Activities & Things To Do on Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island’s character comes from being a little apart.

Cut off from the mainland, the island has learned to work within its limits: growing food where the soil allows it, protecting wildlife that moves freely and letting nature lead the way. That separation is the island’s greatest gift. You see it in the wild resilience of the scrub, and you feel it in the unhurried, intentional way the locals move. Here, people have time for a yarn and the space to do things properly, simply because the mainland rush never made it across the water.

What you do here follows naturally. Walks trace clifftops, where wind presses in from the ocean, before slipping into bushland lush with steady regrowth. Wildlife doesn’t stay tucked away. Kangaroos graze by the roadside, sea lions haul out along the coast, birds rise and resettle as you pass. Below the surface, the water is just as alive, with dolphins and seals cruising the limestone reefs.

The same conditions guide what’s grown and made on the island. Farms, vineyards and distilleries tend their produce carefully, often inviting visitors in to see how it all comes together. Whether you explore independently or with a guide, Kangaroo Island responds best to time and attention. This page brings together the places and experiences that help you do exactly that.

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Wildlife

Kangaroo Island’s wildlife has a habit of crossing your path. You’ll slow for kangaroos as they pause by the roadside at dusk, wait for echidnas to crawl across walking tracks and look up to spot koalas, sitting low in the forks of eucalyptus trees. Along the coast, Australian sea lions clamber onto wide beaches and settle in, unphased by your presence. Pelicans gather near jetties, eyeing off the boats returning. Offshore, dolphins surface close to the beach, and in clear water, the bright flash of a western blue groper glides beneath you. Overhead, the call of a glossy black cockatoo carries through the bush, a hero song for those habitats that have renewed.

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Natural Landmarks

Stepping out of the car, you are immediately met by the wind off the Southern Ocean, it’s guiding hand at your back as you navigate the short track to the Remarkable Rocks, where granite rises around you and holds the warmth of the sun. Not far away, Admirals Arch draws you closer with sound first - waves thudding through the rock and spray lifting into the air.

Elsewhere, clifftop paths push you into the breeze before easing inland through bush and sand. Beaches stretch long and open, cool underfoot at the water’s edge. Lookouts invite a pause - a drink of water, a deeper breath and a longer look - before you keep going, carrying that sense of space with you.

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Farms & Beverage Artisans

Kangaroo Island’s produce grows out of patience and isolation. With no shortcuts and limited scale, farming here stays careful by necessity. You see it in neat rows of vines shaped by coastal weather, lavender cut low and left to dry, and hives tended slowly to protect the island’s disease-free Ligurian bees. Olive groves are pruned by hand. Wool is shorn, sorted and worked into knitwear that carries the weight of use.

Cellar doors, distilleries and small producers invite you to taste what the island makes when things are done properly and close to the source: wine, gin, honey, oysters, eucalyptus oil. Many are family-run, shaped over generations, and happy to talk you through the process. What you take home carries the marks of the land and the time spent getting it right.

Places to go on Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island works best when you know where to spend your time. Towns give you places to eat, restock and settle in. Bays offer calm water and natural stopping points between drives. National parks shape the bigger days, with longer walks and wide stretches of coast. These are the places travellers plan around — each one helping you decide how to pace your trip and what to prioritise.

Planning a Trip?

On Kangaroo Island, planning matters. Distances add up, ferries set the clock and some places are worth building a day around. Save your highlights for later by creating a free southaustralia.com account. You can save all your favourite attractions, tours, landmarks and suggestions as you research and build your trip in the Trip Planner.