Rottnest Island, a popular weekend getaway for both locals and visitors, is located 17 kilometres off the Western Australian coast near Fremantle. The island is 11 kilometres long, 4.5 kilometres at its widest point and the land area measures 19 km². Approximately 500,000 people visit Rottnest Island every year.

Rottnest Island was inhabited by Aborigines since approximately 30,000 years ago, until rising sea levels separated the island from the mainland of Western Australia approximately 7,000 years ago. The island features in Nyoongar Aboriginal mythology.

The island was identified by Dutch sailors in 1610, and the name was bestowed upon the island by the Dutch fleet captain Willem de Vlamingh in 1696. Vlamingh (or one of his crew) believed that the indigenous marsupial called a quokka was in fact a large rat ("rottnest" meaning "rat's nest" in the Dutch language).

Upon the establishment of the British colony in nearby Perth in 1829, the island was used for the next 70 years as a prison for Aboriginal convicts. It became more or less devoted to recreational use in the 1900s, aside from a brief period of exclusive military use during World War 2. Wartime cannon batteries and camoflaged sites are still in existence at various parts of the island.

One of the most little known aspects of Rottnest's history, even to Perth locals, is that was the home of an internment camp in both World War 1 and World War 2. In WWI it was used mostly for German and Austrian enemy aliens, but was closed towards the end of the war due to appalling living conditions. During WWII it was used exclusively for Italian enemy aliens. This too was closed about half way through the war, and its occupants were sent to various internment and work camps, with some finding themselves as far away as New South Wales. Many of the internees held at these camps had been law-abiding citizens of Western Australia for many years.

The resort island features historic buildings, and pleasant beaches (all reachable via the many cycling tracks that are the island's main mode of transport). A well-maintained wildlife preserve, Rottnest is popular with divers (the island and its surrounding reefs are littered with ship wrecks), surfers (there are several notable reef breaks at the west end of the island at Strickland Bay, Salmon Bay and Stark Bay), and recreational fishers.

The main settlement is located at Thompson's Bay, facing east towards Fremantle. Other settlements are located at Geordie Bay and Longreach. Rottnest Island is sparsely populated by permanent residents, as special permission from the Western Australian government is necessary to live on the island. A small airport for light aircraft is located near the main settlement. The Rottnest Lodge is a high quality hotel located in the centre of the settlement at Thompson's Bay.

Each year, around November, the island is inundated with school leavers and university students, who celebrate their graduations with extended bouts of binge drinking at the bar in Thompson's Bay (called the "Quokka Arms") and at rented cabins and units. In 1986, outrageous student behaviour resulted in multiple arrests and expulsions from the island, and made national news. Revelry also occurs on Rottnest Island every New Year's Eve.

The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for "Rottnest Island" is "Rotto".

External links

• Rottnest Island Authority's home page (http://www.rottnest.gov.au)
• Western Australian Government tourist information on Rottnest Island (http://www.westernaustralia.net/discover/perth/rottnest.shtml)
• Rottnest Island Sea and Swell Data from the Western Australian Department of Transport (http://www.coastaldata.transport.wa.gov.au/tides/real_time_rot.html)
• Rottnest Lodge website (http://www.rottnestlodge.com.au/)