Rottnest Island (Wadjemup)

Wadjemup — Rottnest Island — lies 19km off Fremantle, the largest of a chain of limestone islands and reefs on the continental shelf off Western Australia's west coast. The Whadjuk Noongar people are its Traditional Owners; artefacts show people lived here until about 6,500 years ago, when rising seas cut the land bridge to the mainland, and Noongar people hold Wadjemup as a place across the water where spirits go. The island also carries the history of the Aboriginal prison that operated here and the Wadjemup Aboriginal Burial Ground — begin with the Koora-Yeye-Boordawan-Kalyakoorl (Past-Present-Future-Forever) sculpture at the head of the main jetty and the Wadjemup Museum.

Today it is an A-Class reserve with no private vehicles — you travel on foot, by bicycle or by island bus. The draw is the water: sheltered bays such as The Basin, Little Salmon Bay and Parakeet Bay over reef that holds more than 135 species of tropical fish and about 25 kinds of hard coral. Beyond them are 45km of walking trails in five sections, salt lakes with living microbialites and quokkas through the settlement. A day sees the bays; two or three days add West End, Cathedral Rocks and the lighthouse.

What to expect

Reviewed 10 November 2026

You land at Thomson Bay, and the first thing you notice is what is missing: no cars. Ferries run from Fremantle (about 25 minutes), Hillarys Boat Harbour (about 45 minutes) and Perth's Barrack Street Jetty (about 90 minutes), and light planes fly from Jandakot in about 12 minutes; from the jetty it is a short walk to the settlement. Private vehicles are not allowed on Wadjemup, so you get around by bicycle, on foot or by bus, including a hop-on hop-off service. The island loop is about 22km — a half day of relaxed riding with stops, or a full day if you swim at every bay. Hire a bike at the settlement or bring your own on the ferry; a day's worth of water, sunscreen and a snorkel fits in one pannier.

The settlement sits on Thomson Bay, with the swimming beaches close behind it. Pinky Beach lies over the dunes, and a little further around the shore The Basin fills a limestone reef platform — the shallow, sheltered lagoon that most day-trippers never get past, with turquoise water over pale rock and Bathurst Lighthouse on the headland beyond. Further south are Longreach Bay, Geordie Bay, Salmon Bay and Little Salmon Bay, and on the northern side Parakeet Bay and Little Parakeet Bay. The water is warmer than the mainland coast — the Leeuwin Current runs down from Indonesia and keeps it about 4°C warmer — and it holds more than 135 species of tropical fish against 11 off the mainland, plus about 25 kinds of hard coral, most of them pink pocillopora. Five Marine Sanctuary Zones ring the island and are generally no-take areas, so the reef you snorkel over is protected. Swimming is possible year-round, though most people wear a wetsuit in winter.

The Wadjemup Bidi links the whole island in five named sections totalling 45km — 'bidi' means trail in Noongar. All five are graded Bushwalk Class 4: rough surfaces, steep hills or extensive rock hopping, limited directional signage, and the expectation that you can navigate and handle an emergency. Karlinyah Bidi follows the northern beaches (5.9km), Gabbi Karniny Bidi loops the salt lakes (9.7km), Ngank Wen Bidi runs out to Cape Vlamingh at the West End (7.6km), Wardan Nara Bidi crosses the middle via Salmon Bay, the WWII tunnels and Wadjemup Lighthouse (10km one way), and Ngank Yira Bidi climbs from Thomson Bay to Oliver Hill (9.4km). Trailheads sit at bus stops and bays, so you can walk one section and ride back. Sections close temporarily for works and conservation — Trails WA carries the current list, and the Armstrong Point section has been closed with walkers signed around it.

Karlinyah Bidi is the section most visitors walk first, and it shows the northern coast in one stretch. It runs 5.9km from Little Parakeet Bay to Narrow Neck and Rocky Bay — or the reverse — taking one to three hours over sand, limestone and rocky shore. City of York Bay, Ricey Beach and the headlands between them make a string of sheltered coves, and where the beach section gets hard going you can detour onto the main road and rejoin the trail. This is the part of the island where you watch the water as much as walk it: osprey working the bays, bridled and crested terns over the reef, and quokkas in the low scrub near the track edges in the late afternoon. Bring water and a hat whatever the season — the heath gives little cover, and the afternoon sea breeze arrives like clockwork through summer. Wear shoes you can rock-hop in; the Class 4 grade is earned on the shoreline sections, not the hills.

The West End is the wildest corner. Ngank Wen Bidi links Narrow Neck to Cape Vlamingh, the island's most western point, over 7.6km of rough coast, with Fish Hook Bay's layered limestone and the long reef at Cathedral Rocks, where New Zealand fur seals, Australian sea lions and bottlenose dolphins are seen from the viewing platform year-round. Inland, the island's 12 salt lakes formed when collapsed cave systems flooded as the sea rose; some hold living microbialites — stromatolites, thrombolites and leiolites — that may be up to 1,000 years old, and the wetlands hold more than 1% of the world's banded stilts. Quokkas (kwoka in Noongar) graze through the settlement and scrub, with joeys in the pouch in August and taking their first steps in September. Never touch them, feed them or give them water: they are protected, and handouts damage their health and behaviour. Read the human history too — Wadjemup Lighthouse, 38 metres tall, Oliver Hill's guns and tunnels, and the prison and burial-ground history the Wadjemup Museum and the jetty sculpture ask you to acknowledge.