HANSON SANDS

Every year the dunes of Hanson Bay on KI's south coast edge further across the boardwalk. Another little reminder of restless nature - not to mention Mother N's habit of eclipsing our efforts to protect it.

KI CIRCUMAMBULATION

Two brothers, one island and 500km of coastline. Well, it started as two brothers, but Jake Giles had to pull out because of illness. Follow the final stages here as brother Tom becomes the first person to complete a lap of KI on foot.

GREAT SOUTHERN - GONE SOUTH

Now we know for sure: money doesn't grow on trees. As foreshadowed last week, the receivers moved in yesterday to try to sort out the mess that is Great Southern. The company's debt stands at $826 million. The environmental costs to us all are probably incalculable. And another 240,000 hectares of Blue Gum plantation ends up . . . going nowhere?

UPDATE: Here's a Kangaroo Island perspective. And then there's this prescient Stateline KI report from 2006. No doubt there will be a lot more fallout nation-wide. But, in the confined spaces of KI, the long-term loss of good farm country and the sorry tale of such schemes are starkly revealed.

MAYBE NOT SO GREAT AFTER ALL

In WA they've got a Great Southern wine region. Here in SA there is a Great Southern Railway. And there's another mob called Great Southern who look after investment schemes in assorted corners of 'rural' Australia. The schemes include timber plantations that have gobbled up big chunks country everywhere from WA to NSW and the Tiwi Islands to Kangaroo Island. According to some observers the fate of some of these tax minimisation cum investment outfits doesn't look too flash. Businesses come and go. Nothing new there. But if these schemes fail, what happens to the trees in the ground? What about the productive land covered in Blue Gums busily sucking the water table dry? On what balance sheet do the losses to nature and the community appear?

THE ART OF TREES

Cliff-top Sugar Gums, Cape Torrens Wilderness Protection Area




Every visit to Kangaroo Island adds another twist to my sense of the place. Out west near Cape Torrens we were confronted by a gutsy coastline. Giant cliffs. A vastness of sea and sky. Waves bashing onto the rocks below. But all I wanted to look at were the trees. In most parts of the island the shoreline is wind-blasted and shrubby at best. Here, just metres from the cliff edge, there were stately gums and broad bushy sheoaks. By some quirk of topography these trees are sheltered from the worst of the winds from the south and west, though the prevailing breezes have nevertheless done some fine sculpting. (Above)
This alertness to things arboral was perhaps prompted a friend's win in the Penneshaw Easter Art Show. Michele Lane's painting of Pink Bay is as much a study of passing light as anything else. But the other star of the picture is the dense canopy of narrow-leafed mallee, a species that covers many parts of the island like plush rug. How rich and wondrous are the island's diverse native habitats. With every passing year these expanses of native veg grow in significance. Meanwhile the dreary local tassie blue gum plantations seem more and more problematic.























Evening light, Island Beach

KANGAROO ISLAND (JULY 2008)

Another sortie to what is fast becoming a second home. (The 'becoming' would go even faster if the ferry fares weren't so steep. ) From Island Beach we made pilgrimages to the south coast and Cape Willoughby (see pic of the nearby 'zawn' with its fetching granite cliffs).



As always KI impressed, and not for any single highlight, but the way the experience builds as you gad about the island. Winter here is very special, although the impact of the big January bushfires was plain to see in Flinders Chase where the mallee scrub is only now beginning to reshoot. Squeezed in a quick look at the snappy new Southern Ocean Lodge at Hanson Bay. The place was empty when we arrived, which rather highlighted the scale of the lodge's 'great room.' It's a striking piece of architecture with views along the bay's craggy shoreline. This is a resort with a difference: remote, wind-lashed, highly styled and ultra-exclusive. It takes a while to get your head around what's going on here and it prompted a loud discussion later that night on the merits or otherwise of such places. Suffice to say, I feel a story coming on.

This trip also served as a kind of a family reunion with my brother Jonathan and his crew on a visit from their home in Kansas City. Despite a recent knee replacement he was busy taking pics on our days out and about - though alas our schedule didn't allow for any penguin spotting. Jonathan's recent book Flipping Brilliant does however showcase his beloved birds and their jaunty life wisdom.

PINK BAY (March 2008)

Over Easter we dropped into Sea Dragon Lodge at Pink Bay (above) near Cape Willoughby on Kangaroo Island. This is a tiny cove on the north east coast of the island with fine views across to the mainland and timbered ravines of Deep Creek. The Lodge is perched above the bay not far from the lighthouse precinct. Steve & Gail Lane bought the place last year and have plans to extend the lodge. It's currently being rented out with the option of having tours and meals included. Apart from the bay and its rocky shoreline, the property also has a big patch of coastal scrub and a health array of woodland birds and other wildlife.