Australia’s Kangaroo Island bounces back after catastrophic 2020 fires, with koalas and wallabies returning while residents strengthen defences
- South Australia’s National Parks and Wildlife Service report that up to 40,000 koalas were lost in the fires – but they are repopulating Flinders Chase National Park and the island’s other protected areas
- The burnt-down Southern Ocean Lodge has been rebuilt with an emphasis on avoiding a repeat, while Kangaroo Island Olive Oil and The Figgery have also strengthened their defences
In January 2020, vast swathes of Australia were swallowed by voracious bushfires. Kangaroo Island, 15km off the South Australian coast, was no exception.
Blanketed in black smoke, the island’s western end burned. The howling wind was laden with tiny fragments of burning leaf, each one a miniature incendiary grenade landing on parched, superheated bushland, triggering ever more blazes.
Kangaroo Island extends some 440,000 hectares, making it Australia’s third largest island. Almost half was burnt, and two residents lost their lives.
In terms of infrastructure, the most notable loss was the Southern Ocean Lodge, a luxury boutique hotel. As four staff sheltered in an underground bunker, this famous clifftop establishment was reduced to rubble.
The ash had barely cooled when the owners, Baillie Lodges, announced they would rebuild, and in December 2023, the new lodge’s doors swung open.
It is through these doors that I now walk. From the outside, the new version is almost a doppelgänger of its old self. Twenty-five suites follow the land’s contours down a hillside, each one taking in coastline views. The glass-wrapped lounge – the Great Room – has been recreated and features the only surviving elements from the original lodge: a large steel kangaroo sculpture and a suspended steel wood-burning heater.
