IN SEASON
Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island is the unexpected off-season destination for travellers seeking a winter escape.
WORDS Fleur Bainger
Crowd-free beaches. Queue-less bakeries. Rose-gold sunsets glazing the skies. A winter trip to Rottnest Island (Wadjemup) promises free-flowing island access. There’s tranquillity in spades, wildlife is more active and hill climbs switch status from sweat-inducing to blushed cheeks and windswept hair.
“It becomes a very quiet island,” says Kate Gibson, founder of The Hike Collective. “The scents come alive with the rain, and pair that with the colours of the water and the limestone cliff edges with that wintry touch – it changes the island.”
WILDLIFE SPOTTING
Seals are most often spotted lazing on Cathedral Rocks at the car-free island’s furthest point, West End. Riding a bike hired as part of the ferry service with Rottnest Express, or joining a guided e-bike ride with Paul’s ECO Bike Tours is a great way to see the seals, along with soaring osprey and land-nesting shearwaters. You can also catch a glimpse of local wildlife with a full island bus tour.
Quokkas – the grinning symbol of Rotto and subject of countless selfies – also change their behaviour in winter. During the cooler months, quokka joeys are growing inside their mumma’s pouches, and little heads tentatively peek out from August. Come September, the fuzzy babes emerge from their sanctuary for the first time.
It’s important to remember that quokkas are nocturnal – so they’re likely to be sleeping, heads over tails, when you’re out and about during the day. To observe them in their natural state, rather than lurking around the bakery hoping for tidbits, take to the trails at dusk. There’s a thrill to spotting the shy quokkas in their native bush habitats.
TAKE A HIKE
The seasonal change opens up what’s perhaps Rottnest’s best-kept winter secret: five walking trails that combine to form the 45km Wadjemup Bidi. ‘Wadjemup’, meaning ‘place across the water where the spirits are,’ and ‘bidi’ means ‘track’. The nature trails were completed in 2018 after significant consultation with Aboriginal stakeholders. They are consciously low-impact, sustainably focused and – for now – low on foot traffic. Those that follow the trails pass signposts made from recycled waste and step along a lake-rim boardwalk constructed from single-use plastic bags. Nature trampling is minimised by keeping walkers to the one, narrow path. The Hike Collective, which runs year-round guided walks of the 11km-long, A-Class Reserve has a new hike: the Fortress of the Southern Edge tour. It deposits walkers at one of the island’s least-visited stretches, but begins with a bus ride; walkers can choose where to get off and shorten or lengthen their hike depending on the weather. It’s a 6.5km walk back to the settlement, taking in the scene of a shipwreck, exploring the concrete ruins and navel gun bunkers of Bickley Battery, scoping out the historic Kingstown barracks (now accommodation) and marvelling at 360-degree views from a lofty hilltop. Rottnest was twice transformed into an important defence base during global wartime.
Another walk, the 9.5km Gabbi Karniny Bidi leg, cuts through samphire heaths and arching woodlands, and leads to boardwalks seemingly levitating over pancake-flat salt lakes that are fuller and sweeter smelling in winter. The track climbs to Wadjemup lighthouse – the island’s highest point. Towards the end of winter, migrating humpback whales can be spied from here, breaching out of the Indian Ocean and creating white water splashes that catch the eye. If walking isn’t your thing, you can zip around on a Segway, doing one of two Rottnest Express Segway tours which run year-round. The 60-minute tour allows you grand scenery of Thomson Bay, or choose the 90-minute tour that guides you through the history of Bickley Battery.
Take a guided hike exploring the coastal Wilson Bay area on the Ngank Wen Bidi – a loop trail that winds around the West End of Rottnest Island.