Regenerative Travel

When you travel with us, you are travelling with a company that understands its impact and is committed to protecting and restoring our untamed regions.

Put simply, taking a regenerative approach to business operations means putting nature, place and communities first. It means positively impacting the wild and beautiful places we visit and giving our passengers the opportunity to give back on our trips through conservation and wildlife projects.

This article explains the concept of Regenerative Tourism and how it differs from Sustainable Tourism.

We recognise our planet faces significant challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity loss. As a company operating bus tours, we first need to understand our impact and then continue implementing initiatives through our Roadmap Towards Regeneration.

Based on the 5 Capitals (Natural, Cultural, Intellectual, Material, and Wellbeing) created by Regeneration Projects©, it will guide us in identifying, measuring, developing and implementing regenerative initiatives across all areas of our business.

Taking a regenerative approach requires a whole mindset shift, and we know we have a long way to go on this journey. We don’t claim to be anywhere close to perfect, and we know there are many things we can do better. But, we have taken the important first step, and we hope we can inspire other tourism businesses to do the same by sharing our regenerative framework.

We have made the short version of our Roadmap Towards Regeneration available for download in the hope that it will inspire other tourism businesses to start or continue on their own journey.

We work with many organisations, businesses, and partners across our regions so we can offer passengers the chance to learn and add meaning to their trips. Our adventure tours include conservation activities, and beach clean-ups are also a normal part of touring with us.

Some of our practices and initiatives are outlined below.

Fostering and Assistance for Wildlife Needing Aid

FAWNA is a wonderful not-for-profit organisation in southwest Western Australia, established in 1984 to support wildlife rehabilitators and provide the best care for orphaned, injured, or abandoned wildlife. It’s run solely by passionate volunteers who protect the region’s wildlife, from the critically endangered Western Ringtail Possums to kangaroos, birdlife, and reptiles.

Since September 2023, passengers on our Western Australian adventure tours have volunteered 421 hours through activities such as cleaning wildlife enclosures, gardening or planting trees.

Mikkira Station Koala Sanctuary

Mikkira Station Koala Sanctuary is a private property in Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula, home to around 250 wild koalas. We have worked with the family and the Department of Environment and Water (DEW) for nearly twenty years on various conservation activities here. These include conducting koala counts to help understand the population currently living on site and removing the weeds that impact their natural habitat.

Friends of Parnkalla & Clean Up Australia

Friends of Parnkalla Walking Trail support, conserve and protect the environment, flora and fauna of the Parnkalla Walking Trail, an environmental nature trail surrounding the Port Lincoln area. In March 2023, we organised a community clean-up on Clean Up Australia Day in partnership with Friends of Parnkalla and the City of Port Lincoln Council. A team of local volunteers joined our team to clean up 5.2 kilometres of coastline, collecting 25 bags of rubbish.

Passport 2 Recovery

Passport 2 Recovery is a student-led citizen science project from Flinders University that is funded by the Federal Government. The project aims to support Kangaroo Island’s environmental, economic and social recovery following the bushfires in 2020. Passengers on our Kangaroo Island adventures can participate in a range of projects, from recording grass tree health to local wildlife sightings such as koalas, sea lions, and birds.

Rumi on Louth

In November 2024, Untamed Escapes partnered with Rumi on Louth, a luxury eco-resort on a privately owned island off the Eyre Peninsula. Rumi is undertaking an ambitious $10 million restoration project focused on revegetation and conservation to restore the island’s natural ecosystems. On selected tours, our passengers can join this meaningful mission, working alongside the team to protect the environment by pruning African Daisy, an invasive species threatening the 3,000 native plants and seedlings they have planted. Passengers will also learn about Rumi’s inspiring restoration and seed propagation efforts, which contribute to the island’s ongoing regeneration.

Greening Australia

We have been working with Greening Australia for over two decades on various conservation projects on the Eyre Peninsula. One of the projects we are most proud of is being a key supporter of their Wild Eyre conservation project. This was an original initiative for Aboriginal people to protect and restore the natural habitats and threatened species on the West Coast of South Australia. The program utilised our old property, Coodlie Park, for three years by running consultative meetings and workshops with Indigenous staff working with Aboriginal youth to collect seeds from our property for future regrowth.

Australia’s First Nations people have cared for Country for millennia. They are the world’s oldest living culture, and valuing the cultural heritage, wisdom, and traditions of the Aboriginal communities where we visit is extremely important to us.

We have strong relationships with many Aboriginal businesses and Traditional Custodians, taking our passengers to them to experience their beautiful Culture. These include Koomal Dreaming on Wadandi and Bibbulman Country (Margaret River region) and Dabungool Cultural Experience in Wudjari Country (Esperance).

Our Uluru Tours are rich in Aboriginal Culture, with passengers experiencing a dot painting workshop with Maruku Arts and a Welcome to Country in the Adnyamathanha people’s language in the Ikara (Flinders Ranges).

In November 2023, we announced a wonderful collaboration between Untamed Escapes and Emmalene Richards of Maba Idi in Port Lincoln. Emmalene is a Local First Nations woman of Barngarla descent and is passionate about keeping Culture alive through contemporary storytelling. In October, we launched the Eyre Peninsula’s very first dedicated cultural tour. Watch the video of Emma and Hassie announcing our partnership.

Hassie is honoured to be a mentor in the FNMP. This program was launched in 2023 to support Aboriginal tourism businesses in achieving their goals by connecting them with tourism industry specialists, just like Hassie. As well as Emmalene from Maba Idi, we currently mentoring two other fabulous Aboriginal businesses in South Australia, and we recommend visiting them if you are in the area.

They are Southern Cultural Immersion in Adelaide and Ngaut Ngaut Aboriginal Tours in The Murray River region.

Learn more about Aboriginal Culture in this Tourism Australia article.

ERC Australia is a climate action program that aims to support small and medium enterprises in identifying and reducing their carbon emissions. It involves a five-step accreditation process to assist businesses in understanding their emissions footprint whilst providing ongoing support to strive towards carbon-free enterprises and address the long-term climate crises.

In April 2024, Untamed Escapes completed the first step of the ERC Protocol, Step 1: Commit. This involved an extensive compilation of data from previous invoices and reports to complete a carbon emissions calculator that determines the total emissions generated by Untamed Escapes in 2023. This step identified that Untamed Escapes generated 154.2 tonnes of total emissions in 2023, with the three highest-generating areas being business fuels, suppliers and waste.

Following on, Untamed Escapes has recently implemented Step 2: Reduce and Step 3: Avoid. Step 2 involves a comprehensive action plan on the initiatives Untamed Escapes will introduce to reduce emissions throughout various business categories. Step 3 requires Untamed Escapes to create a renewable strategy detailing how renewables will be adopted to meet energy needs. Both steps ensure accountability of the business by establishing timeframes and statuses of all actions.

Untamed Escapes looks forward to progressing with ERC Australia to execute Step 4: Support, entailing the support of projects that remove unavoidable emissions, and Step 5: Sustain, sustaining our actions on a long-term basis.

You can view our report and progress here:

Just like when we cross the Nullarbor, we know there is a long road ahead of us. Change won’t happen overnight, but we are committed to learning and evolving throughout the process of implementing our Roadmap Towards Regeneration.

We’re excited to transparently share our progress and challenges with you as we make positive changes to our business and to the local communities and beautiful places we visit.

We invite you to share any feedback or ideas on how we can do this better.