Nature and history

A jour­ney of abundance

With its dense bush­land, soar­ing cliffs, untouched white sandy beach­es and pris­tine rivers and lagoons, the Kan­ga­roo Island Wilder­ness Trail pro­vides walk­ers with a front row seat to some of the island’s most icon­ic nat­ur­al and his­tor­i­cal attractions.

Veg­e­ta­tion

The Kan­ga­roo Island Wilder­ness Trail tra­vers­es the most botan­i­cal­ly unique area in all of South Aus­tralia. Majes­tic sug­ar gums and tow­er­ing mallee are lush with growth while tiny flow­ers cov­er windswept heath, offer­ing a kalei­do­scope of forms and colours that will sur­prise and delight you. Some plants take longer to recov­er than oth­ers and in places black­ened branch­es dom­i­nate the land­scape. But look close­ly and you are sure to spot green shoots emerg­ing from the soil. 

Wildlife

The Kan­ga­roo Island Wilder­ness Trail is the per­fect set­ting to qui­et­ly ​‘go bush’ and see native ani­mals as they were meant to be seen — in the wild. For some of the ani­mals that live here the island is their final strong­hold in the world, mak­ing every encounter all the more spe­cial. Along with sight­ings of the island’s name­sake, the Kan­ga­roo Island kan­ga­roo, you might come across the Kan­ga­roo Island echid­na, tam­mar wal­la­by, Rosen­berg’s goan­na, brush-tailed pos­sum, west­ern pygmy pos­sum, south­ern brown bandi­coot, six species of bat, six species of frog, Kan­ga­roo Island tiger snake and pygmy cop­per­head snake. Encoun­ters con­tin­ue on the water, with sight­ings of long-nosed fur seals, bot­tle-nosed dol­phins and migrat­ing whales all up for grabs.

Birdlife

Kan­ga­roo Island is home to an incred­i­ble 267 species of bird, many of which can be seen year round in their nat­ur­al habi­tat along the Kan­ga­roo Island Wilder­ness Trail. With­in the mallee and stringy­bark veg­e­ta­tion of Flinders Chase Nation­al Park some of the island’s bush birds will enthral and enchant you, among them the shy heath­wren and lit­tle wat­tlebird. Clos­er to the trail’s rivers you’ll find for­est spe­cial­ists such as the white-eared and cres­cent hon­eyeater, bass­ian thrush and shin­ing bronze-cuck­oo. Along the coast the rare and majes­tic white-bel­lied sea eagle, osprey, kestrels and kites will take your breath away as they hunt along the rugged clifftops. When your feet hit the sand along the trail’s many beach­es you might catch a glimpse of some of the island’s rarest shore­birds, such as the threat­ened hood­ed plover and pied oys­ter­catch­er. While back inland the trail’s lagoons pro­vide sight­ings of an abun­dance of wet­land species, includ­ing the Lath­am’s snipe, Aus­tralasian shov­el­er, red-kneed dot­ter­el and Aus­tralian spot­ted crake.

Rivers and lagoons

Among the spec­tac­u­lar scenery of the Kan­ga­roo Island Wilder­ness Trail are the near pris­tine Rocky Riv­er and fresh­wa­ter lakes includ­ing the Wilder­ness and Grass­dale Lagoon that pro­vide habi­tat for a diver­si­ty of birds and frogs, along with an essen­tial water source for oth­er native wildlife.

Coast

Along with the spec­tac­u­lar sights of Admi­rals Arch and Remark­able Rocks, the coast­line along the Kan­ga­roo Island Wilder­ness Trail has every­thing from surf-pound­ed cliffs and becalmed coves to famous sweeps of sand and secret rocky inlets. You’ll feel as if you’re stand­ing at the edge of the world, with noth­ing but the South­ern Ocean between you and Antarc­ti­ca. Sea­far­ers found this sec­tion of coast unfor­giv­ing, with many ships wrecked and lives lost pri­or to the con­struc­tion of the his­toric Cape du Couedic Light­house. As the trail heads towards this icon­ic land­mark you’ll walk in the foot­steps of the hand­ful of ship­wreck sur­vivors that fought against seem­ing­ly insur­mount­able odds and lived to tell the tale.

His­to­ry

From the fos­sils of pre­his­toric megafau­na and camp­sites of ancient Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple to the ship­wrecks of Euro­pean explor­ers and his­toric cot­tages of the island’s first set­tlers, there’s a sto­ry to dis­cov­er around every cor­ner of the Kan­ga­roo Island Wilder­ness Trail. With as many mys­ter­ies as there are proven facts, there is one con­stant through­out all of the island’s wild his­to­ry — a tenac­i­ty for sur­vival and sense of inde­pen­dence borne out of the inher­ent iso­la­tion of this fron­tier at the edge of the world.