The wildlife, caves and clean sandy beaches are just some of the attractions
THE WORDS 'Australian islands' conjure visions of the Great Barrier Reef and celebrated resort islets Dunk and Hayman. But just off the coast of Adelaide, in south Australia, Kangaroo Island is making a name as the country's coolest destination.
About 10,000 years ago the piece of land now known as Kangaroo Island had reached a watershed. The continent's tectonic plates were shaking their booty and the ocean was gradually eroding the land bridge between Kangaroo and the mainland.
The result, 10 millennia on, is more than opportune as the island has become something of a 'lost world' - a matchless wilderness crammed with outstanding natural beauty, wildlife, pure air and clean water - all just 45 minutes by ferry from Cape Jervis, just outside Adelaide.
Nothing lies between the island and the Antarctic and, after Tasmania and Melville, off the coast of Darwin, this is Australia's third-largest island at 150km long and 30km wide, with about a third taken up by conservation parks.
When Europeans first arrived in Australia, they found no Aboriginals living on the island. However, archaeologists have unearthed stone implements and hazard a guess that the island's original two-legged population died out for reasons yet to be determined, at about the time Julius Caesar was eyeing a different island off the coast of Europe.