Are We There Yet?

We’ve made it to Perth, on the far west coast of Australia. This is our second visit, the first being in 2018, at the end of a trans-Pacific cruise and at the start of another two weeks visiting a bit more of Australia—including a week in Tasmania. But you’ll have to dive into the archives for pictures and notes from that visit.

We started each day in Perth with a hardy breakfast in the hotel’s streetside restaurant. We’re staying at the Quay Perth. I have a hard time remembering to pronounce Quay as key.

I normally create postings in chronological sequence, but I’ll deviate from this a bit. We have four nights in Perth this visit, and in the middle of the stay we spent a full day on the island of Rottnest, 12 miles off the coast of the continent and 20 miles from Perth. It is now a vacation destination and beautiful nature reserve, 85% if it devoted to the later function. It was once the location of a notorious prison for aborigines found guilty of crimes under British law. Given it is the winter season, the crowds were reasonable. I would hate to come to the island at the height of the tourist season.

But first, the name: Rottnest. It means Rat’s Nest in Dutch, a name given by Willem de Vlamingh in 1696. This is because the island was and still is a major habitat for quokkas, who the Dutch thought must be huge rats. There are still 10,000 quokkas on the island, its only mammal. All larger animals died out 7,000 years ago when Rottnest became separated from the mainland with the post-ice age raising of the seas. It’s also been uninhabited since then, as the aborigines built no boats. (Yet, aboriginal lore accurately described whales off the coast that could only have been seen by ancestors viewing from the west/Indian Ocean side of the island.)

(Random aside: If Rott (or Rotte) means rat, does is Rotterdam mean Dam on the Rat River?)

The ferry ride to Rottnest first navigated from a pier near our hotel in Perth to the busy port of Fremantle. From there we crossed the 12 miles to Rottnest. The water was choppy, which we understand is typical.

These lighthouses framed the entrance to Fremantle Harbor. The monument (presumably a sail) greeted us on our arrival at the island.

The island is surrounded by a ring of reefs, once and still hazardous to navigation. Two lighthouses and other markers are in place to aid seafarers.

The island is all state owned and the few all-year residents are those who work the evening and night shifts for the island’s services. The rest of the employees commute from the mainland, on the same ferries we tourists use.

Besides being a beautiful nature reserve, there are over 100 species of birds that either reside on the island or use the island during migrations from as far away as Siberia and Alaska. A warm tropical current (the Leeuwin current) moves along the island from the northwest while a colder current comes from the south. This brings to the island a great mix of fish species and other sea creatures. 

As I alluded to above, an early use of the island was for a prison for aborigines. It opened in 1838. (The British arrived in 1829.) The first prison warden was particularly cruel and over 10% of the 3700 prisoners once incarcerated there died while in custody. When the prison closed in 1931, the structure was next used to house holidayers for eighty years. The complex is now closed and in the process of being restored as a museum to its original use.

Left: A resting place. Right: The entrance to the prison complex.

During WW I and WW II, the island was used as an internment camp for Germans and Austrians (WW I) and then Italians (WW II) living in Australia. But for most of WW II Rottnest was a fortified bastion protecting Fremantle Harbor and its submarine base, the largest allied submarine base after Pearl Harbor.

The islands use as an internment camp didn’t completely disappear. From March to May 2020, the island was used to quarantine Australians and foreign visitors coming into the country. Why? COVID, of course. We were in Australia during March 2020, you may recall, and took one of the last flights out of the country to return to the U.S.

There is a small museum housed in one of the older island buildings that describes much of the history of the island. It is located near the oldest surviving building on the island, a small structure that is now a tiny Anglican church. 

We walked to one of the lighthouses, then on to the restaurant where we had lunch. The lunch of fish and chips was excellent, but Frances, against her wishes, shared part of hers. We had been warned about the seagulls, but they attacked her platter aggressively. You think I am the only one of us who loses one’s cool? You would have been surprised at the language Frances used after a gull snatched one of her fish. (We still had more than enough to eat.)

We climbed up to the Bathurst Lighthouse. It is operational and not open to visitors.

More welcome beggars were the quokkas, one of which looked up at me with pleading eyes. Alas, I was a heartless soul, so the quokkas moved on to more promising tables. So much for quokkas being shy, nocturnal animals. (With ten thousand of them on the island, a few had to develop abnormal behaviors.)

Quokkas are normally nocturnal but we spotted several score roaming the area. And the rock in the air? The island had several interesting constructions.

Left: This is Frances with her lunch, before the raid by the seagulls. Right: How could resist the pleading eyes of this quokka? Alas, I figured fish and chips might not be their preferred food, so abstained from sharing.

Left : Quite a few of what were residences of the islands early administrators are now lodges for those on holiday. The island has hundreds of more conventional lodges. Right: Inside one of the smallest and humblest churches I’ve ever visited.

With the splendid reefs, Rottnest is a snorkelers’ and SCUBA divers’ paradise. However, the primary tourist activity on the island is cycling. Rottnest is a perfect place for exploring by bicycle.

We took a guided bus tour around the entire island. The seas were turbulent and beautiful. The interior is covered with forests, both sparse and dense.

There is a second lighthouse (Wadjemup) in the middle of the island. Right: The remnant of an old wreck.

Left: Scores of bicycles are loaded and unloaded on the ferry. Right: This is the first time I’d ever seen eFoils. They followed the ferry for quite a distance while we were cruising in the Swan River. So did a few kayakers ride the wake of the ferry, albeit with aggressive paddling.

It was a wonderful day with perfect weather. Rains are coming, but that is a problem for another day.

Next post I’ll return to our activities in Perth, a city that we enjoyed very much.