Admiral's Arch that a colony of New Zealand Fur Seals, once under threat from hunting, is making a real comeback. "These were quite sought after for their pelts, they were very valuable pelts. And they were really hunted perhaps not to extinction but they were virtually pushed very hard in the early days. So what we're seeing now is a recognising of the areas where they were hunted out in the 1800s. They're quite prolific in their breeding and they really are coming back to the rate of say 30% year by year. So they're spreading out year by year from their breeding areas from here and they're going further north and taking over appropriate areas."

They're called New Zealand Fur Seals because that's where they were first discovered by European explorers but they extend over an enormous area. "They spread from around New Zealand to around Tasmania, and the southern part of the coastline going right through towards Western Australia." The pounding of the surf holds no fear for these characters. It usually offers a brief respite from the continual hustle and bustle of the colony as young males prepare themselves for the battles to come. Later in the year, that'll stakeout their territory in readiness for breeding season. "They go through from December through to the end of January in a twelve months cycle so they're quite regular, so you can come back here and find them breeding about Christmas time this year." "How far do they go insearch of food?" "Well they go out quite a number of kilometres as I say as they get older they'll go further but they can be travelling for up to twenty kilometres." And they need only swim a fraction of that distance to get a fantastic view of one of the Island's other intriguing landmarks. At the other end of the bay lies Remarkable Rocks. Like a giant collection of smashed and rust encrusted crockery these granite structures have long been a magnet for tourists to the western end of Kangaroo island. "What occurred millions and millions of years ago was an igneous incursion a bit like lava of a volcano pushing up into the softer limestone rock above and what happened over the years was that softer limestone just wore away and there we have left behind a mound." According to the experts that occurred some five hundred million years ago, with erosion playing a key role in uncovering what you see today. "As it happened this was still buried beneath the limestone rocks and there was some large cracks and that broke the harder igneous rocks into sections and once it was exposed to the air and the sea and the rain and so forth it eroded away pretty much to the sculpture that we've got here today and of course it's still wearing away. And there it is a rather remarkable work of art."

Remarkable Rocks and Admiral's Arch are located in the Flinders Chase National Park and are about a two hour drive from the ferry terminal at Penneshaw. A permit into the park costs $5 per vehicle. For more information you can email info@postcards-sa.com.au