Beauty and the Beasties : Kangaroo Island, a Perfect Place to See Australia in the Wild

KANGAROO ISLAND, Australia —  Here on Kangaroo Island, sighting a platypus is the ultimate treat for those who come to see animals and birds in the wild.

While some people imagine that in Australia koalas hang from the trees like grapes and that kangaroos line up waving “welcome” signs, it just isn’t so.

Granted, the country has scores of zoos and animal parks where you can see everything from wombats to Tasmanian Devils, but ogling zoo-ified beasties simply is not the same as viewing them in the wild.

To do that, you come here, to Kangaroo Island.

The island lies about 70 miles southwest of Adelaide, about nine miles off the South Australia coast. It is Australia’s third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island in the Northern Territory, and has been called “Australia in microcosm”--the place to go when you want to see all of the country but don’t have the time.

Shaped something like a startled turtle, its head extended toward the mainland, the island is about 95 miles long and 35 miles wide at its widest point.

It’s a sparsely populated place, with what passes for urban life concentrated in three small towns on the east coast: Kingscote, the largest with a population of about 2,000, and the two smaller communities of American River and Penneshaw.

I first heard about Kangaroo Island from an Australian friend who used to talk about its immense cliffs that reared up from the surf like the ramparts of a medieval castle, and about its beautiful, pristine beaches. He talked of scuba diving in search of treasure in the ribs of pirate ships, and of the odd little fairy penguins.

Since the island lies only about nine miles across the Backstairs Passage from Cape Jervis south of Adelaide (where I had gone to sample Australian wines), I decided to see for myself whether it lived up to my friend’s description.

I was met at the airport in Kingscote by Peter Telfer, the 40-year-old owner of Adventure Charters of Kangaroo Island, which had been highly recommended by Tourism South Australia.

Telfer, who grew up on the island, has parlayed years of personal exploration into a first-class tour and guide service. His chosen mode of transport is a high-off-the-ground, four-wheel drive vehicle complete with “roo bars,” the Australian equivalent of roll bars except that they wrap around the front of the vehicle.

Joining us for the first day of my two-day island tour was Marion Saunders, a friend of Telfer’s and a former islander herself. Two days was all I had, but to thoroughly explore the island and discover why its residents fight so hard to keep it unspoiled one really needs a week or more.

Kangaroo Island has been isolated from the mainland since the last Ice Age, and its flora and fauna has therefore escaped the ravages of such introduced species as the fox and rabbit or the predations of the dingo.

As a result, wildlife flourishes, and visitors can find kangaroos, including one species unique to the island, goannas (large lizards), native cats called quolls, short-nosed bandicoots (a rat-like marsupial), pygmy possums and wallabies in vast abundance, as well as seals, sea lions, fairy penguins, koalas, emus, echidnas, platypuses and an Eden of rainbow-colored birds.

The scenery is as varied as the animal life. Much of the interior is farmland tucked between gentle hills. Sheep and various crops failed when first introduced, but after the soil was improved with minerals, agriculture thrived. Away from the cultivated areas, farms give way to scrubland and even desert. On the coast, rocky cliffs alternate with white-sand beaches. Island wildflowers include orchids, blue asters, golden wattle, rice flowers, fuchsia and purple fringe lilies.

My home base on the island was Kingscote on Nepean Bay, where I saw South Australia’s largest mulberry tree and very little else. To those with more time, Kingscote, the state’s first settlement, does have a good folk-history museum and heritage walking trail.

Day one was an exploration of the northern part of the island. Our first stop was alongside a tiny creek shaded by flowering eucalyptus trees, where Telfer promised we’d see koalas.

Sure enough, there they were, draped like drunks in the gum trees. Saunders claimed that the gum leaves they eat are narcotic, and the reason they look so spaced out is because they’re genuinely zonked. Others dispute this and the debate goes on.

While Telfer set traps in the creek for “yabbies” (an Australian freshwater crayfish), Saunders and I followed kangaroo tracks along the creek.

The variety and color of the birds we saw was stunning: rainbow lorikeets, scarlet robins, rosellas and galahs swept from tree to tree in large flocks. Galahs, a type of cockatoo, are considered a somewhat dimwitted bird, and Australians use the name as a term of derision. To visitors, though, the sight of the pink and dove-gray birds flying wild is a delight.

Just as we settled in to sample Telfer’s barbecue, Saunders pointed out some black-and-white animals in the distance. “Feral goats,” she said. On Kangaroo Island, the word feral (wild) ranks with some of our more colorful expletives. Any introduced animal that can upset the island’s ecological balance really upsets the native islanders. Later, Saunders pointed out pine trees from North America that are gradually taking over from the native gum trees.

One introduced species that has been accepted is the Ligurian bee. No other bee has been introduced since 12 hives were brought to Kangaroo Island in 1881 from the Italian province of Liguria. So the Ligurian strain has remained pure. Today it is a unique species and is exported to apiaries around the world.

Kangaroo Island’s attractions hug the coastline. On the northern (and less frequented) shore, we climbed Constitution Hill for a bird’s-eye view of Snelling Beach.

Just east of the hill, we walked through a tunnel formed by a jumble of limestone boulders to emerge on a sweeping sandy beach with a small lagoon formed by protective rocks. This is Stokes Bay, where fairy penguins come in the spring to have their chicks. There were no penguins there during our visit, but we did see plovers, red-billed oyster catchers, cormorants, ducks and sooty pied oyster catchers.

Kangaroo Island was named by English navigator Matthew Flinders in 1802. Its first occupants--not including the aborigines who had lived there centuries before but later abandoned the island--were bands of deserters from English, French and American whaling ships and escapees from the prison colonies. Together, they formed marauding bands of cutthroats called “straitsmen” or “sea rats.”

With Kangaroo Island as their base, these pirates roamed the Australian coast in whaleboats, raiding villages, kidnapping women, plundering ships and murdering crews.

At sunset, we stopped high on the Wisanger Hills to enjoy a view straight out of Africa: sweeping fields of dry grass and scattered trees, with only the sound of the wind to break the silence.

On the second day of my visit, we picked up another visitor and then set off for Seal Bay, a 2,000-acre conservation area where a breeding colony of more than 300 sea lions lay around on the sand barking and basking.

Because of constant contact with friendly islanders and the absence of predators, the animals regard people as curiosities and not much more. The sea lions and New Zealand fur seals waddle on the sand and barely raise a brown eye as visitors walk by or pose for pictures near them.

Even though the mammals take only passing interest in people, it’s a good idea to get there early in the morning before the crowds--or what passes for crowds--arrive. It’s also advisable not to tease the animals, and to be wary of a mother separated from her pup or an amorous male in the February mating season.

Near Seal Bay are Vivonne Bay and Hanson Bay, two more of what seems an endless stretch of perfect beaches--great for picnics, bathing, fishing or for launching a scuba diving trip. More than 60 wrecked ships have been found around the island’s 280-mile coastline, and that, coupled with coral reefs and clean water, makes this a scuba diver’s mecca. Just beyond Vivonne Bay is the Little Sahara Desert, an oasis of folding white sand dunes surrounded by bush.

Continuing west, Kelly Hill Conservation Park is a haven for birds and animals, and the Kelly Hill Caves offer conducted tours through the calcite formations. Then, just a bit farther west, we arrived at the Remarkable Rocks.

Nature, over the centuries, weathered the massive rock formations so that what emerged was a collection of weird and surreal towers and forms, precariously balanced on a huge granite dome that plunges 90 feet down to the sea.

Nearby Admiral’s Arch is another work of nature--an immense cave carved by the wind and sea. The best time to see it is in February when hundreds of seals and sea lions and their pups use the area for swimming classes.

At the end of the island we stopped for lunch at Rocky River, headquarters of the 185,000-acre Flinders Chase National Park. Here, it is the visitors who are fenced off while the animals hop, waddle, strut and crawl around looking for handouts. Under some gum trees, we pulled out a bag of cut-up apples. Young kangaroos hopped up and gently took the apples from our hands with their paws.

Emus strut around among the visitors and an echidna roams around in circles not really knowing where it’s going. Koalas sit in the trees, zonked as usual, Cape Barren geese parade around posing for the camera, and galahs, lorikeets and cockatoos scream from the trees. The park is also home to about 150 of the rare Glossy Black or Casuarina cockatoo that are found only in Australia, but we weren’t fortunate enough to spot one.

Still, that--not to mention my failure to sight the elusive platypus--gave me the incentive to pay another visit to Kangaroo Island in the future.

Getting There: Qantas has daily flights from Los Angeles to Sydney, with connecting flights to Adelaide. Until April 30, the round-trip fare from Los Angeles to Adelaide is $1,445 U.S. with 14-day advance purchase. From May 1, the fare drops to $1,245. Air New Zealand also has daily flights to Sydney via Auckland ($1034 round trip until April 30, $871 from May 1). Connecting round-trip flights via Australian Airlines to Adelaide are $316.

Lloyd Airline operates daily scheduled flights from Adelaide Airport to Kingscote on Kangaroo Island. The flight takes approximately 30 minutes and costs about $60 for adults, $30 for children.

There are also passenger and car ferries from Port Adelaide and Cape Jervis. The M.V. Island Seaway carries cars and passengers from Port Adelaide to Kingscote. Contact R.W. Miller & Co., Port Adelaide. The Philanderer II takes vehicles and passengers on the one-hour crossing from Cape Jarvis to Penneshaw. Fares are about $16 for adults, $9 for children and $37 for cars. Contact Philanderer Ferries, P.O. Box 570, Penneshaw, South Australia 5222.

Getting Around: To book with Adventure Charters of Kangaroo Island, contact Peter Telfer, 49 Esplanade, Kingscote, South Australia 5223. A one-day island adventure, including air fare from Adelaide, is about $120 per person. Without air fare, the price is about $62. Cost for a two-day trip is about $190, including air fare.

Tours also are given by Kangaroo Island Adventures, which offers two-, three- and five-day packages that include canoeing, sailing, bush-walking, fishing, diving and a bare-boat yacht charter. Contact the company at P.O. Box 778, Penneshaw, South Australia 5222.

Bus tours of the island are available through K.I. Holiday Tours, 9 Dancey St., Kingscote, South Australia 5223 and Sorrento Tours in Penneshaw.

To see the island on your own, you can bring a car from the mainland or rent one from Kingscote Hire Cars or Budget Rent A Car’s international booking.

One of the more unusual ways of seeing the island is by camel. Kangaroo Island Camel Farm, P.O. McLaren Flat, South Australia 5171, has camel trips ranging from 40 minutes to five days and taking in the most popular attractions and the more inaccessible parts of Flinders Chase National Park.

To explore underwater, contact Adventureland Diving, Lot 155, American Beach, Penneshaw, South Australia 5222 for prices on diving courses, daily dive charters, equipment rentals and para-sailing.

Where to Stay: The Wisteria Lodge, 7 Cygnet Road, Kingscote, South Australia 5223, offers comfortable, motel-style accommodations overlooking Nepean Bay. High-season rates: $40 per person, double occupancy.

The Sorrento Resort Motel in Penneshaw has modern motel suites, alpine chalets and cottages with kitchenettes and is set in a two-acre tropical garden on the seafront. About $30 per person, double occupancy. For bookings and more information, write to P.O. Box 352, Penneshaw, South Australia 5222.

The Ozone Hotel is a first class hotel in Kingscote with a dramatic ocean setting. The hotel has air conditioning, a pool and an excellent restaurant. $30 per person, double occupancy. Write to Ozone Hotel, Commercial St., Kingscote, South Australia 5223.

The Island Resort in Kingscote also has air conditioning, pool and restaurant and can be contacted at Telegraph Road, Kingscote, South Australia 5223. $23 per person, double occupancy.

For budget travelers, there are two youth hostels on Kangaroo Island. Penneshaw Youth Hostel is just a short walk from the ferry terminal and has four-bed family room and twins. The Flinders Chase Youth Hostel is set up in former sheep shearers’ quarters on a beautiful farm near the Grassdale Conservation Park. YHA members of all ages can book either hostel through W. & D. Condon, 43 North Terrace, P.O. Box 777 Penneshaw, South Australia 5222.

Where to Dine: In Kingscote, The Bistro at the Ozone Hotel, the Palms Restaurant at the Island Resort, the Beachcomber Restaurant at the Wisteria Lodge and the Port of Call Restaurant on Nepean Bay all offer a wide variety of fresh seafood, steak and other dishes.

In Penneshaw, try Muggletons, the Old Post Office Restaurant or the dining room at the Sorrento Resort.

In American River, try the American River Motel, the Wanderers Restaurant or Linnett’s Island Club.

For more information on travel to Australia, contact Tourism South Australia, 2121 Ave. of the Stars, Suite 1210, Los Angeles 90067, toll-free (800) 447-5263 or (213) 552-2821.