Courage under fire

Bushfires may have decimated half of Kangaroo Island but an area three times the size of Singapore remains open for business. It's time to step up, South Australia.

Bushfires may have decimated half of Kangaroo Island but an area three times the size of Singapore remains open for business. It's time to step up, South Australia.

As the sun begins to warm the beautiful waters of Emu Bay on the north coast of Kangaroo Island, it’s clear something is missing. This is January, peak season for visitors on the island, but today the sands are empty, the waters deserted.This summer’s catastrophic bushfires have had a catastrophic effect on Kangaroo Island – not just on the western side of the island but on the eastern side too, unscathed from the flames but now facing the danger of seeing many of its businesses going up in smoke, with visitors who fled the island at the height of the disaster yet to return.“Business just stopped,” says Kangaroo Island Marine Adventures owner Andrew Neighbour, a fourth-generation islander whose family-owned business offers the bucket-list opportunity to swim with dolphins. “We’re flat out every day with people cancelling.”The ferocity and longevity of the bushfires have left businesses all over Kangaroo Island in peril. Island Beehive owner Peter Davis has lost almost half of his 1200 beehives, each home to 80,000-100,000 precious bees. “We’ve probably lost in excess of $500,000 already in honey production,” he says.The drop in visitors to Island Beehive’s café is also affecting the livelihoods of Davis’ staff. “We employ seven casuals in the shop but have had to cut their shifts to one day a week,” Davis says. Bev and Larry Turner, who own Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Oil Distillery, have also been forced to implement reduced working hours. “Some days we’ve had two cars the entire day,” Bev says. “I have three staff members here, but two others who have worked for me for eight years are not working at the moment.” The Turners have turned to social media for help, encouraging sales through online orders. “People can still get our products,” Larry says.Online sales have also proven a lifeline for Julie and Jamie Helyar, who opened their False Cape Wines cellar door on December 14 last year, six days before the bushfires hit. “Once the second fire started, the tourists have all gone home,” Julie says. “However, we’ve actually had a pick-up in online sales which has been good.”Over at The Islander Estate Vineyards’ cellar door at Cygnet River, online sales are proving more important than ever after fire destroyed the winery’s Kohinoor Hills vineyard. “We had 11ha of wines, 5000 vines per hectare, and it basically killed every singly vine in the vineyard,” says Yale Norris, general manager and part-owner. “Thankfully our cellar door wasn’t affected so it’s very much business as normal there.”But for businesses like Sunset Food and Wine, getting tourist feet back on the ground is the only means of survival. Visiting Sunset Food and Wine on what should be a busy Thursday evening in late January, the urgency is clear: just two couples in a dining room that during peak season would normally host 80-100 people. “I would say this week is the worst we’ve seen since the fires started and not much is happening looking forward,” owner and head chef Jack Ingram says.While the islanders are reeling from a lack of visitor support, there is no lack of support for each other. Sophie and Eliza Sheridan, co-owners of Emu Bay Lavender, have seen a 75 per cent drop-off in sales at their farm coffee shop, forcing them to reduce staffing hours. But despite their own struggles, the mother and daughter team’s main concern is for those around them. “We have a lot of people calling in who have lost farms and family so you try to be here for them,” Sophie says. Assemblage artist Janine Mackintosh, who lost a significant number of artworks when bushfire reduced Southern Ocean Lodge to ashes, is also worried about the impact on her local community. “I was shocked, thinking of the jobs that will be lost for quite some time,” she says. But while community support remains strong, Kangaroo Islanders can’t do it alone. “We’re a tough mob, we’ll bounce back but we have to have people,” island mayor Michael Pengilly says. “If we don’t get visitors returning, it’s going to kill us.”For visitors coming back to Kangaroo Island, there is still so much to see and do in the – until now – relatively undisccovered east side. “There’s an area the size of three Singapores that hasn’t been burned,” says Craig Wickham, owner of Exceptional Kangaroo Island, which has been running personalised luxury tours on the island for more than 30 years. “We have 2500sq km you can explore without seeing a burned gum leaf. You’re still going to be able to find the beautiful beaches, the microbrewery, the two honey places, the lavender farm, the cellar doors … ”The message is clear: the landscape may have changed but Kangaroo Island remains open for business … but it can’t do it without South Australia’s help. “If you visit us next year, half of the experiences will be gone,” Wickham says. “We all need people to come back and start visiting now.”

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Now is the time to back SA    

Nick Reade, Chief Executive BankSA

In my conversations with customers and businesses, our state’s spirit and resilience has never been more evident than over the past couple of months as bushfires have stretched our communities to the limits.

As the immediate threat passes, and rebuilding efforts get underway, our support going forward will be more important than ever.

In the weeks, months and even years ahead, the biggest way we can all make a difference is to support local causes, buy from local businesses and back our state.

Many of the businesses impacted are small family businesses, which we know are the backbone of our economy. Some have a presence online but many do not, making it more critical than ever that we visit and spend in our regions.

We should not lose sight of the fact that there are also many farmers and agricultural producers impacted, for whom tourism and retail spend will not provide a direct impact. At BankSA we’re doing whatever we can to help.

Through a range of measures, we’re supporting our customers. Whether it be covering mortgage repayments for one year for those who’ve lost their homes, or offering cash grants of up to $15,000 for businesses to assist with cost of refurbishing damaged premises.

On the ground, we’re working with communities to help. We’ve delivered generators to Kangaroo Island from a local supplier to help households, agri producers and businesses get back on their feet and return to some sort of normality.

Our state is home to countless thriving producers and businesses, making a big impact, with many exporting their expertise to the world. Others are deliberately niche, offering unique local goods or produce.

Either way, we have a unique opportunity now, in recovering from a truly terrible situation, and help to shape our state’s future economic growth.    

If the fires have reinforced anything, it might be that we don’t want to lose what makes South Australia such a unique place to live and do business – our world renowned wines, unrivalled fresh produce, iconic wildlife, quality agricultural exports, internationally-recognised destinations, and experiences that you can’t find anywhere else. 

It should steel our determination not to take these for granted, but actively support them well into the future. It’s more important than ever that we all back SA.  

Originally published as Courage under fire