One day during our wonderful visit to Perth, we booked an excursion to Rottnest Island (Wadjemup), 18 km off the coast. It’s an 11 km-long, largely unspoiled island of pristine beaches, aquamarine bays, bike tracks, and walking trails. There are no cars, only a few tour buses and hundreds of bikes and e-bikes.
It’s also home to the quokka, a small, adorable marsupial that’s indigenous to Rottnest Island and a remote area of Western Australia. When Dutch sailors arrived in the 17th century, they thought the animals were large rats, which is how Rottnest (rat’s nest) Island got its modern name.
While people are instructed not to feed, touch, or disturb the quokkas, capturing a photo with one is a goal of many visitors to the island. They are not afraid of humans.
Rottnest Island has an interesting history, which we’ll touch upon in this post.
Our tour began at Elizabeth Quay, a short walk from our hotel. For the first hour, we cruised down the scenic Swan River while the captain pointed out numerous points of interest. Once we passed the port city of Fremantle, it took another 30 minutes to cross the channel to the island. Here’s a brief video of the area around the dock.
The small downtown area consisted of a general store/liquor store and various shops and restaurants.
The island can accommodate up to 5,500 overnight visitors in various types of accommodations, including villas, cottages, hotels, eco-glamping tents, and campsites. The island has 300 permanent residents, all of whom work for the island’s hospitality and retail businesses or for the Rottnest Island Authority.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, residents returned to the mainland, and the island was used as a quarantine station for tourists and returning Australians arriving in Perth.
While we were downtown, we heard a chorus of birds with an unusual call that sounded pensive or even mournful. They were Australian Ravens, which are also plentiful on the island. Have a listen!
We had some free time before the next part of our tour began, so we visited the Wadjemup Museum, which displayed a brief history of the island, some 40,000-year-old artifacts, and artwork by the Whadjuk Noongar people, the island’s original inhabitants.
During the early years of colonization, Wadjmeup / Rottnest Island served as a prison for Aboriginal men and boys. Starting in 1839 and for almost 100 years, an estimated 3700 Aboriginal men and boys as young as 8 years old were sent to the island. They were forced into labor and suffered horrible conditions; over 800 died. The separation from their Country, culture, and community caused immense suffering to the prisoners, and the loss of knowledge and guidance in their communities had a lasting impact.
For the first segment of our tour, we boarded the Captain Hussey train, which slowly transported us across the island to Oliver Hill, one of the three locations on Wadjemup / Rottnest Island that showcase its wartime history.
The Oliver Hill Battery was constructed in 1937 by the British to defend Fremantle Port from potential enemy seaborne attacks in anticipation of World War II. The two 11-metre 9.2-inch naval guns were capable of firing an armour-piercing shell up to 28 km away with remarkable precision, ensuring Fremantle’s safety from enemy attack.
The facility was decommissioned in the 1960s, but the guns and infrastructure remain and are now shown by volunteer tour guides. We toured the tunnels that contained the ammunition stores and saw one of the gigantic guns up close.
The hilltop site also provided panoramic views of the island and the surrounding ocean.
After visiting Oliver Hill, we boarded a tour bus that drove us around the rest of the island. We drove past many of the island’s 63 beaches and stopped at several of them.
There were several bays with moors for private yachts. Some are licensed to people and others are available for daily rental. They are in high demand.
We totally enjoyed our day on Rottnest Island. It was spectacularly beautiful.
Here are a few links with additional information:
Places to Visit in Western Australia
Wadjemup Rottnest Island
Wikipedia (lots of history)
14 Fun Facts About Wadjemup/Rottnest Island
Travel Guide to Rottnest Island