Naracoorte Caves National Park

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Australian Fossil Mammal Sites, Naracoorte (1994). A Cave System Beneath Naracoorte Caves National Park Holding Half A Million Years Of Continuous Fossil Deposits, Including Extinct Megafauna, With Show Caves Open On Guided Tours And A Working Palaeontology Dig Visible To Visitors · Naracoorte, South Australia

Naracoorte Caves sit about eight kilometres south of the small South Australian town of Naracoorte, a cave system holding half a million years of continuous fossil deposits and listed by UNESCO in 1994 as part of the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites. Bones of extinct megafauna, giant kangaroos, marsupial lions and other creatures long gone from the Australian landscape, have accumulated here through natural pitfall traps over an immense span of time, and a working palaeontology dig inside Victoria Fossil Cave is visible to visitors on the standard tour. Several show caves are open on timed guided tours only, each with its own character, from the fossil displays in Victoria Fossil Cave to the limestone formations of Alexandra Cave and Blanche Cave's bat colony. More demanding adventure caving tours, crawling and squeezing through undeveloped passages with a helmet and headlamp, run for visitors wanting a genuinely physical caving experience rather than a walk-through display. A wildlife centre near the entrance streams live video from a bat cave nursery during the breeding season.

About 8 km south of the town of Naracoorte in South Australia's south-east, Naracoorte, South Australia, Australia

The visitor centre is typically open daily from around 9am to 5pm, though hours can shorten outside school holidays. Show cave tours run on a timetable through the day rather than continuously, and several caves close entirely in the middle of the day between tour groups. Adventure caving tours run less frequently, often only a couple of sessions a day and sometimes only on weekends outside peak season, and need advance booking rather than a walk-up. The wildlife centre's bat cave camera only shows active footage during the bat breeding season from spring to autumn, and shows an empty or recorded feed outside that window. The park grounds and picnic areas outside the caves have no closing time of their own.

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