The Shackle Road - Flinders Chase National Park: In the Kangaroo Island region of South Australia

Many tourists who visit Kangaroo Island make a beeline for the picture postcard stops like Remarkable Rocks and Admiral’s Arch at the western end and little wonder - they're well worth a look.

But many of the wonders of Flinders Chase National Park are off the bitumen. A short distance from the Visitor Information Centre and you're travelling on a track which was put through in 1907 to connect the Cape Du Couedic Lightstation with the Cape Borda to Kingscote telephone line. As you wind your way through the dappled light of the majestic Sugar Gums you soon realise you're on one of the Island's little gems - The Shackle Road.

Ranger Roger Collins wrote the self-guided tour book for the Shackle Road and it explains the features of the South Australian bush, which many of us take for granted. A good example is a termite mound:

“There's a multitude of termites in there. Now when South Australians think termites - they think ‘bad news’ - however these guys are all part of nature. What they're doing is breaking down an old tree stump. You can see in some spots there's a bit of a scratch. Goannas come along about February and they'll make a burrow inside and lay about a dozen eggs in there. The termites, being good little fellows will actually mend the hole so inside, it’s nice and warm - about twenty-five degrees. (The eggs) incubate perfectly. Mum's gone off - she leaves the kids alone. They hatch out come September. Easy done!”

The experts at KI's Pelican Lagoon Research Centre - along with Adelaide cameraman Clive Taylor have been recording this process for several years. And while the young goannas may have the time of their life inside the termite nest things become a lot more hazardous once they enter the big wild world.

“Now if you're a smart Currawong what are you going to do? You're going to sit up in the tree and down they come. Boom. So out of a dozen (baby goannas) you're pretty lucky if at most one or two will get to adulthood.”

Next stop is another common feature of the Shackle Road - a Yakka Tree with a fascinating story.

“This is much older than any of us. It grows at about a metre for every hundred years. So you see what we're looking at here is at least a couple of hundred years old. This is something we call the grass tree, some people call it the Yakka or if you want to call it's real name, Xanthorrhoea.

Underneath, amongst the dry stuff you find the lovely home for the pygmy possum and the ordinary possum. It hasn't been burnt for along time but that trunk back in there would be as black as anything. Because living for so long they have to put up with a few fires. As you go through the rest of the park you find some a bit like this. Some much taller.”

It's a park full of contrast from the age-old and hardy Grass Tree to the delicate and short-lived native orchid. Each of the thirteen stops on the Shackle Road reveals just a little more of Kangaroo Island's amazing story. Soon we're marveling at that distinctive Flinders Chase canopy.

“The are huge eucalypts and if you look right up the top that's where all the vegetation is. Coming through is just like a nice forest of sticks almost and all the vegetation is up the top. Very old, very hard Sugargum. They didn't get their name from the old ones but from the young plants. They’ve got a sugary substance in their leaves and if you were to taste it, It tastes like sugar hence the name. But these guys are so old and leathery I wouldn't be chewing on the leaves I don't reckon.”

Leathery and magnificent too, providing a wonderful canopy for the plants below and what live off them. Such as the lime green plants called Wallaby Bushes. The Tamar wallabies love the little berries that grow on them. We found that during the late afternoon when the sun was going down was a good chance of seeing them come in for a nibble.

But the Shackle Road is worth a drive any time of day. It's in Flinders Chase National Park and you can pick up a self-guided Drive booklet from the Visitor's Centre. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au

For details on great accommodation on Kangaroo Island please visit the Emu Bay web page