Kangaroo Island Guides Attractions Events in South Australia

American River is a small town tucked into native bushland overlooking Eastern Cove and Pelican Lagoon. Its natural surroundings, lack of crowds or hustle and bustle make it a haven for wildlife and birdwatching.

At night the town comes alive with nocturnal animals such as wallabies and possums. The town and surrounds are dotted with self guided walking trails that are the perfect setting for prolific birdlife and native flora.

For those seeking peace and quiet amongst nature, American River is an ideal central location for touring Kangaroo Island.

With the integration of bushland and accommodation, the nightlife in American River is naturally wild. A leisurely walk with a torch will reveal an array of native life including Tammar Wallabies and Brush-tailed Possums.

Organised nocturnal tours are available, incorporating Little Penguins at Penneshaw. The bushland surrounding the village is habitat to the endangered Glossy Black Cockatoo, which are often seen in the area. Eastern Cove, the outer bay, offers excellent sailing and fishing in semi-protected waters. The village of American River supports these pursuits with an excellent boat ramp, barbecue and picnic facilities, fishing charters and boat hire.

The Kangaroo Island oyster industry is based here and oysters are available, seasonally. Pelican Lagoon, the inner bay, is a natural fish nursery and is protected as an Aquatic Reserve. The islands within the lagoon are important bird-breeding habitats. Black Swans, Cape Barren Geese, Australian Pelicans and other birds make the area an excellent bird-watching destination. The foreshore and the Fish Cannery Walking Trail are great places to pursue this.

Emu Bay is a popular bay on Kangaroo Island. It's an ideal destination for holiday makers, with accommodation available overlooking a beautiful beach with four and a half kilometres of clean white sand.

Emu Bay offers a jetty for relaxing fishing, and also charters for fishing, with guides showing you the best areas to land a catch.

Emu Bay is on Kangaroo Island's North Coast, only 10 kilometres on a sealed road from the island's main town of Kingscote.

Kangaroo Island itself is South Australia's nature wonderland, where you can see fascinating wildlife in the wild including seals, koalas, kangaroos, echidnas and much more. Explore its conservation parks and its natural wonders, including Remarkable Rocks, Admirals Arch, Kelly Hill Conservation Park and Seal Bay.

There are daily ferry services to Kangaroo Island - and you can take your car across. There are also flights from Adelaide.

Kangaroo Island is one of the most unspoilt natural wonders of the world, and the ideal spot for an unforgettable holiday.

You'll find seals basking on quiet beaches; koalas munching on gum trees; echidnas wandering in search of insects; and kangaroos, goannas, wallabies, penguins and birds at just about every turn.

One third of Kangaroo Island is protected as conservation and national parks, and half the island has never been cleared of native vegetation. You can walk among huge weather-sculptured granite boulders at Remarkable Rocks and roll down the white sand dunes of Little Sahara. Dodge the wildlife as you hike through bushland. Stretch out in your own secret spot along the island's 480 kilometres of coastline. And retire to your own lighthouse keeper's cottage for the night.

Travelling to Kangaroo Island is easy. It's a 30-minute flight south from Adelaide, or less than two-and-a-half hours by car and ferry. Kangaroo Island Sealink runs ferries between Cape Jervis (90 minutes drive south of Adelaide) and Penneshaw. And there's plenty of accommodation there for you.

At 150 kilometres long and 55 kilometres wide, the island is Australia's third largest. It has four town centres: Kingscote, Penneshaw, Parndana and American River. A coach service runs twice daily between Kingscote, American River and Penneshaw to connect with ferry services (but bookings are necessary). There's a major sealed road right around the island, but many smaller roads are narrow, unsealed and edged with scrub. Driving by day or night, take it easy and allow for slower speeds when calculating travel times.

While you're on Kangaroo Island, don't miss these holiday experiences:

Flinders Chase National Park

Marvel at Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch, just two of the many amazing land formations within the 33,000-hectare Flinders Chase National Park. There's also the 1909 Cape du Couedic lighthouse and wildlife aplenty, including kangaroos, koalas, echidnas and the endangered Cape Barren geese. Start with a visit to the fabulous Flinders Chase Visitor Centre.

Penguin Pageantry

Join Little Penguins on their nightly procession from the waters around Kingscote and Penneshaw to cosy seaside burrows. The friendly folk of the Kangaroo Island Marine Centre in Kingscote run nightly tours, and will also show you around their illuminating saltwater aquariums, containing a huge variety of island marine life including seahorses, cuttlefish and reef fish.

Island Indulgence

Take your tastebuds on tour through the island's growing range of gourmet produce: from award-winning sheep milk cheeses at the Island Pure Sheep Dairy to pure Ligurian honey and olive oil. Watch free cooking demonstrations at the Fish gourmet seafood shop in Penneshaw every Thursday; select your own live lobster at Ferguson's in Kingscote; or grab a freshwater crayfish at Andermel Marron near Vivonne Bay. Taste the boutique wines of this young wine region at the Sunset Winery Cellar Door or the Dudley Wines beside Cape Willoughby Lighthouse, before tucking into the finest local produce at one of many great restaurants and cafes. Grab a copy of the Kangaroo Island Food and Wine Guide and eat your way across the island.

Seal Bay Conservation Park

Walk among the nation’s third largest and most accessible colony of Australian Sea-Lions as these creatures doze in the sun after lengthy fishing forays in the Southern Ocean. Various tours are available at the hugely popular Seal Bay Conservation Park: you can join a park ranger for a guided walk on the beach, or take a self-guided tour on the more accessible boardwalk.

See the Light (House)

Envelop yourself in the island's history with a tour of its spectacular lighthouses. Dating back to 1852, Cape Willoughby is South Australia's oldest lighthouse: you can tour it daily. At Cape Borda, tour the lighthouse and museum before exploring the old landing site and lightkeeper's cemetery. And at Weirs Cove, get an insight into the lifestyle of early lighthouse keepers at Cape du Couedic, as you wander among the remains of the jetty, water tank and storerooms.

Ligurian Honey

Savour the sweetness of Clifford's Honey Farm or Island Bee Hive, where Kangaroo Island’s own population of Ligurian bees (the only pure strain in the world) produces 100,000 kilograms of delectable honey each year. The bees were imported in hives from the Italian province of Liguria in the 1880s, and remain protected from other breeds of bee by the island’s isolation.

Little Sahara

Take a sand board and ride the razorback sand ridges of Little Sahara, a series of spectacular sand dunes that rise out of bushland in the centre of the island.

Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery

Delight in clever bush technology at Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery, now the only commercial distillery of its kind in South Australia. Take a guided tour, see how traditional bush products (like solvent, stain remover and insect repellent) are made and discover relics from the 1930s, when 40 eucalyptus stills employed 600 people across the island.

KI Caving

Sympathize with the poor horse that discovered Kelly Hill Caves in 1881 by accidentally falling into one, as you tour this beautiful cave system of caverns and sinkholes. The caves are lit using ground breaking fibre-optic "white light" technology, which allows visitors to see the stunning natural colours. Showcase tours run daily, but the more daring can also book an adventure caving tour for a deeper look into this underground world of ornate calcite formations.

Kingscote is Kangaroo Island's largest town, sitting on the north coast with a view across Nepean Bay to the mainland in the distance.

A feature of the town is the tidal rock surrounded swimming pool on the foreshore. Delightful Little Penguins have established themselves in the sandstone and clay cliffs in front of the town. Guided by Kangaroo Island Marine Centre, tours are conducted after dusk to see the penguins returning from their day's fishing. Or watch the hungry pelicans at 5pm every night - they have the biggest beak of any bird in the world!

Situated on the shores of the beautiful Nepean Bay, with a panoramic view of the boat-studded harbour, Kingscote is the commercial and business hub of the Island. To the north there are steep cliffs that descend steeply to Reeves Point (old Kingscote), one of the most important heritage sites in South Australia.

The jetty nearly always yields a feed of fish for the keen and patient angler. Kingscote has a large commercial fishing fleet and associated depots. There is a long and much used fishing jetty and a slipway.

Established in 1836, Kingscote was the first settlement in South Australia. Close by is Reeves Point, the landing site of the South Australia Company settlers, as well as the first Post Office in South Australia, the first tree planted by Europeans the Old Mulberry Tree, the Pioneer Cemetery and Hope Cottage Museum.

Centrally located on Kangaroo Island, Pardana is a hub that provides access to the north and south coasts of the island, Seal Bay and Flinders Chase National Park.

Often described as a typical Australian country town, wildlife can often be seen on road verges and, in late winter and spring, they are covered with wildflowers. The Soldier Settlement Museum is also here, with a historical display of the early years of the development of the island's heartland by returned soldiers. Parndana was the town centre for the Soldier Settlement Scheme, which commenced in 1948 when the country was cleared for rural purposes.

The town has a small shopping centre and bakery, churches and Wilderness Tours conduct Koala Tours at night.

Parndana is on the Playford Highway, 40 kilometres from Kingscote.

The Spinners and Weavers Guild conduct a wool spinning demonstration and sell hand spun knitwear each Thursday afternoon.

Penneshaw is a pretty coastal village on the north east Dudley Peninsula on Kangaroo Island, with spectacular views of the South Australian mainland.

The regular SeaLink ferry service from the mainland arrives here, making it the perfect location from which to explore the rest of Kangaroo Island. You'll find a great array of accommodation, right in the heart of Penneshaw or one of the surrounding bays, and there's also good shopping and friendly places to eat.

Try your luck at fishing off Hog Bay Jetty (tommy ruff, trevally, snook and King George whiting are common here) or walk along the coast into Baudin Conservation Park to see wallabies sheltering under the bushes to escape the heat. Other activities include boat fishing or swimming off one of the safest beaches on the island.

At night, head out to see Penneshaw's colony of Little Penguins – tours are conducted nightly from the Penguin Interpretive Centre.

When Sydney University evaluated 10,000 beaches across Australia (rating them on things like clarity of water, privacy and cleanliness) Kangaroo Island's Vivonne Bay came out on top.

Vivonne Bay's long, curved, sandy beach is a superb site for picnics, beachcombing, surfing and fishing. Experienced surfers enjoy the wonderful turquoise waters. Fishing from the jetty, beach, boat or the Harriet River mouth is excellent.

The beach can be reached by taking the road just past the Vivonne Bay store. Safe swimming areas can be found near the jetty and boat ramp, or the sandy-bottomed Harriet River that enters the bay nearby. On the other side of the river, Point Ellen provides photographers with spectacular views of the Southern Ocean sending its waves crashing onto the cliff-face.

Vivonne Bay is the only safe harbour on the south coast of Kangaroo Island and is the base for crayfishing boats from November to May. You'll find barbecue and picnic areas, toilets, and camping area.

Kangaroo Island itself is a nature and adventure paradise. Take your family and friends to discover Seal Bay, Remarkable Rocks, Admirals Arch, Little Sahara, Kelly Hills cave, and so much more.