The tree used to produce the Island's eucalyptus oil is called the Kangaroo Island narrow leaf mallee or Eucalyptus cneorifolia. It is the tree you can see growing in this photo (and all over the island). This tree gives the island a unique oil that is found nowhere else in the world. There are over 1,000 species of eucalyptus trees and only about 10 of the varieties have enough oil to be of commercial value - the narrow leaf being one of the top three.
Eucalyptus oil distilling was once one of Kangaroo Islands major industries. It began in the 1880's, and was a supplementary income for the farmers clearing their land for sheep farming. In the 1930's it reached its peak with 48 stills employing over 600 people and over the eucalyptus distilling era there were around 100 stills on the island. In the 1950's, sheep farming took over being more viable for farmers - a few stills continued operating after that time but nothing commercially, thus eucalyptus distilling became part of history.
In 1991 the Island's economy was bleak. Larry Turner, a fourth generation sheep farmer and a bit of a schemer, came up with a few ideas. The thick scrub his ancestors worked so hard to clear became an unlikely saviour.
The business started 22 years ago in the old MacGillivray Post Office - and Emu Ridge is now the only commercial still in South Australia.
This may look like a rusting museum piece but this is a commercial still, and the oil is still produced today the same was it was 100 years ago. The workers go out each day and cut young regrowth to the ground with a chainsaw. The trees can be harvested every one to two years, with a life span of over 100 years. The branches are gathered and loaded onto the back of a trailer and brought back to the still site. This takes about two hours. A large pot of water on top is one quarter filled with water and about half a tonne of leaves are thrown into the pot and packed in. The lid is then clamped into place and the fire lit underneath. The water boils, and the steam will rise up through the leaves. This ruptures the oil cells in the leaf, the oil and steam vapour rise up and travel through a system of pipes in the tank where the water cools it. It returns to liquid and runs out of the pipe at the bottom of the receival pit (an old recycled beer keg) as oil and water. Oil is lighter than water an therefore floats to the top. This whole process takes around four hours from start to finish.
"New" for next summer, Larry has just bought a thrasher for cutting the eucalyptus trees rather than doing it by chainsaw.
Of course there has to be a resident emu living on a property called "Emu Ridge".
Another neat place on Kangaroo Island is Little Sahara. Little Sahara is a heritage area, a naturally occurring sand dune system roughly covering two square kilometres. The dunes vary in size with plenty of small dunes and the highest dune is approximately 70 metres above sea level. Unless you have an acquired taste for sand it's a good idea to keep your mouth shut when sandboarding!
Next stop was at my friend's farm in the middle of Kangaroo Island, in an area known as "Heartland". This is where generations of families have lived, where farmers work the land and where you'll find Parndana - a typical Australian country town/village. The name "Parndana" means "The Place of Little Gums".
The Heartland was where, in 1948, ex-soldiers were resettled, given the task of farming the island's central plateau in return for an allocation of 1200 acres of land, the cost of which was eventually to be paid back. As part of the Soldier Settlement Scheme, returned soldiers almost doubled the area of agriculture land on the Island.
My friends have 1400 acres here and they have an Angus farm.
Dotted about on the property are areas of scrub which contain lots of these trees called Xanthorrhoea, commonly known as 'grasstrees' or 'yakkas'. Their growth rate is very slow - about 2½ cm per year - so when you see yakkas this big you know they are hundreds of years old! Flowers are borne on a long spike above a bare section called a scape, and these can be up to 4m long.
The "trunk" of Xanthorrhoea is a hollow ring of accumulated leaf bases. Nutrient transport is via aerial roots that run down the centre.
Back at the farmhouse later in the day and what should be there to greet me but two koalas!
We did a bit of "fishing" in the dams at the farm as well to see if we could find any of Edward's relatives... and luck was with us! Stay tuned for a special blog posting all about Edward, his family and friends.
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