Kangaroo Island is the Galápagos of Australia, with its sea-sprayed isolation and rollcall of wondrous and unusual native creatures. Four years after bushfires wreaked destruction, the island and its pioneering wilderness retreat Southern Ocean Lodge have been reborn.

BY CHLOE SACHDEV

It has only been a few hours since I landed on Kangaroo Island but I have already struck gold, spotting koalas in the forks of blue gum trees, frisky seals on a beach, nests of endangered ospreys and mobs of endemic kangaroos, stockier and darker than their mainland cousins.

On an island that is often described as the “Australian Galapagos”, the Southern Ocean pounds against a coastline of towering limestone cliffs, honey-hued beaches and intricate geological formations etched over thousands of years. It is here that I watch dark brown sea lions play on volcanic rocks, their barks drowned out by the wind that skips off the sea, fresh from Antarctica.

This is Australia’s third largest island, a little over 90 miles from east to west, with more than a third of it blanketed in nature reserves. My days here are spent driving across spindly roads, flanked by tawny bush, undulating greenery and ocean. This raw region, which separated from mainland Australia in the last ice age, floats below the southern coast. It has long been a prized patch of land, drawing intrepid navigators and adventurers since the 19th century.


In 2020, this primordial island was nearly wiped out by the catastrophic “black summer” bushfires. The angry curtains of flames, which engulfed Australia for weeks, razed half the island to embers, taking down most of its national parks and forests along with a heartbreaking number of its animals, including most of its 50,000 koalas. On the island’s southern shoreline, Southern Ocean Lodge – one of Australia’s greatest sustainable luxury resorts – burned to the ground, leaving an apocalyptic tangle of metal and steel.


Four years on and Kangaroo Island is experiencing its second act. The wildlife has returned, and nature has regenerated – in some areas denser than before – a testament to the hardy Australian bush. Southern Ocean Lodge (SOL 2.0) has been resurrected and rebuilt as a near-replica of its former self, hovering above the mighty Southern Ocean. Occupying just one per cent of the 250 hectares of protected land it sits on, the resort is now a symbol of the island’s second coming.

Southern Ocean Lodge was founded by husband-and-wife duo James and Hayley Baillee in 2008, and is part of the Baillee Lodges portfolio, a collection of luxury lodges in some of Australia’s most pristine corners – including Lord Howe Island and Uluru. For Southern Ocean Lodge, this means the windswept south-west coast on a limestone cliff that plunges into a dramatic trio of beaches known as Hanson Bay.


Since opening in 2008, the 25-room, glass-fronted lodge has always been defined by its sense of place, from the local artists showcased here to the builders and architect, the mostly local menu and the extensive list of South Australian wines. “The Lodge has always been dedicated to using local products, produce and people, which has created a ‘halo-effect’, providing hundreds of jobs for islanders, as well as giving rise to a community of producers, farmers, growers and distillers,” explains Penny Rafferty, the executive chair of Luxury Lodges Australia. “When the lodge burned down, it impacted approximately 170 local businesses, a significant number for a local population of just 5,000.”

My first meal at the newly reopened hotel is fleshy barramundi, sustainably produced by the students at Kangaroo Island Community Education’s Parndana Campus. A game-changing “aquaponics” project, it uses a recirculated barramundi farm that has been established inside a temperature-controlled shed in the school grounds, and Southern Ocean Lodge is its largest customer for both barramundi and hydroponic herbs. “The reopening of Southern Ocean Lodge is a milestone within the island’s recovery,” explains Phillipa Harrison, managing director of Tourism Australia. “The lodge has always been about positive impact, and making sure that what they do not only sustains what they have, but also helps to regenerate it.”


The blaze of the fire has, in a way, cast the resort in a new light. It is now reborn with a renewed sense of focus, and with conservation and community embedded even deeper in its DNA. It is far from being just a fly-and-flop destination; visitors to Southern Ocean Lodge can lace up their boots and learn about its conservation efforts. This might mean a day spent on the KI Producers Trail learning about local produce such as honey from the Ligurian bee – the only disease-free colony in the world and the purest remaining strain of the species. Or it might mean getting involved in a citizen-science initiative such as snorkelling on the island’s first artificial oyster reef and monitoring the shellfish, or taking a guided safari to the sugar-white sands of Seal Bay Conservation Park to learn about the ongoing work being done there.


According to Tourism Australia, “more than 75 per cent of travellers are committed to sustainability in some way”, and here at Southern Ocean Lodge, surrounded by fresh green shrubs, it feels like a second chance to shape a new era of luxury travel.