About Kangaroo Island

Location of the Island

Just 14kms off the coast of South Australia, Kangaroo Island is Australia's third largest island and is internationally famous for its pristine wilderness and its wildlife.

Kangaroo Island is seven times the size of Singapore and literally crawling with wildlife.

The famous Australian sealions laze beside you on the beach and there are seals, echidnas, platypus, goannas, wallabies and of course kangaroos.

Half the native bushland on Kangaroo Island remains just as it was when British navigator Matthew Flinders put a name to this untamed wilderness in 1802. And more than one-third of the Island is National or Conservation Park.

Getting to Kangaroo Island

Vivonne Bay Outdoor Education Centre is situated on Kangaroo Island which is 14kms from mainland South Australia.

SeaLink operates regular daily passenger and vehicle ferries from the mainland port of Cape Jervis to Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island. Sailing time is just 45 minutes and ferries carry up to 350 passengers and 60 vehicles. Air services also operate from Adelaide Airport to Kingscote on Kangaroo Island and flights take 30 minutes.

Highlights

The one third left is protected and the only remaining piece of vegetation of this type in the world’s cool temperate zone still intact. Because foxes and rabbits were not introduced to Kangaroo Island, this is the only location where visitors can see native bushland the same today as it was 10,000 years ago.

The Kangaroo Island native bushland is unique to the island, with no equivalent elsewhere. Previously sub-tropical, now cool-temperate it has retained the density at all levels of the tropical/sub-tropical rainforests.

It is still a mystery why native people who occupied the island from approx. 14,000 years ago to 2,300 years ago vanished from the island. Also these people were not related to the mainland native people. The Island’s wildlife is one of its treasures. Due to the absence of large predators they are easy to observe. Island species include: Kangaroo, Wallaby (small kangaroo), Possums, Koalas, Goannas (lizards) and Echidnas (Native Anteater). The Echidna and the Platypus are the world’s only egg laying mammals, and the most primitive animals alive in the world today.

Kangaroo Island boasts a brilliant wildflower display in the southern spring (July to Mid October). You can also see many native Orchids.

At Seal Bay visitors can walk along the beach and observe the very rare Australian Sealion colony in their natural habitat with informative guided tours. The Galapagos Islands and Seal Bay, Kangaroo Island are the only places in the world where people can walk on a beach with wild Seals. The Island features a spectacular coastal ecology with high coastal cliffs and white sandy beaches, granite outcrops and natural arches. Another highlight are the 70 metre high inland sand dunes of The Little Sahara Desert, Geological monument.