Kangaroo Island Sealink - The only way to travel to Kangaroo Island

From Munich to Modbury, Kangaroo Island is regarded as one of Australia's best nature holiday destinations. Now, a new 'highway' takes more people and cars there, and faster.

About 160,000 people visit the island each year descending upon a mere 4000 or so Islanders. The very fact that there is no land bridge... no highway... means the new Sealion 2000 ferry takes you to a different world.

It is a big island, about 155 km long. And about one third of it is National Park or Conversation Park. Its ancient rugged coastline is another ingredient in the alternatively soft and cuddly animal images and wild and wild spectacular scenery shots that promote Kangaroo Island in the South Australian Tourism Commission's international campaigns.

K I, as its known locally, is a place without the environmental scourge of rabbits and foxes. No mass tourism resorts either. And that's because it's across Backstairs Passage, an ocean filled trench 17 across cut through the tail end of the Mt Lofty Ranges by an ancient glacier, a couple of Ice Ages back.

The new Sealion 2000 ocean going ferry spans that gap between Cape Jervis and the holiday town Penneshaw on the eastern part of Kangaroo Island. It is the main transport link for the islanders, their industries, and their visitors.

All sleek, stream lined and smoked glass, the Sealion 2000 was custom built for the voyage, and the local syndicate asked for airline style comfort for its 350 passengers. Not a flight attendant in sight, but the on board café crew will serve you a real cappuccino!

You may find yourself sitting with pensioners from suburban Adelaide, or professionals from swish Antwerp. About a quarter of K I's tourists are from outside Australia, coming for a 'mini Australia' package.

I chatted with a young Singapore couple on a long day trip (they would return to the mainland on the ferry in the evening), Austrian honeymooners who planned a homestead stay, and a Swiss backpacker joined briefly in the country by her father. All of them were hoping to experience nature up close ­ and as they were headed for Flinders Chase, they wouldn't be disappointed.

The ferry's viewing platform over the twin hills' bows is called the Dolphin Deck. As we watched the Sealink company's second workhorse ferry come past on the reverse trip, the shout went up! Dolphins! Just for the joy of it, three dolphins scooted along perilously close to the pointed bow below us. Even at 16 knots, or 25 kph, they effortlessly threw in a fluid zig zag to emphasise their athleticism.

They are a regular sight for the commanders of the new ferry. The bridge of the catamaran passenger and vehicle ship is a cross between a jumbo jet and an ocean line. Autopilot and global positioning technology complement the local knowledge of the skippers.

They're driving nearly 50 metres of vessel, carrying a maximum load of 354 passengers, 63 cars, or 42 cars and 4 trucks. That is double the capacity of the previous ferry. And since Sealion 2000 came on to the run in September 1998, the passage now takes only 45 minutes.

Some of the $9 million cost of the new KI ferry went below decks, of course. Two giant caterpillar diesel's sit deep in the twin hulls, delivering power equivalent to 6 big semi-trailer prime-movers.

As the morning trip crowd walk onto Kangaroo Island at the expanded post facility at Penneshaw and take in the pretty scenery of a protected cove with rows of holiday cottages climbing back up the hill, they are arriving at a part of the island that has seen some historic traffic.

In March 1802, British navigator, Mathew Flinders sheltered from a gale in the waters off here. His crew came ashore and killed 31 kangaroos for much needed fresh meat. In gratitude, he called his landfall, Kangaroo Island. He also named the Backstairs Passage to the long gulfs of South Australia.

A couple of weeks later, French explorer Nicholas Baudin came past, just after the famous encounter of the two ships of warning nations that gave Encounter Bay its name.

Baudin was back next summer, after retiring to Port Jackson for the winter, naming the southern coastal features. Having circled round to the northern side, his crew came ashore at Penneshaw for water and carved 'Frenchman's Rock'. It is now safe in the new Gateway Visitor Centre.

South Australia was officially colonised in 1836. As Flinders and Baudin's charts came into whalers and sealers hands, however, there were temporary 'residents' long before that. Commander Isaac Pendleton brought his American ship 'The Union' into these waters in 1803, and his crew built a 40 ton boat on the shores of what's now called American River.

Penneshaw is sometimes called Hog Bay. It is thought Baudin may have released pigs for future sailors. But I prefer the old timer's version quoted in a nineteenth century history. He said 'the pigs got a shore in a werry mysterious way, do you mind'.

The Sealion 2000 Ferry service runs a morning and evening return service from Kangaroo Island, with connections to coach trips and car hire services. Its information and booking number is 13 13 01, and you can visit its web site at www.sealink.com.au.