On the Limestone Coast of South Australia, Naracoorte Caves National Park protects a scientific record hidden beneath a landscape of remnant vegetation and limestone. The caves form part of the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites, a serial World Heritage property shared with Riversleigh in Queensland and inscribed in 1994. UNESCO recognizes the sites for documenting major stages in the evolution of Australia’s distinctive fauna. Naracoorte’s cave deposits preserve a particularly important record of terrestrial vertebrates and changes in animal life across multiple ice ages.
The geological setting is part of the explanation. The caves developed in limestone, and over long periods some openings acted as natural traps: animals fell in, while predators also used underground spaces as dens. The accumulation of remains created layers of fossils rather than a single snapshot. The park’s official visitor material says the caves acted as pitfall traps, dens and roosts for more than 500,000 years. Bones from these deposits allow researchers to investigate animals and environments that are no longer present in the same form.