Limestone Coast, South Australia, Australia Genealogy

Fleurieu Peninsula
The Fleurieu Peninsula is a picturesque peninsula located south of Adelaide in South Australia, Australia. It was named after the French explorer and hydrographer Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu by the French explorer Nicolas Baudin as he mapped the south coast of Australia in 1802. There area many towns of interest in the area these include the scenic Victor Harbor, the heritage town of Willunga, Mount Compass, Goolwa, Yankalilla, Rapid Bay and the wine region of McLaren Vale. There is fine surfing at Waitpinga and Browns Beach. A ferry travels between Cape Jervis, at the tip of the peninsula, and Kangaroo Island.

Limestone Coast
Limestone Coast is the descripive title of an area that stretches from the border of Victoria and South Australia going towards Adelaide,

Forged over a period of 26 million years by the primal forces of the ocean and the movement of tectonic plates, the Limestone Coast has been perfectly sculpted into a natural holiday playground.

The result? Picturesque port towns such as Kingston SE, Robe and Beachport, where watersports are the order of the day. Impressive volcanic craters and mountain lakes, such as the Blue Lake at Mount Gambier. And the spectacular caving sites at Naracoorte Caves.

These same natural forces created the Coorong National Park, with its sandy coast and lagoons. They also created the 'terra rossa' soils at Coonawarra, which provide the ideal environment for producing world class wines.

It may have taken 26 million years to create the Limestone Coast. But good things are worth the wait.

From the Victoria border to the Younghusband Peninsula this coast has been settled since the 1840s and supports farming, viticulture, forestry and tourism. Towns of the coast include Bordertown, Keith, Millicent, Mount Gambier, Penola, and Naracoorte, the coastal resorts of Beachport, Kingston SE and Robe, and the wine-growing regions of Coonawarra, Padthaway, Wrattonbully and Mount Benson.

Much of the Limestone Coast region is low-lying, and was inundated by sea as recently as 2 million years ago. It had previously also been flooded 15–20 million years ago. The plains are lined by rows of low sandhills parallel to the coast, created at times when the coastline was at that level. Prior to white settlement, much of the land between the sandhills was swamp fed by streams and subject to inundation. A network of drains totalling 1450 km has in the past been constructed to channel the water away through the sandhills to the ocean. Important areas of wetland remain including the lakes and lagoons around the Murray Mouth, where the huge Murray River, by now reduced by draining off into the dry plains of Australia, finally meets the ocean between the Younghusband and the Sir Richard Peninsulas via a series of shallow lagoons including the Coorong, Lake Albert, Lake Alexandrina and Bool Lagoon. Meanwhile areas of upland behind the Limestone Coast include the volcanic craters of Mount Gambier.

The Mediterranean climate of this coast is cool and moist with wet winters.