Visitor notes wildlife, recovery and development on Kangaroo Island

A repeat visitor to Kangaroo Island described close wildlife encounters and the island’s recovery from the 2020 wildfires on the 96- by 34.5-mile island, about 70 miles off the coast of South Australia. The account recounts plunging into the sea with a pod of about 80 bottlenose dolphins that gather in what operator Andrew Neighbour calls their 'lounge room', and visits to Flinders Chase National Park to see Admirals Arch and the granite Remarkable Rocks.

The 2020 blazes scorched much of the western end, killed two people and many thousands of livestock animals, and about half of the roughly 50,000 koalas were lost. Some species, including goannas and echidnas, survived by sheltering in burrows, and shrubs have sprung up amid blackened mallee eucalyptus trunks.

Naturalist Nikki Redman is quoted saying, "Fire has been a part of the Australian ecosystem for millenniums" and that "Kangaroo Island is better than ever." The visitor noted restored and new facilities: a Flinders Chase visitors’ center built with fire-retardant timbers, the 41-mile Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail reopened, and a range of rebuilt accommodations.

Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park moved to a new site near Seal Bay; a rescued koala named Larry, injured in the 2020 fires, has reportedly been released several times but kept returning.

Key Topics

World, Kangaroo Island, Flinders Chase, Koalas, Bottlenose Dolphins, Andrew Neighbour