Kangaroo Island separated from mainland Australia around 10,000 years ago, due to rising sea level after the last glacial period. Known as Karta ("Island of the Dead") by the mainland Aboriginal tribes, the existence of stone tools and shell middens show that Aboriginal people once lived on Kangaroo Island. It is thought that they occupied it as long ago as 16,000 years before the present, and may have only disappeared from the island as recently as 2000 years ago.
A mainland Aboriginal dreaming story tells of the Backstairs Passage flooding:
"Long ago, Ngurunderi's two wives ran away from him, and he was forced to follow them. He pursued them and as he did so he crossed Lake Albert and went along the beach to Cape Jervis. When he arrived there he saw his wives wading half-way across the shallow channel which divided Naroongowie from the mainland. He was determined to punish his wives, and angrily ordered the water to rise up and drown them. With a terrific rush the waters roared and the women were carried back towards the mainland. Although they tried frantically to swim against the tidal wave they were powerless to do so and were drowned."
European settlement
On 23 March 1802 British explorer Matthew Flinders, Commanding HMS Investigator, named the land "Kanguroo (sic) Island" after landing near Kangaroo Head on the north coast of Dudley Peninsula. He was closely followed by the French explorer Commander Nicolas Baudin, who mapped much of the island (which is why so many areas have French names). Although the French and the British were at war at the time, the men met peacefully. They both used the fresh water seeping at what is now known as Hog Bay near Frenchman's Rock and the site of present-day Penneshaw.
An unofficial community of sealers and others existed on Kangaroo Island from 1802 to the time of South Australia's official settlement in 1836. The sealers were rough men and several
