highlyeccentric | Photos: Rottnest Island plus a gratuitous Brooke!phot (Reply)

A timely(ish) photo post!

This is Brooke - not at Rottnest, but on a local(ish) beach in Perth. She's convinced she's surfing.

Thompson's Bay from the ferry terminal.

And from the town.

And from down on the shore again.

This stark white building is the salt store - Rottnest is home to some heavy salt lakes, two of which dry up in summer - I think at one point they were the only salt source in WA?

Lomas Cottage (aka Buckingham Palace). First built for John Lomas, 'Imperial Pauper' - a recidivist convict of dubious mental stability, for whose sorry state the WA authorities took responsibility. He lived here, with a ration and a veggie patch, free to come and go, for some years before moving on to live in SA (and thence in and out of various institutions for the rest of his life). The cottage passed to a prison warden, William Buckingham, and thus the alternative name.

Looking across the grassy square to the gates of the quad - originally an indigenous men's prison, now a hotel.

At once grim and cheerful!

Assorted 19th century buildings - residences for the prison wardens and the pilot boat crew. The ones with their own enclosed front yards were occupied at various times by wardens and sub-wardens, and, for a while, by the Governor of WA - the Governor in question later built himself a summer home behind the prison.

Birdie! Probably a laughing turtledove???

Duckies. Australian Mountain Duckies.

One of the aforementioned salt lakes.

This stretch of land beyond the road is the indigenous burial ground. It's managed by the Rottnest Island Authority in consultation with the elders of the Kimberly and Pilbarra regions - from which most of the prisoners hailed. (Interestingly, the Welcome to Country at the pier is from the local mainland indigenous people - who never lived on Rottnest. Complicated!)

Meanwhile, the tiny and run-down European cemetery.

Wadjimup lighthouse.

I climbed up there. 155 steps. One of the last man-operated lighthouses in Australia, automated in the eighties some time. Rottnest needs two lighthouses - one alone proved insufficient to guide ships safely around the reef to Freemantle.

The West End of Rottnest - currently a 200m wide strip of land joins the West End to the main island; it's predicted to be gone in 50 years. You can see roads and cycle trails snaking over the island. Observe the clusters of trees: serious conservation efforts go into quokka-proof fencing. Otherwise, the adorable little critters eat every shoot and sapling around. Prior to the arrival of humans, and with them, fire, this wasn't a problem - but Rottnest didn't have the quick-regenerating trees the mainland has, and, once humans stopped hunting the quokkas to nigh-extinction, the quokkas started devouring all their food sources. Ooops.

From the lighthouse, looking across the salt lakes to Thompson's Bay. If you pull up the high-res version you can spot Perth on the horizon.

An intact WWII cannon! Most gun encampments no longer have actual guns, but the expense of removing this one meant it stayed there. I didn't get up to the encampment itself - but there's eight stories of tunnels under the hill, apparently!