Unforgettable memories
In January 2020, large swathes of Australia were engulfed in wildfires, engulfing everything in flames. Kangaroo Island, the country’s third largest island, located 15km off the coast of South Australia, was also in dire straits. The western corner of the island was ablaze, billowing black smoke that covered the sky. Strong winds carried ashes and scattered them everywhere, and when they fell on the dry bushland, they became kindling and ignited more fires.
As a result, more than half of Kangaroo Island, an area of 44,000 hectares, was burned and two island residents died. The South Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service estimated that up to 40,000 koalas died in the fires.
In terms of infrastructure, many houses and properties were reduced to ashes, including the famous luxury hotel Southern Ocean Lodge on the island. The staff were lucky to be safe after taking shelter in an underground bunker, but the hotel was eventually reduced to rubble.
In addition to tourism and wildlife, the fires have also caused serious damage to the agricultural sector, with many farms and thousands of livestock destroyed.
During the fires, Dan Pattingale, a fig and olive farmer in the main town of Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island, was determined to stay put and not evacuate. Using his experience in firefighting, Dan Pattingale equipped himself and his family with fire hoses.
“The strong wind of 80km/h blew, carrying black smoke, ash and the noise of the fire, the scene was really scary. We just kept spraying water into the house,” Pattingale recalled the horrifying memory.
By 4 a.m., after five hours of battling the blaze, the worst was over, Pattingale said: “I was elated to know that we had saved our house and our trees.” Although the olive trees were scorched by the fire, they bore fruit three years later and the fig tree is still thriving.
Life Rises from the Ashes
Today, visitors to Flinders Chase National Park can see seals gathering in sea caves, while rare Australian sea lions frolicking in the distance during breeding season. The nighttime scene is equally impressive, with kangaroos hopping about and adorable furry wombats busy munching on succulent leaves.
Most of the wildlife on Kangaroo Island can be found in this national reserve, much of which was destroyed in the 2020 fires. Heiri Klein, a conservation ecologist at Kangaroo Island with the South Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, explained that before the record-breaking fires, there were around 50,000 koalas living there.
“We may have lost 30,000 to 40,000 koalas in the fires,” Klein estimates. The good news, he says, is that the marsupials’ numbers appear to be recovering rapidly.
One animal endemic to Kangaroo Island is the dunnart, a mouse-sized marsupial whose numbers have skyrocketed since the disaster. "Before the fires, there were almost no records of dunnarts. Shortly after the fires, we started seeing them in unprecedented numbers," said conservation ecologist Klein.
Likewise, Klein has seen plants sprout immediately after fires have ended, thanks to their seeds remaining in the ground, ready to germinate as soon as possible.
Ready to respond
Mr. Klein said that after 2020, forest fire management in the national park reserve on the island has been enhanced. Many fire corridors and fire access roads have been established along with increased resources to allow for better control of forest fires, limiting the causes of fires.
Learning from the record bushfires, most Kangaroo Island residents are prepared to fight fires. Pattingale, for his part, has installed safer underground pipes and a new generator to ensure backup power for his water pumps and satellite internet communications. He has even converted his garden hoses into fire hoses.
Baillie Lodges, the owner of the Southern Ocean Lodge, embarked on a major rebuilding project for its tourist accommodation. The project was completed in December 2023 and opened to visitors. According to the architect, fire safety was a top priority during the design and construction of the new hotel. Fire sprinklers were added to the roof and around the outside of the building. The water storage capacity of the tanks was also doubled, with 5.8 million litres of rainwater and borehole water always on standby. Notably, the new fire suppression system is now remotely controlled, meaning all staff can be evacuated in the event of an emergency.
The biggest change in the hotel’s fire prevention is the design of the garden landscape. Previously, in the spirit of preserving the natural landscape, the natural eucalyptus and melaleuca trees around the hotel were retained. However, when a forest fire occurs, both of these trees are highly flammable and can explode at high temperatures due to their high oil content.
Immediately after the disaster, hotel staff established a nursery and propagated 40,000 native plants. These are carefully selected, naturally occurring plants that will be planted around the new hotel, creating a 20-meter-wide buffer zone that will significantly prevent fires in the event of a forest fire.
Today, almost the entire Kangaroo Island is green again, with fresh green shoots soon covering the bare branches - the few remaining traces of the fire.
Even though the “scars” in nature have faded, the memories of the devastating bushfires will still remain in the minds of Kangaroo Islanders and they are always ready to fight the threat of fire.
