Tucked away on Kangaroo Island’s south-west coast is a luxurious hideaway that caters to the environmentally-conscious traveller.

At the boundary of the Flinders Chase and Kelly Hill national parks in South Australia, the Southern Ocean Lodge is Australia’s leading example of premium nature-based tourism.

The lodge is owned and operated by Baillie Lodges, the private company of James and Hayley Baillie.

Early in 2006, inspired by the untamed beauty of the island, the Baillies decided to build a world-class, environmentally-friendly, six-star lodge that would cater to exclusive tastes while offering a sense of the nature surrounding it.

Architect Max Pritchard was enlisted to translate the Baillies’ vision into reality. He in turn hired the South Australian home installation outfit The Butler Did It to provide input into the design and automation of the site.

This evolved into a larger, all-encompassing onsite role as the company became the ‘one-stop shop’ for the owners of the Southern Ocean Lodge.

“We had done a lot of this sort of work for Max,” company director Mike Atkinson says.

“He suggested me to the owner, as I had experience in remote-area generators and solar, as well as the electrical and automation areas that James wanted in this resort.”

The Butler Did It team quickly realised they would have to design and build a comprehensive automation system that would comply with the very strict environmental guidelines while being the ‘best tech’ solution.

The project got under way in December 2006 with construction of an access road and reached practical completion in May 2008, with a total project value of $700,000.

The location posed many challenges. Before work could even begin, the crew from The Butler Did It had to manhandle all their materials across the site because of restrictions on vehicle access.

Waste management was also time consuming. With no landfill dumps on the island, all waste had to be sent back to Adelaide. The waste had to be sorted into different types for recycling, and any toxic material had to be removed.

And the wildlife – such as tiger snakes, scorpions and nesting ospreys – meant that safeguards were needed to protect the fauna and the crew.

Even more delays occurred when the crew had to be evacuated because of a bushfire threat.

Undeterred, The Butler Did It provided a design that incorporated an energy-efficient lighting system and control via a full Clipsal C-Bus control system, which resulted in large power consumption savings.

Ness Elk products were used as data gathering points, C-Bus relays for load-shedding control and power-saving dimmer settings, and a Crestron control system for overall onsite and offsite status monitoring and control.

“The size and complexity of the project meant that the technical and installation aspects were especially demanding,” Mike says.

The system had to cover a large base of operations, from maintaining generators at their most efficient loading to controlling air-conditioning in the guest suites.

The Crestron control system came with the bonus of being able to give the designers complete remote access from Adelaide, enabling them to rectify problems without having to travel to the site.

Mike says the use of C-Bus was especially beneficial.

“It was the most reliable switching and dimming system that we could confidently install in such a remote location.”

Along with C-Bus, the designers also made provisions for three LED keypads, a 12-channel pro series dimmer, a B&W Logic touch screen and various other control equipment to be installed in the system.

Added to the system was a Nuvo Concerto music system, with five Hills music wall plates and 14 pairs of Krix Holographix speakers.

In setting up the lighting, Mike and his team used 1,000 Pierlite gimbal downlights, five Clipsal Saturn switches and one Saturn DLT switch. Finally they installed an Advantech remote Ethernet I/O module and an Adam Ethernet unit to help control the system.

“Considerable additional innovation was required while interfacing with other trades and their activities due to the complex nature of the project,” Mike says.

“By executing careful planning and co-ordination, all services were installed accurately, with rework kept to a minimum.

“We needed a battery pack system to gather our data, due to the only power supply being generators. We had to allow for short periods of no power during generator servicing and faults.”

One of the biggest design challenges facing the crew was providing energy-efficient solutions while not compromising on the aesthetics of the lodge. This was overcome by the use of 35W low-voltage globes that ran at 90% on C-Bus dimmers.

In staff areas, aesthetics could be sacrificed for functionality and T5 fluoros were used.

Finally, The Butler Did It team was required to install an underground conduit system for electrical, data, telephone, TV and fibre optic cable to each room in the lodge, with as little effect as possible on the fragile environment.

In all, the team was responsible for the design and installation of a system that included lighting, CCTV, power and pumping system automation.

Solving the problems of location, energy efficiency and co-ordination required innovation and workmanship of the highest quality. The result is a lodge that is the rival of any luxury, ‘state of the art’ accommodation in the world.