How this came about
I'm Simon Zappia. From 2018 to 2022 I was a director of Adelaide Koala Rescue, right through the Cudlee Creek and Black Summer fires and the wave of rescue and rehabilitation that followed. I went in for one reason. I wanted to give something back to nature.
What I found there was a gap. Most animals that come through rescue are treated and released, which is the goal every time. But some can never go back. Too injured, too used to people, or missing what they need to survive in the wild. There was nowhere permanent for them to go.
Skye is that place. A home for life for a small number of native animals that cannot be released, inside bushland that is being brought back around them. The koala in this photo is a wild local, not a rescue. It is the country we are here to protect.
Why it is me building it
By trade I'm an industrial designer, brand builder and company director. Thirty years of it. I started out designing commercial furniture, then went out on my own.
Aura Objects grew over three decades into a recognised South Australian design brand, which I built and later sold. I still run Zappia Projects, the studio behind brands like Indigo and Botanica.
I have carried products the whole way, from a sketch to the shelf to protected IP. A registered design for a bicycle light. A granted US patent for a terrarium system. Downforce airport seating, in service around Australia including twenty years at Adelaide Airport, and named a South Australian Design Icon.
I have also sat on boards, including a not-for-profit, so governance, an organisation's obligations and the regulatory side are familiar ground.
The same thinking that goes into lasting design goes into how Skye is being planned. Systems, restraint, longevity, low intervention. Skye is not a whim. I know how to start something, build it properly and see it through for the long haul. That is exactly what a sanctuary needs.
What I'm building it for
This is not a business. After a career spent making and selling things, Skye is where I turn all of it toward something that is not about profit. Conservation, and a legacy that outlasts me.
It is designed the way I design everything, built to last and light on the land. Not a zoo. Not a visitor attraction. A protected piece of country, and a home for the animals that need one.
The land comes first. The animals live inside it. And the whole thing is set up to last well beyond me. If that matters to you, come with us from the start.