Rottnest Island

When you are in Perth, there is one plade you have to go: Rottnest Island. A watersport paradise. Beautiful beyond words.
It’s a nature reserve. Nobody is allowed to live there permanently. In the winter they have about 150 staff, in the summer 750. Plus 3000 visitors plus day tourist. Quite a busy place. Also with quite some restrictions where to go and what to do.
With the ferry, it’s about an hour down the Swan river, and then another half an hour out off coast.The island is about 11km long and 3km wide. I took the bus to come around… the best things to see are, of course, at the most far west end of the island.

In the settlement, I went to the aboriginal center. The island had been used as a prison for aboriginal men, boys (as young as 7 years old) to imprison them for gathering food, spearing animals, burning bush… living their lifestyle. They came here for hard labour: building all what was needed on the island as a strategic outpost. When they got captures anywhere in Western Australia, they had to walk all the way. Thousands even didn’t get to the island.
Women, at shore, burned fires every night, to let the men know, they are not forgotten.

Funny detail about the name of the island: the dutch explorer, who named it, had the cute little quokkas native to the island mistaken for rats. It’ s not a rats nest at all!