Rottnest Island
A Car Free Island A Short Ferry Ride From Perth, Known For Its Quokkas, A Ring Of Swimming Bays And Snorkel Reefs, And A Colonial And Wartime History Layered Under The Beaches · Rottnest Island, Western Australia
Rottnest Island sits eighteen kilometres off Fremantle, a flat limestone island reached by a thirty-minute to ninety-minute ferry depending on which jetty you leave from, and it has been car-free for visitors for decades, which is most of why people love it. The island is famous for the quokka, a small marsupial that shows almost no fear of people and has turned the island into a magnet for phone cameras, but it is more than a photo opportunity: a ring road and side tracks link pink salt lakes, a chain of turquoise swimming bays, snorkel reefs close to shore, and a lighthouse at Wadjemup that has stood since the 1890s. The island also carries a difficult history as a prison for Aboriginal men through the colonial period, a fact the island's visitor centre now addresses directly rather than passing over, alongside wartime gun emplacements at Oliver Hill. Most visitors cycle or walk between the bays, swim at the Basin or Pinky Beach, and either day-trip from Perth or stay a night or two in the settlement at Thomson Bay.
An island 18 km off Fremantle, reached by ferry from Perth or Fremantle, circled by a single coastal road and a chain of bays, Rottnest Island, Western Australia, Australia
The ferries run daily year-round from Fremantle, Perth's Barrack Street Jetty and Hillarys, with more frequent crossings in summer and a reduced winter timetable; the first services leave early morning and the last return boats go in the late afternoon or early evening depending on season. Bike hire kiosks and the general store in Thomson Bay open through the day. The Wadjemup Lighthouse and the Oliver Hill tunnels run guided tours at set times rather than being open to wander, and the Oliver Hill train that carries visitors up to the guns runs a limited daily timetable, not continuously. Salt lake walking tracks can close in extreme heat. Most restaurants and bars in the settlement keep standard daytime hours and a handful stay open into the evening.