Featuring over 500km of Coastline, Kangaroo Island is Australia’s third-biggest island, located just off South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula. With plenty of native bushland and a lack of rabbits and foxes, the island is home to a good range of native wildlife, including a few that are unique to the island like the endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart and the Kangaroo Island Kangaroo.
Humans have also called Kangaroo Island home for thousands of years, evidence of Aboriginal inhabitants has been found on the island and they most likely lived there when the island was once connected to the mainland. Today the island has a population of just under 5000 people with the largest town being Kingscote, the first town to be settled in South Australia.
Kingscote is serviced by the Kingscote Airport that has regular flights to Adelaide and some seasonal flights to Melbourne. A car and passenger ferry connects the Kangaroo Island town of Penneshaw to the mainland town of Cape Jervis on a 45-minute journey. Penneshaw is the island second-largest town and is just under 60klm from Kingscote. Penneshaw is noted for its sculpture trail, Maritime & Folk Museum as well as a fairy penguin colony. Several tours of the island run from the Kangaroo Island Gateway Visitor Information centre that is located in Penneshaw.
Thanks to the island’s large National Parks filled with magnificent beaches, native bushland and amazing local wildlife, Kangaroo Island is often regarded as one of the world’s best nature based destination. Popular activities on the island include camping, fishing, golf, bike riding, nature walks and hiking. If adventure is not your thing, there always is plenty to offer with a fantastic range of local produce, wines and honey all produced and showcased on the island at a host of local cafe’s and cellar doors.
