A State Government-backed proposal to develop privately-owned eco-lodge villages on the popular Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail is a threat to an island once considered Australia's 'Noah's Ark', local parks volunteers say.

Key points: Kangaroo Island's population of 4,500 welcomes 140,000 visitors per year, one third of whom are international tourists

Kangaroo Island's population of 4,500 welcomes 140,000 visitors per year, one third of whom are international tourists Plans for eco-lodge accommodation more than 2km off a popular trail in a national park is drawing local criticism

Plans for eco-lodge accommodation more than 2km off a popular trail in a national park is drawing local criticism On Wednesday, the Marshall Government announced $11.8 million to be spent on improving nature-based tourism in 2019-20

In the 1920s, the mainland's threatened species were placed on the isolated island — Australia's third largest — to ensure their survival.

Kangaroo Island's abundance of vegetation and wildlife such as koalas and platypus have flourished on 'the ark', just as the rolling Southern Ocean swells invigorate its unique wilderness and carry currents rich with life from Antarctica.

But now as South Australia's premier tourist destination — welcoming an annual pilgrimage of 140,000 visitors, one third of whom are international tourists — its exotic nature is under increasing pressure.

Friends of Parks KI Western Districts secretary Bev Maxwell at the site of one of the proposed accommodation hubs. ( Supplied: Colin Wilson )

Friends of the Parks, a group of around 60 volunteers on the island, said proposed eco-lodge villages at two locations more than two kilometres off the trail at Flinders Chase National Park would destroy vegetation and views of untouched habitats.

Bev Maxwell, spokesperson for Friends, said the volunteers oppose the location of the lodges as national parks should be preserved for all and not developed by private interests.

"We were gobsmacked … to discover that these proposals were not along the trail," she said.

"That they required not only the clearing of completely untouched wild native vegetation on headlands, but they were also going to require an additional trail track to be built to them and also service roads into them.

"These places [where] they want to build the accommodation, it's untouched.

"It's a national park and what are national parks for?"

The proposed lodge of up to 10 two-person pods will be placed on the headland in view of beach users at Sandy Beach. ( Supplied: Bev Maxwell )

On Wednesday, the Marshall Government announced $11.8 million will be spent on improving nature-based tourism in 2019-20, including a new $3.3 million Parks Restoration Fund to fast-track upgrades for nature and heritage-based tourism and improved accessibility.

"Preserving our precious open spaces and opening them up for everyone to enjoy is part of ensuring our state remains a great place to live and work, while also protecting the best of our natural heritage — stunning landscapes, native wildlife and roaming bushland," Mr Marshall said.

Developers' 'marketing reach'

Half of Kangaroo Island is covered in its original vegetation, and one-third of its total area is dedicated to national and conservation parks.

The Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail meanders its way through virgin scrub, edging past platypus waterholes, wallaby haunts, and delivers walkers to breathtaking beaches void of footprints.

There are no cars, no deadlines, just a backpack and 66 kilometres of track winding through one of the most pristine and untouched wilderness areas of Australia.

What do you see in this remarkable rock on Kangaroo Island? ( ABC Open contributor Vanda Sofia )

The South Australia Government's Environment and Water spokesperson Matt Johnson said the project proposed by the Australian Walking Company was being developed with minimal impact on the environment.

"They're a very sensitively-minded company. There's a massively shared objective here of caring for the environment but ensuring that people enjoy it, and future generations are inspired to care for it," he said.

"They have been very sensitively designed and they are very sympathetic to the environment that they sit in."

Mr Johnson said utilising a private company for the project had far reaching benefits.

"The considerable thing here is the opportunity for us to have an operator of Australian Walking Company's experience and credentials, and also their marketing reach and distribution is enormously important for the state," he said.

"It will serve to put Kangaroo Island and South Australia and our great nature and concern for nature on a national and international stage."

Parks volunteers strike over commercialisation

Friends of Parks KI Western Districts are on strike in protest at a private developers push for luxury accommodation near pictured Sanderson Bay. ( Supplied: Colin Wilson )

Friends of the Parks, who volunteer to remove weeds, revegetate areas, survey animals and promote the parks, have gone on strike in protest at the eco-lodge bid.

It follows a march on Parliament House earlier this year with the Public Parks not Private Playgrounds movement.

Ms Maxwell said a major concern was that the private development would ruin the headland beach aesthetics for the public.

But Mr Johnson said the location of the accommodation hubs was about guest experience, including the ocean outlook.

He said the location, up to 2.1 kilometres from the track, was also designed to respect the space for other campers at the existing sites along the trail.

The State Government has contributed $830,000 to the proposal under a jobs initiative, with the Australian Walking Company committed to provide 30 new jobs.

About 500 people attended a rally on South Australia's Parliament House steps to protest the proposed development earlier this year. ( Supplied: Photograph Colin Wilson )

Conservation and tourism tension

Kangaroo Island's population of 4,500 survives off both its clean credentials in agriculture and an expanding tourism trade.

University of South Australia tourism management lecturer Freya Higgins-Desbiolles said there had always been tension between public access to national parks and protecting them for conservation.

"We have these parks with the idea of protecting ecology, habitats and particularly biodiversity. So when you create these lodges and accommodations there's a concern that they can have impacts on fragile environments, vulnerable species," Dr Higgins-Desbiolles said.

"We've just recently had … the UN report which has talked about possibly one million species lost in the future, so these precious areas that we have under conservation are only going to get more important."

She said the proposed development in Flinders Chase National Park had fractured the community.

The State Commission Assessment Panel deferred its decision on the eco-lodge proposal last month, awaiting further information from the applicants.