1 May 2024
Gourmet Traveller
Editor: Michael Harden
If the idea of a luxury retreat on a private island owned by a wealthy telco entrepreneur doesn’t already have you thinking about the James Bond of it all, the trip out to starkly beautiful Louth Island in South Australia’s Spencer Gulf certainly will.
A short ride in a shiny black Mercedes van from Port Lincoln airport brings you to the Louth Bay Compound where your transport to the island awaits. It’s a strange hybrid-looking vehicle called Sealegs, essentially a canopied boat with wheels on legs, which takes you from the compound, over a sand dune, and then into the water on the other side where the wheels retract, the boat’s outboard motors fire up, and you start speeding through the astoundingly clear waters towards Louth Island, a golden sliver in the distance, a couple of nautical miles from the coast.
As you near the island’s sandy beach, the wheels are deployed again and you trundle out of the ocean, up the beach, and pull up directly outside the main building of the fledgling eco-resort Rumi on Louth. It’s hard not to have the Bond theme music playing in your head.
The Sealegs vehicle affords some idea of how Rumi on Louth rolls. This is an unconventional resort, one that embraces the gorgeous wild landscape of the island – a sun-bleached palate of white and beige sand and sage green flora that’s filled with birdlife and surrounded by the kind of startling aqua blue waters that channel the arid islands of the Mediterranean – while also utilizing expensive technology that puts Rumi firmly in the luxury end of the resort spectrum.
The way Rumi has opened is as unconventional as its private island setting, given that the main part of the project – 27 one-bedroom villas placed in secluded parts of the 135-hectare island – are not yet built. What Rumi is offering now is being called Rumi Reveal. This encompasses two-night stays in one apartment or four suites upstairs in the two-storey timber-clad main building plus opportunities for day trips and dining in Rumi’s superb Samphire restaurant.
It’s a tantalising preview and also one that might have you suspecting a bit of marketing spin, given that only stage one has been completed. But one of the biggest reveals after a couple of days on Louth is the commitment by owner Che Metcalfe, co-founder and former CEO of telecommunications infrastructure company Uniti Group, to make this fully off-grid luxury resort, the first of its kind in South Australia, a reality.
This is an unconventional resort, one that embraces the gorgeous wild landscape of the island while also utilising expensive technology.
One of Metcalfe’s main goals is to rehabilitate Louth’s natural environment. Sheep grazing on the island from the mid-1800s into the 1900s saw the natural flora overtaken by introduced grass species and invasive weeds, which is now being addressed with a 10-year rehabilitation plan that’s already paying dividends. Guests who are feeling altruistic are given the opportunity to participate in the environmental program.
The birdlife is remarkable – Cape Barren geese, wedgetail eagles, little penguins, Pacific gulls, pelicans, and green rock parrots share the space with scribbling swirls of starling – and there are protected nesting grounds, a sanctuary off-limits to humans, on one end of the island. The sea around the island, clean and clear as glass, teems with whiting, garfish, mackerel, and snapper. You can both marvel at and eat the abundance.
The eco part of the resort equation is also impressive. The whole venture – including a state-of-the-art desalination plant essential on an arid island and the electric golf buggies that ferry you about – is powered by a multi-million-dollar solar power plant at the center of the island. In an often hot and sun-baked location, there is something supremely relaxing about running an air conditioner the entire time, smug in the knowledge that you’re being cooled by the sun.
The current accommodation, though not as spacious as the proposed villas in their waterfront locations, offers plenty of light airiness with wall-sized windows framing the landscape and the ocean beyond and a sandy, smooth textured combo of timber floors, neutral-coloured furnishings, and Venetian plaster work. The king-sized beds are the type that may have you googling the maker and the well-stocked mini-bar is – like all the dining during your stay – included in the rate.
Local chef Jono Sweet is in charge of the food here and wisely, given the abundance of the sea and the mainland Eyre Peninsula, keeps things strictly regional. He’s also worked fishing boats and oyster farms in the region, which gives him an intimate knowledge of what should be on the plate each day, whether that’s the crab in a spicy omelette served at breakfast or part of a six-course dégustation dinner that might include king prawns served with kelp butter and bonito flakes or mackerel, pulled that day from the ocean you’re looking at and served as a beautifully displayed sashimi flavored with soy, yuzu, and chili oil.
The native flora is put to good use too. Ruby saltbush foraged from the island accompanies lamb cooked over charcoal, both as part of a rub and as tempura-battered and fried whole leaves. It also turns up, mixed with salt, on the rim of an excellent Margarita. Coastal daisy, beach mustard (tasting a little like wasabi), ice plant, and samphire are also put to good use with tuna and oysters, whiting, and mussels.
Most of the activities at Rumi on Louth are understandably water-centric. Some are as basic as throwing in a line to fish for your supper from one of the excellent pedal-powered kayaks or taking an early morning dip on Louth’s Eastern beach, a breathtakingly beautiful curved stretch of white sand and calm water that takes a bit of willpower to leave. If reluctance takes hold, a beach picnic, complete with cabanas and a barbecue, can be arranged.
Those after something a little more luxurious can opt for a sunset cruise on Rumi’s sleek catamaran, which includes snacks, cocktails, and spectacular sunsets under sail.
The next stages of Rumi on Louth will not only include the new villas but also a Japanese restaurant overlooking the ocean, a spa complex (at present massages are available in your accommodation), and eventually a super-luxury six-bedroom villa complete with private pool.
But there’s something special happening on Louth Island right now, in its “Reveal” era. The staff are excellent, relaxed, friendly, and supremely efficient and the two existing dining areas, the dusty-pink hued Samphire with its terrazzo, brass, and timber highlights, and the glassed-in “wintergarden” with its wood-fired pizza oven, are pumping out food of remarkable quality.
And then there is the island itself, bewitching in its unique, rugged beauty and supremely relaxing in its remote exclusivity as you might expect a private island to be. It’s early days but these previews might just give you “I knew it when” bragging rights.