The Fleurieu Peninsula ( ; locally mainly ) is a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

located south of the state capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

History

Before

British colonisation of South Australia British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...

, the western side of the peninsula was occupied by the Kaurna people, while several clans of the

Ngarrindjeri The Ngarrindjeri people are the traditional Aboriginal Australian people of the lower Murray River, eastern Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of the southern-central area of the state of South Australia. The term ''Ngarrindjeri'' means "belo ...

lived on the eastern side. The people were sustained by the flora and fauna of the peninsula, for

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

and

bush medicine Bush medicine comprises traditional medicines used by Indigenous Australians, being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous people have been using various components of native Australian flora and some fauna as medicine for t ...

. The bulrushes, reeds and

sedge The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...

s were used for basket-weaving or making

rope A rope is a group of yarns, Plying, plies, fibres, or strands that are plying, twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have high tensile strength and can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger ...

, trees provided wood for

spear A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable materia ...

s, and stones were fashioned into tools. The Fleurieu Peninsula was named after Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu, the French explorer and hydrographer, by the French explorer Nicolas Baudin as he explored the south coast of Australia in 1802. The name came into official use in 1911 after Fleurieu's great-nephew, Count Alphonse de Fleurieu, visited Adelaide and met with the Council of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia, which recommended to the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

that the unnamed peninsula terminating in Cape Jervis be given the name Fleurieu Peninsula "in honour of one who is worthy to be remembered in the annals of Australian geography". The government approved the name later that year.

Extent

The Geographical Names Advisory Committee advised in 2001 that the extent of the peninsula is:

that portion of land between Gulf St. Vincent and the Southern Ocean ''(sic)'', a line from Aldinga ''(sic)'' (southern end of Aldinga Bay) to Middleton (eastern end) being the cut-off for the peninsula. This boundary has not to be gazetted at present, and is intended to be the extent of the geographic feature only and is not to be applied to any industry or interest group regional identification.

The coast of the peninsula extends about from Sellicks Beach in the north to Middleton in the south-east.

Features

Towns on the peninsula include Victor Harbor, Normanville, Yankalilla and Rapid Bay. Districts include Inman Valley and Hindmarsh Valley. A ferry travels between Cape Jervis, at the tip of the peninsula, and

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island (, ) is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Poi ...

. There is surfing on both the west and south facing coasts – known locally to Adelaide surfers as the Mid South Coast and the Far South Coast. Surf spots of note include Waitpinga and Middleton on the Far South Coast.

Flora and fauna

In the past, there were extensive

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s and

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

s, which provided habitat and food sources for a range of birds, fish, and other animals, included snake-necked turtles, yabbies, rakali, ducks and

black swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large Anatidae, waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent ...

s. Flora included the native

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

( leek orchid), guinea flower and swamp wattle (Wirilda).

Ecology and conservation

The swamps of the Fleurieu Peninsula were listed as

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

under the EPBC Act in 2003; however, there is no adopted or made recovery plan for this ecological community, only "Approved Conservation Advice" (2013). Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under a
Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU)
licence. Less than four percent of the original swampland remain today. A group that includes Aboriginal elders and scientists are documenting Aboriginal cultural knowledge for the Fleurieu Peninsula

s at Yundi, which is about south of Adelaide. The Yundi Nature Conservancy, containing about of swamp, is south-east of McLaren Vale, near Mount Compass. There, Ngarrindjeri elders and scientists from various disciplines share their knowledge and plan for

rewilding Rewilding is a form of ecological restoration aimed at increasing biodiversity and restoring natural processes. It differs from other forms of ecological restoration in that rewilding aspires to reduce human influence on ecosystems. It is also d ...

some more of the peninsula. A seed bank has been created to this end.

References

External links

Fleurieu Peninsula Tourism Region Official tourism webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleurieu Peninsula