Sunshine Waits for Southern Ocean Lodge

February 26, 2021

As the landscape and community on Kangaroo Island continues to regenerate and grow following the bushfires of January 2020, sculptor Indiana James has been working steadily to restore the kangaroo sculpture he’d created from found objects around the island for Southern Ocean Lodge.

“Sunshine” is named for the combine harvester whose metal parts had been cleverly collected and arranged to create the skeleton and body of a kangaroo. He was the popular lodge mascot who had stood in the top lounge of the Great Room at Southern Ocean Lodge, silently greeting guests as they arrived and came and went on adventures around KI during their stay.

After the bushfires has swept through the south west end of Kangaroo Island on January 3, 2020 rendering most of the lodge and surrounding coastal landscape to white ash, Sunshine remarkably remained standing and was discovered hours afterwards surveying the scene and guarding the lodge just as he always had done.

Indiana James came to the lodge to collect Sunshine and took him back to his artist studio on Kangaroo Island to restore him to his former glory.

Many months later, Sunshine has been restored to his pre-fire condition and is now waiting on Indiana and his wife Linda’s wide verandah just outside the studio window, so Indiana can keep a good eye on him in case he suddenly bounds off. He’s had a final application of Fluid Film that gives him an ‘oily’ look for now to halt further serious rusting but this will soon fade to his usual more matt rusty finish.  

Looking out across Kangaroo Island’s rolling green hills, Sunshine waits patiently under a tarp to protect him from the elements as plans to build Southern Ocean Lodge 2.0 progress – approvals pending – with architect Max Pritchard at the helm.

All being well, Sunshine will reclaim his place in the Great Room to preside over Kangaroo Island’s rolling hills and welcome guests to the lodge once again.

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