21 August 2024
Everyone you talk to in Perth says you must go to Rottnest Island. When Katelyn visits us in a month’s time, she will have seen it with her friend, so Nicole and I set off to do it on our own.
We booked a package with transport to and from the island with Rottnest Fast Ferries, with an add-on 4 hour guided tour of the island. We had the option to catch the 7:30am ferry, or the 10:00am ferry, both of which would get us there in time for our 11:30am tour.
Nicole and I chose the 7:30am ferry from Hillarys (mentioned in the previous Perth post), to give us time to do some early exploring (plus sausage roll sampling as you’ve already heard). The weather in Perth has been atrocious, and we had picked our day to go as the lesser of many evils on the weather front, however the weather still looked very uninviting.
Rottnest Island is quite different to other places I’ve been. It is a strange mix of historical site, harbour-side retreat, and sort of like the Brisbane Ekka in a strange way i.e. the gates open and you tumble in to this different world.
Our tour guide later told us that Rottnest Island was named by the early Dutch sailors as Rottenest Island, literally meaning “rat’s nest”. The Dutch met the quokkas face-to-face and, quite understandably, thought they were massive rats. The middle ‘e’ in the island’s name was subsequently removed once it was established these weren’t actually rats after all.
Rottnest Island was separated from the Australian mainland many thousands of years ago as sea levels rose dramatically, and the quokkas left on the island are the descendants of those furry fellas trapped on the island. They are very food-focussed, semi-sociable, and everywhere. They’re also pretty cute — especially when they have little baby quokkas (whatever they’re called) in their pouch.
We had a good wander around the part of the island nearest the ferry terminal, and noticed that hired bikes was definitely the most popular way to explore the rest of the island. Maybe next time.
Our tour started with a train ride along part of the track put in place to support installation of the twin Bickley Naval Guns to help defend Australia’s coast leading into World War II. The train we rode wasn’t part of the construction process, but was a novel way to arrive at the site.
The train ride ends at the Oliver Hill Battery, which commands a stunning view of the island and Indian Ocean. In terms of the history of these twin batteries …
The guns were emplaced in 1938 with the prime role of denying the use of the South Passage between Rottnest and Carnac Islands to enemy vessels and a secondary role as a “stand-by battery” for the Arthur’s Head Battery at Fremantle as part of the Port of Fremantle’s defences.
Each of these batteries took it in turns as the “examination battery” which was responsible in conjunction with the Navy for the examination of all vessels, apart from warships, entering Fremantle Harbour. (WW2 Bickley Naval Guns at Rottnest Island W.A.)
The tour was run by a war veteran volunteer and was really very interesting. While the installation was state-of-the-art at the time, and was test fired, neither gun was ever fired in anger.
I found it interesting too that, while men were deployed to operate the guns due to the massive weight of the shells and very difficult working conditions in the tunnels and underground areas, the “ladies” were deployed very close by to rapidly undertake the difficult computations (taking into account temperature, humidity, wind speed, distance to target, speed of target etc) to tell the “lads” where to aim it. So even back then, the women were guiding the men.
After a very nice chicken wrap and cookies for lunch, it was on to the guided bus tour around the island. This was very informative, however Nicole and I both wished we had a lot more chances to hop off and take some photos of the beautiful bays and rock formations. Maybe next time we’ll do the bicycles or the ‘hop on hop off’ bus.
We then had an hour or so to kill before it was time to get back on to the ferry to head home. We were feeling pretty tired by then, so found a nice spot at the pub to enjoy a beer and get some last few photos while the weather was actually looking OK for once.
Then, the weather turned on us again as we were heading back to Hillarys. It was a very big ferry, but there was a decent swell happening, so the deck hand diligently handed around sick bags to those needing one (we didn’t).
That’s our Rottnest Island experience. So, when you visit Perth — as they say — you gotta do it!
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