During the 2019/20 Kangaroo Island Bushfires, on the first night when families and holidaymakers were being evacuated to the township of Kingscote, my street and home were teaming with people.

As the night progressed, and as I listened to the stories of the evacuees, the words of The Island started to form in my head. In the afternoon of the following day, I sat down and put those words on paper.

A few weeks after the worst of the fires had hit, I was back jamming with my local Uke group – The Rogues – and I shared my song with them.

Sometime later, I spied Aussie music legend, John Paul Young (JPY), sitting at a table in Amadios, a local KI wine bar where I was working that particular evening. I struck up a conversation with him and invited him to jam with The Rogues, to cheer them up as one of the members had lost their farm in the fires. I was grateful when JPY agreed to spend 15 minutes with us. That 15 minutes turned into 2½ hours – he graciously sang Love Is In The Air for us and my friends encouraged me to share The Island with him. For the first time in my life, I heard the words that are often said in jest “My people will be in touch with your people.” From there a bond was formed and a collaboration made with the goal to produce a song that would one day be released to raise money for the Kangaroo Island community.

Almost 3 years have passed since that chance meeting, and since then the world has been dealing with COVID, and the Kangaroo Island community has been quietly going about recovering and doing its best to return life to “normal” (of course, it will never be normal again, but we are a resilient mob).

I am beyond excited to say that, with JPY’s unswerving dedication to this project, we have a recording for me to share with world.

The original intention was for one hundred percent of the funds raised through the sale of this song to go towards the Kangaroo Island community for discreet projects. However, now that our neighbours across the water all along the River Murray are experiencing devastating floods, it has been decided that 50% of funds raised will be donated to a reputable Riverland organisation.

JPY has generously donated his time to this project on the proviso that it was a fundraiser and that no artist would make any money from the sale of this song (this includes me!). He is fully supportive of the proposed change in direction, that the money will also assist the Riverland community.

The Kangaroo Island community is so grateful for the support we received from mainland South Australia and beyond. We wouldn’t be where we are now without that support. This is our way of paying it forward and our hearts are with all of the communities around Australia who are experiencing flooding.

I am so thrilled to have identified the perfect partner for the funds being raised. Our Town - where local communities provide support (through a variety of programs & activities that are community led) to promote mental health and wellbeing – have projects on the Island and in the Riverland.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my friends and colleagues on the Island who have supported me with this project, in particular The Rogues, Tim Nicholson, David Rhodes, Isaac Doman, Daniel Clarke, the KI Racing Club, Iggs Uno, Rori Eglinton, the KI Tourism Alliance and Susi & Bruno.

I also send my love and gratitude to Brett from The Love Mussells and my profuse thanks to John Schumann for making himself available to me when needed.

A huge shout out & smooch to David, for your patience and for believing in me.

In closing, I’d like to give a huge shout out to the team at The Hospital Research Foundation for your ongoing support. Thank you.

Thank you for purchasing this song and for supporting South Australian Regional Communities.

Love, Christine x