Matthew Flinders ExpeditionPrint Page

The cairn was erected to mark the supposed locality of Kangaroo Head, the first landing place on Kangaroo Island by Mathhew Flinders and party in 1802. 

Captain Matthew Flinders, and his hungry crew members, discovered Kangaroo Island on 21 March 1802 after landing near Kangaroo Head on the north coast of Dudley Peninsula. They found no inhabitants but were compensated for this by the discovery of what they needed most of all - fresh food. In his journal Flinders wrote that the whole ship`s company was employed in the skinning and cleaning of kangaroos. In gratitude for such a supply, he named it Kangaroo Island.

While the workmen were on the island in 1906 erecting a shelter for the Frenchman's Rock, Mrs. Bertha Stow, the mistress of the Penneshaw school, suggested that it would be a good opportunity to erect a monument as close as possible to the headland on which Flinders first landed. A solid cairn of stones picked up in the neighborhood was erected as a result on the headland on which Flinders most probably landed. It is about 11 ft. high, and can be seen distinctly from vessels entering or leaving the gulf by Backstairs Passage. It is supposed that it was from this point that Flinders saw and named Mount Lofty.
The Mail (Adelaide), 4 November 1933.

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