Explorer Matthew Flinders did not beat about the bush when naming the island off the coast of southern Australia where he washed up in 1802.

He found a place devoid of humans but bouncing with marsupials yet to learn about guns and sailors' taste for 'roo meat.

The sheer size of Kangaroo Island was my first surprise. Maps show KI (as it is known) as a speck in the Southern Ocean, but it's larger than Cornwall, though the population is just 4,500.

Hop to it: Kangaroo Island, near Adelaide, has only 4,500 human residents - but some 60,000 kangaroos

Change afoot: The island is dubbed the 'Australian Galapagos' because of its many wildlife inhabitants

Creature comforts: As its name suggests, Kangaroo Island is a place where you can see magical marsupials

Mere minutes after leaving the ferry from Cape Jervis near Adelaide, 13 miles away on the mainland, I had joined four fellow wildlife enthusiasts in the back of a jeep on an all-day guided tour. Off we bumped into the rippling scrolls of Outback.

Roos and their joeys in overwhelming numbers were foraging in scrub or bounding in mobs as far as the eye could see.

This is what I had come to see: Aussie wildlife in profusion on the island dubbed the 'Australian Galapagos' because of the way creatures evolved into distinct species after rising sea levels left KI adrift from the mainland 10,000 years ago.

The smallish, tawny-coated Kangaroo Island kangaroos, upwards of 60,000 of them, are just one sub-species on an island that bounces, crawls and slobbers with extraordinary animals.

Close at hand: The island is located 13 miles from the mainland, and can be visited via ferry from Cape Jervis

Up close and personal: The island is a place where you can glimpse local wildlife at close quarters

Skittish Tammar wallabies were hiding in the undergrowth while predatory wedge-tailed eagles circled above.

We saw koalas snoozing in the Manna gum trees before an echidna (an egg laying mammal, which looked like an overgrown hedgehog) wiggled out from under a bush.

We spied bandicoots and possums, goannas (monitor lizards) and snakes: a tick list of Australian wildlife must-sees.

Then there were the Australian sea lions. The climax of our day's safari was to leave our jeep and walk over the sand dunes to Seal Bay, where rumbustious bulls in their hundreds were blustering about on their flippered feet and butting potential rivals 'cos they herded females into protesting harems.

The south coast is the wildest part and it is here that opulence meets the sea at the Southern Ocean Lodge, where celebrities and millionaires stay in suites of floor to ceiling plate glass facing the Roaring Forties.

With no public transport on the island, joining a guided tour is the only practical way to make the most of the wildlife.

I was happy to be based in the gentler north-east where most of the islanders live, many of them dairy and sheep farmers, often with a small vineyard as a side line. Kingscote, the 'capital', has a frontier town feel with wooden-fronted shops and a pub strung along its main street.

Spectacular: Flinders Chase National Park is a protected area located at the west end of Kangaroo Island

Up before the beak: The island is home to an array of exciting creatures, including the Australian pelican

A moment to savour: Wildlife encounters can amaze you at any moment on Kangaroo Island

I stayed at nearby Seascape Lodge, where former farmers Paul and Mandy Brown let three rooms of their hilltop bungalow with sweeping views over crescent-shaped Emu Bay.

We guests joined our hosts at their dinner table each evening for juicy lamb or freshly landed King George whiting.

Shoal Bay wine grown just beyond the end of the drive was also served, along with fun and informative company.

On another day I was driven out to Flinders Chase National Park in the far west with the bush-hatted Chris Baxter, a naturalist and hiking guide.

We set off through camphor-scented woods and along the banks of Rocky River where platypuses flitted through the rocky streams.

Aptly named: The Remarkable Rocks add a dash of the dramatic to the Kangaroo Island landscape

'Unlike the roos, these fellas are not endemics,' said Chris.

'Along with the koalas, they were introduced in the Twenties in a Noah's Ark kind of idea because on the mainland they were threatened with extinction by fur hunters and predators such as dingoes and foxes.

'There are none of either here.'

Admiral's Arch, the gaping mouth of a cathedral sized sea cave hung with stalactite fangs, saw the end of our journey.

From here I gazed across a surf-battered bay to a headland where huge boulders, sculpted by the elements and splattered with rust-coloured lichen, perched.

As I approached, they seemed to morph into outlandish creatures; giant-beaked bird here, snarling carnivore there.

They are the 'Remarkable Rocks', named by Flinders in his no-nonsense fashion; a geological freak show mirroring the island's wildlife.