Part 2: Celebrating the past while looking ahead CELEBRATIONS for the 180th anniversary of settlement in South Australia are in full swing on Kangaroo Island. Many of the longstanding Islander family names — including Bates, Turner, Wilson, Howard, Florence, Snelling and Buick — will play a role on Wednesday. Heather Buck, from the Kingscote Bay Window Haberdashery and Quilting store, was a “Buick” before her marriage to Phil Buck. The Buicks were the first in American River to build a permanent home in 1842, while the Bucks came out to KI on the Rapid with Colonel Light. “As a kid growing up you knew everyone here,” Heather says. “This anniversary is a great time for us all to get together and celebrate our history.” Peter Davis, from the Island Beehive honey farm will also be right in the action on July 27. He has spent a small fortune restoring a derelict 1948 Austin fruiterers van — nicknamed by wife Susan as “The Old Man’s Dream”. The van, originally purchased by W. A. Boettcher of Cygnet River to transport his fruit to market and the mainland, was a familiar sight on KI for decades. For the anniversary, Peter, will drive children from the Kingscote Area School down to Reeve’s Point for the official ceremony of the first landing of the free settlements and then back up to the Kingscote Town Hall for an official function. He sees the youth as the answer to Kangaroo Island’s future. “I think the place is about to take off but we need a lot more young people to stay and take over from people like me,” he said. “We’ve had a long 30-year period where there were a whole lot of ‘nimbies’ here (“Not In My Back Yard”) who didn’t want anything to change. But there’s strong development going on now and a lot of young farmers have come back to the island.” Mayor Peter Clements — who will host Premier Jay Weatherill and Rebekha Sharkie, newly-elected-Federal MP for Mayo, which takes in Kangaroo Island — for the 180th anniversary official ceremony says the community is “proud of our history and excited for the future”. “We have 4500 permanent residents on the Island and about the same visitors on an average day – and we’re expecting a very big crowd to come out and celebrate,” he says.