Granite Island

Granite Island
	Wool sack weathered granite on Granite Island
Waters	Encounter Bay ( Indian Ocean )
Geographical location	35 ° 33 '51 " S , 138 ° 37' 51" E Coordinates: 35 ° 33 '51 " S , 138 ° 37' 51" E
length	886 m
width	497 m
surface	25 ha
Residents	uninhabited
	View of the 630 meter long wooden bridge from Granite Island

Granite Island is a small island in Encounter Bay , which is near Victor Harbor , not far from Adelaide in South Australia . The 25 hectare island is visited by more than 700,000 visitors annually, making it the most popular recreation park in South Australia.

description

Granite Island is an uninhabited island made of granite that has taken on rounded shapes as a result of wool sack weathering . Originally the island was connected to the mainland, the land connection eroded. The granite deposit, which was formed 480 million years ago, extends to a depth of ten kilometers into the earth's crust.

Granite Island Recreation Park , which has a restaurant, stretches across Granite Island . Above all, visitors want to see the more than 2000 little penguins that live and breed on the island. After dark you can watch the penguins at the penguin sanctuary on the island on a guided tour.

The island is connected to the mainland by a 630 meter long wooden bridge, which can be reached either on foot or by a double-decker horse tram , the Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram . Access with small boats or yachts is also possible at a jetty . A promenade along the coast leads around the island. In the southern winter months from June to September whales can be observed from the island or on special boat tours .

history

The Aborigines of the Ramindjeri clan lived on the coast of Encounter Bay . The island was very important to them because they believed that it was created by a spear throwing the Ngurunderi creature . The dreamtime story of Ngurunderi is told by the Aborigines from the lower Murray River area to Kangaroo Island .

The first Europeans to visit the bay in 1802 were the explorers Matthew Flinders on the Investigator ship and Nicolas Baudin on the Géographe on the Baudin expedition named after him . They had a peaceful encounter in Encounter Bay, although France and Great Britain were at war at the time - that's why the bay of Flinders was called Encounter Bay (German: Bay of encounter).

In the bay, the Europeans went whale and seal fishing , which was abandoned in 1872 because fewer and fewer animals came there. Wool and other agricultural products were shipped on the Murray River to Victor Harbor, then transported by horse-drawn tram to Granite Island and loaded onto ships there. The transport of economic goods was given up at the end of the 19th century and the horse-drawn tram was only used by tourists. In 1956 it was shut down, but since 1986 it has been running every day again to this day.