 South Australia's Naracoorte Caves have been World Heritage listed following exciting fossil finds - everything from giant prehistoric kangaroos to long-extinct marsupial lions. Sixty known caves lie beneath limestone and marshland ranges. Infrared cameras reveal bent-wing bats flitting past and an interpretative centre provides background before you enter the caves.
If you feel like a snack, the aptly-named Caves Cafe is open every day. A campsite nearby offers electric power, showers, toilets and laundry facilities, with camping permits obtainable from Wonambi Fossil Centre.
Wonambi Fossil Centre, opened in 1998, was created by palaeontologists from Flinders University of South Australia working with a special effects company to recreate the Naracoorte region as it would have appeared 200,000 years ago. Robotic, life-size models of extinct megafauna stride around an ancient landscape.
Victoria Fossil Cave, a series of interconnected chambers with magnificent calcite decorations, was discovered in 1894. In 1969, cave explorers squeezed through a narrow passage and emerged in a chamber containing fossil bones of amazing diversity and antiquity. The entrance has been enlarged to allow visitors to view the progress of a dig in which scientists are still unearthing the remains of prehistoric animals dating back 200,000 years.
Perhaps visit the Wet Cave, a series of spectacular domed chambers adorned with impressive, dripping calcite formations.
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