Rottnest Island - December 2009

Rottnest Island was called Wadjemup which translates to 'place across the water' by the Wadjuk people. Archaeological finds on the island suggest that it may have been inhabited up to 30,000 years ago, although when the sea's rose and the land bridge connecting it to the mainland disappeared it was uninhabited again until the Europeans arrived. The first known European to find the island was a Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh who re discovered and named the island in 1696, he named it Rotte-nest which translates to 'rat's nest' in Dutch because of the king sized rats on the island, which were actually quokkas. After European settlement the island was used for a prison which at first incarcerated our indigenous people and a little later during WW1 and WW2 interned any nationalities that were thought to be a threat. Now days the island is an escape from Perth about 2 hours away by ferry, as well as being the home to an extremely offensive wind turbine that obviously really annoyed Mt Abbott.

Perth

We were staying in the Perth CBD so booked a the ferry leaving from the Barrack St Jetty in town, the advantage of that is that we got a nice cruise down the Swan River to Fremantle before we headed out into the Indian Ocean over to Rottnest. The cruise along the river takes you past some pretty exclusive cliff side real estate which backs on to Jutland Parade. For those that don't know Jutland Parade regularly features in articles about the most expensive real estate in Australia, it's definitely 'lifestyles of the rich and shameless' territory, think names like Bond, Hancock, Rinehart, and you start to get the picture. Sailing through Fremantle we cruised past the 'The Oceanic Viking' this was the customs ship that had just returned to Australia after it took some Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard only to have them refuse to disembark at our off shore processing centre in Indonesia. In hindsight this was one of the first glitches in Rudd's time in power as it made him look indecisive to some people, it also gave the Murdoch Media and the conservatives something to crank up a bit of a dog whistling scare campaign about, we still haven't got an acceptable solution to the refugee problem even now due to the politician's playing to the 'base' instincts of a (unfortunately) large section of our population. Grrr.... 

There's a bit of money here I'm guessing.

Fremantle.

Anyway, enough crapping on already, what about Rottnest. Docking at the jetty at Thomson Bay the first objective of the day was to secure ourselves a couple of hire bikes to get around the island on as there are no private cars on the island. The island is only small but at around 11 kilometres long and 4 wide its still too big to walk around easily, so the main options are push bikes or a little bus that circles the island every hour and allows you to jump on and off. Once on our trusty treadlies we headed off on our circumnavigation. I'd like to tell you stories of all the little bays and beaches that we visited but looking at the photo's I can't remember any of the names (don't forget the blog was years away) so instead I'll probably end up posting a lot of photo's with no captions. What I do remember was riding past a never ending selection of stunning swimming spots, I was able to regale Sam with my adventures on Rottnest last time I was on the island when I was 19 years old, although for some reason Sam had a bit of a glazed look in her eyes that seemed to say 'yeah, your not 19 anymore old man!'

There are a few wrecks around the island.

By early afternoon we had found ourselves a beautiful small cove on the north coast that was protected from the Fremantle Doctor by some rocky bluffs, this was a great spot for a long lunch and a relaxing swim and we were lucky enough to have the little cove to ourselves all afternoon. It pays to plan any visit to Rottnest, or for that matter any beach near Perth around the almost inevitable Fremantle Doctor sea breeze that comes in. The term 'breeze' is a bit of a misnomer as the Fremantle Doctor is more 'strong wind' than 'breeze' and while it provides great relief from the often sweltering temperatures inland, it makes life a misery on any exposed beach with the sand seemingly able to penetrate every orifice of which you'll be removing sand from for days.

Our little cove.

We were protected from the Fremantle Doctor a bit by the rocky bluffs.

After our swim we started to head back to the Thomson Bay jetty, on the way we came across some of the incredibly cute and docile quokkas. The quokkas are what Willem de Vlamingh mistook for giant rats, they are actually part of the macropod family meaning that they're related to roo's and wobblie's. The quokkas are too docile and friendly for their own good sometimes as some of the visiting bogans used to play 'quokka soccer' with them and kick them to death, how fucked is our species sometimes! Now days there is a large fine protecting them, but for fucks sake....

This post seems to be wandering into some dangerous territory in politics and the environment so I'd better get back on track lest everybody thinks I'm one of 'them' as my mum calls me . Mum thinks 'them' (spit it out with venom and you'll understand what she thinks) is anyone to the left of Abbott, Bernardi or Abetz, so I guess I'm guilty as charged! After our quokka encounter we dropped off the bikes and once again boarded the ferry for the two hour trip back to Perth, after a big day a lot of the punters dropped off to sleep on the return journey. The trip back up the Swan River in the late afternoon is definitely worth staying awake for though, this place reeks of money.

We used the hire bikes to get around the island.

The Dirt.

Rottnest is a great place to visit, it feels a million miles away from civilization even though you can still see the high rise buildings of the Perth CBD in the distance across the Indian Ocean. The beautiful white sand bays and coves on the island are stunning and the island is big enough that you can normally find your own patch of sand that isn't to crowded or windy. The thing with Rotto is that by the time you get there and with the need to catch the last ferry off the island, which sometimes leaves before 4pm, then you don't actually get enough time on the island in one day in my opinion. One day is fine for a first time quick visit but to really explore the island and let it sink in you would need to book some accommodation over there, that's what we'll probably do next time. Apart from the stunning coastal scenery the other highlight on the island is the quokkas, they are incredibly cute and you're almost guaranteed see them on Rottnest.

The Perth CBD is visible in the distance.

Sailing back up the Swan River in the late afternoon.