SOL 2.0 will largely maintain the original lodge footprint with 25 luxurious guest suites easing along the coastline. In a deft design manoeuvre, each of the suites has been reoriented to offer even better views of the ocean and coastal wilderness, where the eye was always drawn to the glorious sunrise, sea mists and thundering cobalt waves breaking on the shore.
A new ultra-premium suite, the 640m2 Ocean Pavilion which follows the ‘owner’s residence’ style pavilions across the Baillie Lodges portfolio, sits remotely offering expansive views of the Southern Ocean, outdoor terrace with wet-edge pool and private accommodation with up to four bedrooms and bathrooms, or a combination of two separate suites.
The Osprey, Remarkable and Flinders suites will be reinstated with upgrades and layout tweaks to make the most of the coastal outlook.
Near perfect in its original incarnation, the main lodge is comfortingly familiar with the Great Room and suspended feature fireplace at its heart. Enhancements include a private dining ‘snug’ adjoining the walk-in cellar and an edgeless pool curving along the sun terrace. A new location for the Southern Spa allows space for three treatment rooms, gymnasium, a sauna and hot and cold plunge pools with bushland views.
The rebuild of SOL 2.0 will see the return of the lodge’s original architect Max Pritchard along with his partner Andrew Gunner. The new lodge will once again be a champion of South Australian and KI suppliers of food and beverages, where a commitment to using exclusively local produce is a veritable boon to the regional economy.
In the meantime, Kangaroo Island is open for business and now more than ever the local community needs support from South Australian locals and interstate visitors. Flinders Chase National Park is open with its Remarkable Rocks and adorable New Zealand fur seals at Admirals Arch. The sealions are hanging out at Seal Bay and there’s a swag of great cafes, wineries and
restaurants for sustenance, not forgetting the moreish KI Spirits distillery for its prize-winning gins and addictive local limoncello. Our ongoing support for Australian tourism is vital for the industry’s future. There’s a host of incredible destinations and tourism operators ready to welcome visitors, so plan a holiday and start travelling, as soon as possible!
Southern Ocean Lodge has been named in two categories in the prestigious Travel + Leisure’s It List 2024. Our newly reopened flagship lodge has been named in both The 100 Best New Hotels of The Year and The Most Luxurious New Hotels of 2023 lists.
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AFAR, the award-winning travel magazine with a focus on sustainability, has revealed its 31-strong list of the world’s best new hotels of 2024. The selection features the best in design, comfort, and sustainability while delivering extraordinary guest experiences to guests. Contributor Lee Tulloch's review is here.
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Christine McCabe writing for The Australian’s Travel and Luxury section was among the first to visit Southern Ocean Lodge when it opened in December 2023. 'The impressive Great Room is eerily identical to the destroyed original', Christine writes, and '…it’s a new iteration for a new era on Kangaroo Island.'
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Chloe Sachdev has reviewed the newly reopened property for Condé Nast publications around the world, commenting, ‘The retreat has a light touch sustainable DNA that involves using local products, ingredients and people as much as possible… Long live Southern Ocean Lodge and Kangaroo Island!’ We couldn’t agree more.
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Join Canon Master photographer Richard I’Anson as he returns to Kangaroo Island to host two unforgettable five-day photo safaris from August 1-5 or September 5-8, 2024. Limited to just ten like-minded guests, traverse the island for location shots and hands-on personal tutorials led by Richard.
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AFAR magazine has wrapped up 15 of its top accommodation picks in Australia, including three Baillie Lodges sisters, Longitude 131˚ at Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Silky Oaks Lodge in the Daintree and the just-reopened Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island and many more of our fellow members from the Luxury Lodges of Australia collection. There’s loads to explore in 2024!
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Just days before Southern Ocean Lodge is due to open on Kangaroo Island, Natasha Bazika has written of her visit to the studio of assemblage artist Janine Macintosh. 'I spent five days scrounging through the debris looking for interesting relics - mostly ceramics, metal and glass', says Janine.
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Condé Nast Traveler has released its popular annual ‘where to travel in 2024’ global lists, with Kangaroo island and Southern Ocean Lodge running high in the Australia New Zealand line-up. Here’s a hint: '…it’s the reopening of the highly anticipated Southern Ocean Lodge in December 2023 that has signalled the island is back to life.'
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Lonely Planet has announced its Best in Travel List 2024 with Kangaroo Island coming in at second place in the prestigious, much anticipated list. It’s perfect timing to spotlight this spectacular destination to the world, just as we prepare to open.
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As we edge towards 2024, Traveller rounds up a new generation of game-changing hotels including our own Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island, with a smart new design ready for a new era of travel and all set to welcome our first guests on December 6 this year.
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This month’s Town&Country magazine includes a wrap of what to book now and what to put on your dream travel list, with this top tip: Be the first to snag a room at Australia’s famed Southern Ocean Lodge, reopening in December after four years. We agree!
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The generously inclusive package includes a two-night stay at the newly reopened Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island plus the option of two nights at sister property The Louise in the Barossa Valley, complete with complimentary airport transfers.
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Executive Traveller’s Chris Ashton puts together a wrap of the world’s luxury hotel openings slated for 2023 – including Southern Ocean Lodge. It’s an impressive line-up of must-visit destinations and their star luxury accommodations.
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South Australia's Premier, the honorable Peter Malinauskas MP, and Tourism Minister Zoe Bettison MP for a Country Cabinet recently visited the Southern Ocean Lodge worksite. With increased Qantas flights and the upcoming reopening of the lodge after a $55 million rebuild, Kangaroo Island's tourism is poised for a remarkable comeback.
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Australian Traveller lists its top ten emerging destinations for 2023 and includes The Louise and her ‘backstage pass to the Barossa’ and Southern Ocean Lodge whose rebuild is now well underway on Kangaroo Island ahead of its reopening on December 6 this year. Read the whole list here:
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Delicious Magazine checks out the best way to check in to Southern Ocean Lodge for a good cause, as bidding for the ‘First In Fundraiser’ online auction continues. For those keen to make a contribution to our community partners please head to our Journal to donate directly.
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Breaking news: we're excited to announce that Southern Ocean Lodge will open on December 6 this year. To say thanks to the community which has supported us over the past three years, we are auctioning three 'first in' three-night preview stays, arriving on December 5. Learn more.
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We’re thrilled to announce today that Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island has been named in TIME’s World’s Greatest Places List for 2023. There are 50 extraordinary travel destinations named in this, TIME’s third annual list – and you can see the full list here:
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Writing for The Weekend Australian, Roy Eccleston travelled to Southern Ocean Lodge to see the new iteration of the globally celebrated original. Roy was one of the last writers to stay at Southern Ocean Lodge before it was destroyed in the summer fires of 2020 and wrote the award-winning exclusive shortly afterwards.
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The prestigious New York Times has today published its list of 52 places for travellers to visit in 2023. We’re thrilled that Kangaroo Island and Southern Ocean Lodge come in at number seven! Baillie Lodges founder James said the inclusion was a ‘full circle’ moment for the lodge where building is now well underway.
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‘SOL 2.0, as it is affectionately dubbed by its owners, is a brand-new ground-up build and qualifies for our list of the best hotel openings to look forward to next year’ writes Will Lennox for The Australian. Read about the other top luxury hotels opening in 2023 that are worth travelling for…
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AFAR magazine embarks on a journey to Kangaroo Island, almost three years after the bushfires which wiped out more than half the island’s wilderness and our own Southern Ocean Lodge. Writer Katherine LaGrave marks the progress of SOL 2.0 and witnesses the parallel regeneration of the landscape, its wildlife and the resilient community.
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Two years after Baillie Lodges’ award-winning
flagship property Southern Ocean Lodge was razed in the Kangaroo Island bushfires,
company founders James and Hayley formally marked the start of building in a sod turning
ceremony on the lodge’s original site on KI’s
remote southwest coast, breaking the ground using a shovel retrieved from the ashes.
Baillie Lodges founders James and Hayley meet journalist Helen Dalley on her popular podcast, ‘Build it. They Will Come’ to chat about the joys and challenges of building luxury lodges in Australia and overseas. It’s perfect timing as we look forward to the rebuild of flagship Southern Ocean Lodge 2.0 on Kangaroo Island. Stay tuned for more!
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Eighteen months on from the bushfire, the Southern Ocean Lodge site has been cleared. Small teams of friends and industry colleagues banded together in a series of working bees, led by intrepid Lodge Managers John Hird and Alison Heath and documented on film by 57 Films.
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March 29 marks the date the lodge doors first opened thirteen years ago. New plans for its successor, dubbed SOL 2.0, will make the most of the now blank canvas site on Kangaroo Island’s wildly beautiful coast. Max, James and Hayley discuss the journey ahead in a new short film by 57 Films.
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One year after the devastating fires that destroyed Southern Ocean Lodge, James and Hayley address plans for the highly anticipated SOL 2.0. The rise of SOL 2.0 will be documented by Adelaide-based filmmaker Paul Ryan of 57 Films - watch the trailer here.
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A Little Pygmy Possum has been found on Kangaroo Island for the first time in almost a year. A conservation team made the discovery during a recent wildlife recovery initiative in the wake of the devastating bush fires. ABC News reports on the delightful sighting here.
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Sydneysider Kailas Wild drove several hundred kilometres to Kangaroo Island where fires had ravaged the local bushland and the koala population. Then he put his skills as an arborist to good use, scaling gum trees to rescue as many injured koalas as he could. Join the ABC Conversations podcast here.
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In what has become an almost daily event, the team at Exceptional Kangaroo Island have spotted endangered Glossy Black-Cockatoos feeding among trees planted as a food source in the wake of the fires. ABC News also reports 23 hatchlings have been discovered!
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Tucked away from the rest of the world, Kangaroo Island Spirits has been cleaning up the biggest awards on both sides of the Atlantic. Both their Wild and O Gins were rated higher than any other Australian gin in the ‘Oscars’ of world spirit competitions.
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The Islander Estate Vineyards on Kangaroo Island was one of many Australian wineries to be severely impacted by the bushfires over summer in the southern hemisphere. But as notable wine reviewer James Halliday writes, they are determined to rise again.
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In an effort to help the renowned 'bee utopia' recover, teams of Adelaide beekeepers have travelled to Kangaroo Island and built 500 new beehives for local producers impacted by the devastating summer bushfires.
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With the threat of extinction looming following the bushfires, Kangaroo Island’s endemic dunnart, a small sooty-grey coloured marsupial has been captured on camera at a new location boosting hopes for the species' survival.
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SA Weekend magazine editor Roy Eccleston scoops the exclusive, speaking to James and Hayley Baillie, managers John Hird and Alison Heath and architect Max Pritchard in this nail-biting story.
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Make a cuppa and take a moment to flick through Tourism Kangaroo Island's travel guide, offering visitors the latest information on what to see and do on this incredible island.
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When the flames were doused on South Australia's Kangaroo Island, locals faced another battle - the perception that all was lost. Travel Insider's Di Webster visits and finds the reverse.
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Newly launched website Road Trip for Good makes it easy to plan a trip to support regional businesses affected by fire – already quite a few KI businesses are onboard.
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One of Kangaroo Island’s best-loved wineries, the Islander Estate has plenty of wine stocks. Order direct here. Open a bottle (or three), share it with friends, tell them about KI and repeat!
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The Australian's Christine McCabe ponders the KI spirit, the one that draws visitors back again and again, musing 'time slows and the wider world seems to melt away'. Take a moment and get travelling in spirit...
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When we discovered Southern Ocean Lodge in 2019 the wonder was total, and we will never forget the feeling we got when we saw the ocean while entering the lodge for the first time. Later, a book let us learn about the familial character of this project, how much you invested yourself in it, and how much it mattered to you.The Ducros Family, France
My husband and I stayed at Southern Ocean Lodge last March for part of our honeymoon. It was, and is still my very favorite place I have ever stayed. We travel all over the world and have been in some wonderful five-star hotels and resorts, but that one on Kangaroo Island is a standout. Please rebuild so we can return some-day soon.Susan Stevens, Australia
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