Southern Ocean Lodge

On 3 January 2020 the fire that burnt the western half of Kangaroo Island reached Hanson Bay and destroyed Southern Ocean Lodge in an afternoon. The staff and guests had been evacuated the day before. What remained was the cliff, the view over the Southern Ocean, and a decision by the owners to build again. The lodge reopened on 6 December 2023, on the same footings, with 25 suites in place of the original 21.

History

James and Hayley Baillie opened Southern Ocean Lodge in March 2008 on 102 hectares of coastal scrub at Hanson Bay, on the south-west coast of Kangaroo Island, South Australia. It was the first of the Baillie Lodges, followed by Capella Lodge on Lord Howe Island and Longitude 131 at Uluru, and it set the model for the Australian luxury lodge: all-inclusive, remote, with the landscape as the attraction. The bushfires of the 2019 to 2020 summer burnt almost half the island and took the lodge with it. The Baillies, by then in partnership with the American investor KSL Capital Partners, rebuilt over three years, with Max Pritchard again as architect, and the regrowth of the scrub around the new building has become part of the story told to guests.

Architecture and design

Max Pritchard, the Adelaide architect, designed the original lodge as a low building following the line of the cliff, with a central Great Room of glass and limestone opening on to the ocean and the suites strung along a walkway to either side. The rebuilt lodge keeps that form, with the Great Room, its sunken lounge and fireplace, the bar and the restaurant under one curved roof, and the suites extended in two wings. The materials are local limestone, Australian timbers and glass; the building was made more resistant to fire, with the bush cleared back from its walls.

Rooms and suites

The 25 suites all face the ocean, with a glass wall, a sunken lounge, an outdoor terrace and a bathroom with a view. The Flinders Suites are the entry level, the Ocean Family Suites add a second bedroom, the Osprey Pavilion has a plunge pool and a private terrace at the end of the wing, and the Ocean Pavilion, the largest, is a two-bedroom residence with its own entrance, pool and lounge. Rates include all meals, the open bar and the guided excursions.

Dining

The restaurant in the Great Room serves a menu that changes daily, built on Kangaroo Island produce: marron, oysters, lamb, honey from the island's Ligurian bees, and wines from the island and South Australia. The open bar in the Great Room is included. Private dinners are laid on the terrace and in the pavilions.

Wellness

The Southern Spa, in its own building on the cliff, has treatment rooms with ocean views and uses island botanicals; the rebuilt lodge added a sauna, a plunge pool and a hydrotherapy area to it. The lodge's days are organised around guided excursions in the Flinders Chase National Park, to the seal colony at Seal Bay, Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch, and to the island's producers.

Weddings and events

Southern Ocean Lodge takes small weddings and celebrations, generally as an exclusive-use booking, with the ceremony on the cliff-top lawn or the Great Room terrace and dinner in the Great Room. The lodge sleeps around 50, which sets the ceiling for a wedding party; there is no separate function room. Companies book it for retreats and leadership meetings, using the Great Room and the lounge, and the lodge arranges activities around the island for the group.

Location

The lodge is at Hanson Bay on the south-west coast of Kangaroo Island, a few kilometres from the entrance to Flinders Chase National Park and about 100 kilometres from Kingscote, the island's main town. Kingscote Airport has flights from Adelaide of around 35 minutes, and the lodge drives guests the remaining hour and a half; the SeaLink ferry from Cape Jervis to Penneshaw is the alternative, with a two-hour drive after it. Adelaide Airport is the gateway for international guests. Of the lodges of the Australian coast, this one has the clearest view south: nothing but ocean between the cliff and Antarctica.