Western Australia, Part 3: Freemantle, Perth and Rottnest Island

At the ferry landing at Rottnest Island, Western Australia

Recently, I was cleaning out and found my diary from our trip to Australia in 2007, when we toured the west coast with our friend Mike in his camper van, traveling from Augusta to Shark Bay and back to Perth. As I read through the entries I was reminded of the uniqueness of that landscape–different from anything else we had seen in Australia. Here is the third installment of some highlights from the trip.

New Holland Honeyeaters gather att our campground in Freemantle

From Eneabba we continued driving south to Perth and our campground at the port of Freemantle. The next morning we took the ferry from Victoria Quay in Freemantle to Rottnest Island.

Victoria Quay, Freemantle harbor

Originally built as a penal colony, Rottnest Island is now a protected reserve and tourist destination.  No cars are allowed, but one can rent bicycles, which we did, and rode to the Rottnest Lighthouse. (See my blog of March 31, 2014.)

Rottnest Lighthouse

On our way we met numerous quokkas–small marsupials extinct everywhere in Australia except on Rottnest.  They were remarkably fearless and approached us hoping for a handout. One was so friendly it bit my finger!  We then biked to a World War II gun emplacement on Oliver Hill and had a short tour by a volunteer guide. By the time we returned to town it started to rain so we spent the rest of the time in the museum, learning about the use of the island in the 1800s as an aboriginal prison and a boys reform school.

Quokka on Rottnest Island

Our final day was spent in Perth, walking along the Swan River and visiting the Western Australia Museum where we saw giant meteorites, a megamouth shark, and an exhibit focusing on the “lost generation”--aboriginal children taken away from their mothers. (The Australian film Rabbit Proof Fence is the powerful retelling of the story of three such girls who ran away from their boarding school and walked 1500 miles home. The story takes place in 1931.)

Walking along the Swan River in Perth

We then headed to the airport for the long flight over the Great Victoria Desert to Melbourne and from there, home to Los Angeles.
Our trip up the coast of Western Australia had been full, but still there was an enormous amount of the country yet to see. Someday, we’ll have to go back!

CAPE LEEUWIN LIGHTHOUSE, AUSTRALIA: Where the Southern and Indian Oceans Meet

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, Western Australia

At a recent meeting of my book club we discussed The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman, a story that takes place at a lighthouse station on an island off the coast of Western Australia just after the First World War.  The story is fiction but the setting is based on real towns and lighthouses on the Australian coast, and reminded me of our visit to Australia’s extreme southwestern corner in 2007.

The lighthouse, built of limestone, is 128' (39 m) tall.

We were visiting a friend who lived in Augusta, not far from Cape Leeuwin and its famous lighthouse.  One day we went to visit the lighthouse and nearby Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park.

Looking north from the top of the lighthouse. The buildings along the strip of land going to the mainland are used by the lighthouse keepers.

It was a beautiful day so we climbed the steep lighthouse steps for a view from the top. One can look south to the ocean--next stop Antarctica!-- or north to the mainland. Opened in 1895, the lighthouse has since been automated. The lighthouse, besides being a navigational aid, serves as an important automatic weather station.

Cape Leeuwin  is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian Continent, in the state of Western Australia. It got its name from the Dutch sailors who first came to the area in 1622.

And, of course, we couldn’t resist having our picture taken next to the sign marking the place where the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean meet. In Australia, the Cape is considered the point where these two oceans meet; however most other nations and bodies consider the Southern Ocean to only exist south of 60 degrees South.

Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park has extensive heath vegetation and thick scrub which supports a high number of plant and bird species that utilise this coastal habitat.

Rottnest Lighthouse

On that same trip to Western Australia we also took a day trip to Rottnest Island near Perth.  Originally built as a penal colony, it is now a tourist destination.  No cars are allowed on the island, but one can rent bicycles, which we did, and rode to the Rottnest Lighthouse.  On our way we met numerous quokkas–small marsupials extinct everywhere in Australia except on Rottnest.  They were remarkably fearless and approached us hoping for a handout.

For more about the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, click HERE.
For more about Rottnest Island, click HERE.

Quokka