Flinders Chase Visitor Centre

Sus­tain­abil­i­ty at the core

The Flinders Chase Nation­al Park Vis­i­tor Cen­tre is an exem­plar of Eco­log­i­cal­ly Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment (ESD). Locat­ed on the for­mer KI Wilder­ness Retreat site, it makes use of an area that had pre­vi­ous­ly been developed.

Self-suf­fi­cient ener­gy: Our cen­tre gen­er­ates and stores its own pow­er, includ­ing elec­tric vehi­cle charg­ing stations.

Solar-pow­ered com­fort: Our solar pas­sive design ensures year-round com­fort. Low-ener­gy heat­ing and cool­ing sys­tems adapt to the chang­ing sea­sons, keep­ing you com­fort­able while min­imis­ing our car­bon footprint.

Har­mo­ny with nature: Whether you’re sip­ping cof­fee on the café deck or explor­ing the nat­ur­al sur­round­ings, our vis­i­tor and staff areas seam­less­ly blend with the site’s beauty.

Rain­wa­ter cap­ture: Solar pan­el-cov­ered walk­ways and shel­ters not only pro­vide shade but also col­lect rain­wa­ter. Wet­land fil­tra­tion and stormwa­ter man­age­ment com­plete the cycle.

Mate­r­i­al selec­tion: Our archi­tec­ture proud­ly stands con­crete-free. Instead, we’ve craft­ed it from sus­tain­ably sourced, bush­fire-resis­tant Aus­tralian tim­bers. It’s stur­dy, eco-friend­ly, and unique­ly Aus­tralian. Rammed earth walls, sourced from mate­ri­als on-site, cre­ate a warm and invit­ing atmos­phere. Lat­erite grav­els, lime­stone, and charred euca­lypt add local character.

Bush­fire pre­pared­ness: Our loca­tion isn’t just pret­ty — it’s strate­gic. We’ve curat­ed it to reduce bush­fire risk while pro­vid­ing spaces for vis­i­tors to relax and explore.

Marine parks

State and Com­mon­wealth marine parks pro­tect the species and land­scapes with­in the waters around Kan­ga­roo Island. These parks include West­ern Kan­ga­roo Island Marine Park, South­ern Kan­ga­roo Island Marine Park, South­ern Spencer Gulf Marine Park and Encounter Marine Park.

Marine con­tent includ­ed with­in the Flinders Chase Vis­i­tor Cen­tre was a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the South Aus­tralian Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment and Water and Parks Australia.

Find out more about South Australia’s marine park net­work and the Com­mon­wealth marine park net­work.

Artist spot­light: Agniesz­ka Woznicka

A high­light of the inter­pre­ta­tion gallery is the inter­ac­tive video art­work by Agniesz­ka Woznic­ka, a visu­al artist known for her explo­rations of the nat­ur­al world. Draw­ing inspi­ra­tion from dreams, psy­chol­o­gy, folk­lore and nature, her work cap­ti­vates and edu­cates vis­i­tors of all ages. Agniesz­ka also teach­es in the illus­tra­tion and ani­ma­tion pro­gram at the Uni­ver­si­ty of South Aus­tralia and works from her stu­dio in the Ade­laide Hills.

Agniesz­ka’s work Life at the Edge is a sen­so­ry jour­ney through Kan­ga­roo Island’s unique ecosys­tems, explor­ing the inter­re­la­tion of its dif­fer­ent habi­tats, cap­tur­ing a sense of immer­sion and won­der and encour­ag­ing a new way of look­ing at the world around us and the rela­tion­ship between nature and imag­i­na­tion. The film explores a num­ber of visu­al and sym­bol­ic edges: earth meet­ing sky, sky meet­ing ocean, sta­t­ic meets dynam­ic, flu­id meets rigid, smooth vs irreg­u­lar, past meets present.

The work is a form of col­lage com­bin­ing lay­ered pho­to­graph­ic, video and ani­mat­ed ele­ments, and a mix of abstract and pho­to­graph­ic imagery. Ani­ma­tion tech­niques include dig­i­tal draw­ing, tra­di­tion­al water­colour paint­ing, stop-motion and roto­scop­ing. The pho­to­graph­ic imagery is sourced direct­ly from Kan­ga­roo Island, Flinders Chase Nation­al Park and the marine parks, ref­er­enc­ing and depict­ing pat­terns, tex­tures, and colours found in the island’s environments.

Artist spot­light: Cedric Varcoe

Cedric Var­coe is a proud Ramindjeri/​Narungga man liv­ing on Coun­try, with strong con­nec­tions to his ances­tral lands. His fam­i­ly orig­i­nates from both Raukkan and Point Pearce com­mu­ni­ties. Cedric works as a painter, weaver and wood­carv­er, draw­ing inspi­ra­tion from his cul­ture, Dream­ing sto­ries and sig­nif­i­cant sites with­in his ances­tral lands to keep them strong, as well as his Mi:Wi (Spir­it) strong through art.

Cedric has cre­at­ed three art­works for the Flinders Chase Vis­i­tor Cen­tre: a Wakal­di (shield), a Kulind­jeri (head­band) and a Punawi (woven weapon bag). These art­works rep­re­sent objects car­ried by Ngu­run­deri the Cre­ator on his jour­ney through Ruwi (Coun­try) and across to Kan­ga­roo Island as he shaped our lands and waters. It is impor­tant for all Ngar­rind­jeri men to make and car­ry these objects, just as Ngu­run­deri showed them in the Dreaming.

Qui­et lab, busy scientists

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ade­laide has launched the Flinders- Baudin Research Cen­tre beside the Flinders Chase Nation­al Park Vis­i­tor Cen­tre — you can find the lab by exit­ing the vis­i­tor cen­tre using the doors oppo­site the entrance. The new field sta­tion allows for fur­ther research that adds to the cur­rent knowl­edge of the area’s flo­ra and fau­na, as well as inves­ti­gat­ing fire and water resource man­age­ment and restora­tion ecology.

At key times of year you can look through the win­dows into the lab space and see sci­en­tists at work, but don’t be alarmed if the lab is emp­ty – the researchers are often out in the field, track­ing wildlife and explor­ing ecosys­tems. Stay tuned for their amaz­ing findings!

Thank you to our contributors!

The sto­ries you dis­cov­er with­in the Flinders Chase Nation­al Park Vis­i­tor Cen­tre were cre­at­ed with help from:

Sue Catch­e­side and Emer­i­tus Pro­fes­sor David Catcheside

Geoff Chap­man

Jonathan Tyler

Nicole Mid­dle­ton and Dar­ren Phillips

Ngar­rind­jeri Abo­rig­i­nal Cor­po­ra­tion members

Kau­r­na Yer­ta Abo­rig­i­nal Cor­po­ra­tion members

Narung­ga Nation Abo­rig­i­nal Cor­po­ra­tion members

Phill Cassey

Assoc Prof Neale Draper

Dr Peg­gy Rismiller

Daniel Duval

Dr Clare Buswell & Dr Dave Gillieson

Bri­an Clarke

Jim Ged­des

Pro­fes­sor Andy Lowe

John Foden

Bob Hill

Richard Glatz

Dan Hanisch

Ali­son Myers

Dr Jess Marsh

Peter Shaugh­nessy

Ky Alec­to

Thank you for gen­er­ous­ly shar­ing your time, sto­ries and expertise.