Branching out: TreeClimb adventure experience to expand to Kuitpo Forest

TreeClimb is coming to Kuitpo Forest in 2022 with a $1.4m environmentally friendly high-ropes and zip-line adventure course.

Families will soon be soaring through the treetops of Kuitpo Forest with a tree-climbing adventure park similar to the one in the Adelaide Parklands.

Featuring 12 courses, the site – operated by TreeClimb – will be more challenging than its city cousin with higher platforms, longer ziplines and Australia’s first aerial net course that will open up options for people with a disability and their carers.

The $1.4m course will be partly funded through a $600,000 grant from the state government’s Nature-Based Tourism Co-Investment Fund.

Lennan Whiting from ForestrySA and Maisie and Seb Packer from TreeClimb in Kuitpo Forest, soon to be home a new adventure attraction. Picture: Matt Turner

Other nature tourism operations to get a boost from the total $1m fund – which the government says will create more than 50 jobs across the state – include Port Lincoln’s world-famous shark-diving operation Calypso Star and Fleurieu Peninsula aquatic adventure specialists Big Duck Boat Tours.

Calypso Star managing director Andrew Wright said their grant of $181,442 would half fund an expansion that would result in the charter operator venturing on sightseeing trips to Reevesby Island, home to little penguins and sticknest rats, in the Sir Joseph Banks Group, and birdwatching trips south of the Neptune islands.

Mr Wright said it would also allow Calypso Star to employ an additional seven or eight staff members.

Shark diving at the Neptune Islands with Calypso Star Charters. The company will be expanding its operations thanks to new funding. Picture: Calypso Star Charters

For Big Duck Tours, which received $332,500, the funding will allow them to commit to a $700,000 expansion that will see them purchase a new boat and operate a new tour showing off the southern Fleurieu region, home to Australian sea lions, long-nosed fur seals, whales and even the occasional orca.

TreeClimb managing director Seb Packer, who founded the business in 2018, said more than 180,000 visitors had negotiated the aerial adventure course in the Adelaide Parklands.

He said the grant would mean the business could expand to establish its second site with up to four new full-time positions and an additional 45 casual staff members, with many expected to come from the local area.

The Big Duck Boat Tours. Picture: Supplied

“It gives us the confidence to take that next step,” Mr Packer said.

“There are a lot of challenges in deciding to expand, so this funding has allowed us to take the plunge and will really ensure we are supported in this next step.

“In terms of the new set-up, we’re really excited by the new location and what it’ll offer visitors, and particularly families, to the area.

“The new TreeClimb at Kuitpo will be more challenging with longer ziplines and higher platforms together with some new innovations that will be the first of their kind in Australia.”

Environment and Water Minister David Speirs said the Nature-Based Tourism Co-Investment Fund was a key part of the government’s Parks 2025 strategy.

“All of these new nature-based tourism ventures offer visitors special experiences in these natural places that nurture and broaden their environmental and cultural understanding and, importantly, contribute towards conservation projects such as restoring habitat or revegetation,” he said.