Wanderlust Travel Magazine (UK)
After the fires… Kangaroo Island, Australia
Bush fires devastated this small island in December 2019. It’s estimated that around 211 sq km – 49% of the island off Adelaide on the south coast – was incinerated by three weeks of non-stop burning, leaving many homeless and two people dead.
Then COVID-19 struck another blow, further delaying the island’s recovery. Now, inter-state travel is opening up and there’s talk of flights between Australia and New Zealand, but visitors from further afield will have to wait, even though Australia is currently exempt from FCO advice against all-but-essential international travel. But when they do come, they’ll be welcomed.
Craig Wickham, managing director of Exceptional Kangaroo Island (exceptionalkangarooisland.com) and chair of Australian Wildlife Journeys (australianwildlifejourneys.com), says there are plenty of ways travellers can leave a positive footprint when they do visit. Citizen science is a big tourism experience here, appealing to travellers who want to feel part of the conservation story. Travellers on the Glossy-black Cockatoo Recovery Programme go into the bush looking for the birds, checking out nests, treeplanting, noting observations, and learning what’s needed for cockatoos’ long-term survival.
Other programmes that tick the box of delivering memorable experiences while helping conservation include
A Day in the Life of a Wildlife Researcher with Dr Peggy Rismiller (echidna.edu.au), a world echidna (spiny anteater) expert, and
Dolphin Watch with Tony Bartram (kimarineadventures.com.au), which includes monitoring dolphin pods and an open-ocean swim.
Kangaroo Island is ripe for crowdfree encounters as it is, but that will be felt even further as tourism slowly opens back up. Sights such as Remarkable Rocks in Flinders Chase National Park will feel like they’re for your eyes only, while encounters with sea lions, koalas and the namesake Kangaroo Island kangaroos may even be enhanced due to fewer people around.
Travellers can choose operators that directly support wildlife conservation activities, for example, via donations or payments to researchers. “There’s also an ongoing voluntourism program called Blazeaid (blazeaid. com.au),” says Craig, “where people come with their caravan or camper and join work teams going out fencing.”
It’s an easy place to add impact as a traveller. “Simply by visiting and staying within our region, travellers bring benefit,” adds Craig. “There’s significant crossover between our visitor economy and local producers of wine, honey, figs, eggs, oysters, marron (freshwater crayfish), potatoes, gin, and soon, truffles. And with most businesses locally owned, there’s little economic leakage from our community.”