Kelsian (SeaLink) rapid rise to national/world tourism and transport operator starts from Kangaroo Island ferry
The Kelsian (SeaLink) brand went national and international from its origins on the Kangaroo Island ferry service in South Australia. Inset: A SeaLink-operated London bus in Trafalgar Square.
Inset image by Stefano Broli, courtesy SeaLink Travel Group
Adelaide-based Kelsian Group was the new name from 2021 for the SeaLink Travel Group that grew into a dynamic national tourism and transport company from its start as operator of ferry services between Cape Jervis, south of Adelaide, and Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island.
The island’s Philanderer Ferries was originally operated in the 1970s by a Kangaroo Island businessman who sold it in 1989 to Malaysian company MBF who renamed it Kangaroo Island SeaLink. In 1996, a group of South Australian investors and staff members bought SeaLink from MBF, returning it to local ownership.
The SeaLink Travel Group rapidly developed with a turnover rising from $11million in 1996-97 to more than $50million in 2006-07. Besides extensive tourism operations in South Australia and its regions from outback to coast, Kangaroo Island, Murray River, Barossa Valley, Adelaide and Adelaide Hills, SeaLink’s operations extend across New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.
Its cruises, passenger and vehicle ferry services included Captain Cook Cruises on Sydney Harbor, Perth, Townville, Palm Island, Magnetic Island and Rottnest Island. Sea Link bought (2004) and sold (2011) Subritzky Ferries in Auckland before it bought the Captain Cook Crusies business (including Matilda Cruises), Murray River Cruises and Sunferries Townsville (rebranded as SeaLink).
SeaLink diversified by buying specialist travel companies, managing Adelaide Central bus station, operating SkyLink Adelaide Airport shuttle service and a coach operation.
In 2013, SeaLink started a Darwin ferry and was floated as company on the Australian Securities Exchange. SeaLink bought Transit Systems marine operations in 2015 include the Bay Islands Transit ferry and Stradbroke Ferries in Brisbane and Gladstone Ferries. This was followed by the purchase of Captain Cook Cruises Western Australia in 2016.
In 2019, the company paid $635 million for the rest of Transit Systems. As part of the deal, SeaLink CEO Jeff Ellison stepped down, replaced by Transit Systems' CEO Clint Feuerherdt, a with a 2.6% shareholding of the enlarged SeaLink. Transit System's co-founder and chairman Neil Smith joined the SeaLink board of directors as a non-executive, taking up a 15.3% shareholding.
The Transit System deal created a combined SeaLink group with more than 8,000 employees operating more than 3,200 buses and 78 ferries in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory, Westerm Australia, London and Singapore.
SeaLink in 2020 secured the contract to operate Brisbane City Council's CityCat, CityHopper and Cross River ferry networks for up to 15 years. Its Torrens Transit, an Adelaide bus operator, was also part of a joint venture that was given the government contract to run Adelaide's trams in 2020.
In 2021, SeaLink bought Western Australian bus operator Go West Tours for $88.5 million. As Kelsian from 2021, the company made its first step into the United States of America in 2023 by buying major motorcoach company All Aboard America! Holdings for $487 million. All Aboard America! became the fourth-largest bus operator in the USA with more than 1,000 vehicles and had contracts with many Nasdaq companies including Tesla, Apple, Google, big universities, governments and industry such as liquified natural gas plants.
