Place Name Origin
The name Wadjemup is derived from the Noongar people’s place name which means ‘place across the water where the spirits are.’
Landscape and Geology Context
The geology makes Rottnest special. Rises and falls in sea levels have left rocky headlands and numerous sandy beaches that are protected by fringing reefs. Collapsing caves have created unique lakes and interesting landscapes. The soft easily-worked limestone encouraged pioneers to build substantial buildings on firm ground that stand proudly today.
20,000 years ago | Rottnest Island (Wadjemup) formed part of the mainland when the sea level was approximately 130 meters lower than it is today. At that time the island was a high point with Wadjemup Hill being the highest point on the coastal plain and the mainland coast being 20 kilometres to the west of Rottnest.
7,000 years ago | The sea levels rose to about 5–10 meters below where they are today. Rottnest Island (Wadjemup) formed the tip of a peninsular. The former coastlines from this period are evident as off-shore reef systems in aerial photos taken to this day.
5,000 years ago | The sea level was approximately 2-3 meters above where it is today which saw the island separated into an archipelago of around ten islands. The West End was separated from the rest of the island at Narrow Neck and the salt lakes were part of a marine system.
Wave Cut Platforms | Elevated marine features, which indicate sea level changes include fossil coral, shell beds, and wave cut platforms are of international importance in the study of archaeological and geological significance and sea level and climate variations.
Salt Lakes + Underground Caverns | The salt lakes, which form around 10.5% of the island, are unique and thought to have originated as large calcareous dunes collapsed into underground caverns. They are very deep in some places and result in complex hydrology which is evident when studying the contours at the perimeter of the salt lakes, especially with regard to Garden Lake.
Thrombolites | A thrombolite (literally, ‘layered rock’ looks like a cauliflower) are built by micro-organisms (algae and bacteria) that photosynthesize and precipitate calcium carbonate (limestone), which creates the dome shaped thrombolites. Western Australia’s ancient and stable geology and abundance of microbialites is considered one of the most important research areas on the origin and evolution of early life on Earth. On the north side of Government House Lake, the thrombolites grow in lake water up to 3m deep, and are 10 cm high, sometimes 20 cm high, with growth rates of about 1.5mm/year. Fossil thrombolites along the shoreline at the western end of Serpentine Lake are about 2000 to 3000 years old.
Limestone | The Island is composed of three major recent geological units: Holocene (less than 10,000 years) coastal sand dunes; Holocene swamp and lake deposits; and Pleistocene Tamala limestone and lime sand dunes (up to 1.7 million years old). Tamala Limestone, formed by cementation of coastal windblown dunes when the sea level was 130 meters lower than today’s sea level, forms the base to the Island. Tamala Limestone has been the subject of numerous significant studies relating to sea level change because of the unique tectonic stability of Western Australia.
Diversity In Landscape | There is diversity in the landscape and resulting flora through the island such as the ‘sea rocket, spinifex and aromatic wild rosemary of the coastline, the tussock grass, prickle lily and the Rottnest daisy of the grasslands, the Rottnest Pine, Rottnest Tea Tree and scented wattle of the woodland and the salt tolerant flora such as the Samphire, Broad Leaf Grey Saltbush and Sedges of the salt lakes.
Flora | Prior to separation from the mainland, Wadjemup would have had a similar range of plants as those on the adjacent mainland. Exposure to sea water, salt and wind eliminated hundreds of species so that today there are only about 140 indigenous species left on the island.
Biodiversity | The various benthic microbial communities or algal mats are the dominant primary producers in most of the coastal lakes. The biodiversity of these systems is significantly linked to a large variety of avian fauna including migratory birds. The microbial mats in the salt lakes of Rottnest Island are dominated by cyano-bacteria and diatoms. These microbial communities in Rottnest Island salt lakes reflect the water quality, nutrient status and the interactions between biota and the physicochemical environment
Microbiolites | The significant hypersaline microbialite communities of the salt lakes are listed as Priority Ecological Communities (PEC) under State Legislation. These microbialite communities are unique to the south-west of Western Australia. Various benthic microbial communities or algal mats are the dominant primary producers in most of the coastal lakes and reflect the water quality, nutrient status and the interactions between biota and the physicochemical environment. The biodiversity of these systems is significantly linked to a large variety of avian fauna including migratory birds. The lakes during summer will expose many colours from pinks, greens, blacks and even oranges; these colours reveal the secrets of the lakes hidden beneath the water and are the active microbial mats. These mats are communities of organisms which inhabit the floor, and under the right conditions deposit limestone in the form of microbialites. They are highly valuable biodiversity assets as each community is unique and are modern equivalents of the earliest life forms on Earth.
Water supply | Water supply to the freshwater seeps and brackish swamps occurs through rainfall and ground water. These areas provide critical breeding habitat for three species of frog which are morphologically distinct to those on the mainland.
Fauna | The island supports fauna species that are significant at local, federal and global scales, including the Quokka, Osprey, shorebirds, bush-birds and genetically distinct reptiles. The recent exponential increase in numbers and diversity of migratory birds to the Rottnest salt lakes is due in part to the increased development of the Perth coastal plain.
The Butterfly | There have been seventeen species of butterfly recorded on the Island, some of which are residents; living and breeding on the Island: others are transient from the mainland. The butterfly forms an important part of the Whadjuk Nyungar mythical story known as ‘Caterpillar Dreaming’, which tells the story of Wadjemup being a ‘spiritual paradise’.
Pre-European Context
Wadjemup has exceptional aboriginal, geological, and ecological significance dating back 130,000 years. The traditional custodians of Wadjemup are the Whadjuk Nyungar people.
- From a traditional cultural context Whadjuk people consider the island to be a spiritual paradise. Rottnest (Wadjemup) is the beginning of one of the mythical stories that is known as ‘Caterpillar Dreaming’ which for the Whadjuk Nyungar people, is the spiritual connection to Uluru aligning with the narrow neck of Wadjemup (place of spirits) where the Maamoong (whale) washed up in 2005 and was buried on Strickland Beach and represents rebirth. (The name of the whale that beached itself significantly is ‘Ngar-na’ meaning caterpillar).
Post-European Context
Incarceration | Almost a century of Aboriginal incarceration on Rottnest Island (Wadjemup) began when the first ten Aboriginal prisoners were brought to the Island in August 1838. After a brief period when settlers and prisoners occupied the Island, the Colonial Secretary formalised the Island’s use as a penal establishment for Aboriginal people in June 1839 as an annex of Fremantle Prison. This became the first and only place in Australia of mass segregation of Aboriginal people from all over WA in a racially determined prison. Approximately 3,700 Aboriginal men and boys from across Western Australia were sent to the Island over this period, over 373 of whom died during their incarceration and are buried in the ground to the north of the Quod. The Burial Ground is unique as it is the only known site in Australia to contain the remains of aboriginal people from many different language groups. It is the biggest Deaths in Custody site in Australia.
Obscured Use | In 1907, a scheme for transforming Rottnest Island (Wadjemup) from an Aboriginal penal settlement to a recreation and holiday Island were drawn up by the Colonial Secretary’s Department. The former prison buildings were absorbed into this new use, including the Quod which was converted for use as holiday accommodation in 1911. Over time these developments largely obscured their former use. After 1911 aboriginal prisoners remained on the Island in reduced numbers when they were housed in temporary accommodation adjacent to the salt works until 1931.
Since the 1600’s the island has been a place of interest for European explorers from the 1600’s (Dutch), 1700’s (French) and the British from1800’s following settlement of the Swan River Colony.
Since the early 19th century, the island has been a popular tourist destination, internment camp during both World Wars and in 2020 a Covid-19 Quarantine Centre.
Early European architecture | The construction of the early European buildings that remain on the island today were carried out by aboriginal men while being held as prisoners. The aboriginal men were not only constructing the buildings, but also set to work in quarrying limestone and making lime for construction.
The aboriginal men imprisoned on Rottnest cut the limestone faces of the building blocks with picks, leaving behind their own individual ‘signatures’ in the form of their consistent method of picking at the limestone. The ‘pick marks’ from the original cutting of the limestone can be seen to this day in the buildings, stone walls and insitu-limestone rock quarries around the settlement.
In 1839, Henry Vincent who was a prison warden at Fremantle prison, was placed in charge of the ‘Native Establishment on Rottnest Island’ and he was instructed to commence construction of government buildings which he did until 1867. This group of buildings forms a cohesive architectural language which are clustered around the ocean front of Thomsons Bay. The buildings were all single level with small window openings and were originally lime washed a brilliant white. The Vincent buildings established a clear built identity and a strong urban core for the island. The buildings are direct in their expression, a kind of crude Georgian. Simple buildings impoverished from materials at hand and free of ornament or historical stylisms. The buildings have a sense of austerity about them, of a minimalist frugality. Some of the buildings that remain today as overseen by Vincent include Government House (1864), the adjacent Quad (1864), the Chapel (1857) and Mill (now the museum).
Timber bungalows | The island was opened up as a ‘pleasure resort’ in 1911 when a series of light weight timber and hessian camp buildings were constructed to provide for holiday makers. The main feature of these simple buildings is the enclosed verandah breezeway. These timber buildings were constructed until 1960.
Ferguson architecture | Gus Ferguson was first commissioned to undertake work on the island in 1971, when his architecture was motivated through recent trips to the Mediterranean, visiting Greece, Italy and Dubrovnik. These accommodation buildings work together within each cluster to become an integral part of the landscape. The northern Thomson Bay villas extend the notion of the existing limestone sea wall with the masonry buildings rising from the lower ground level dunes as one solid mass that is countered by the lightweight timber balconies. The same principle of building mass rising from the landscape can be seen in both the Longreach and Geordie Bay accommodation buildings. Staggered along the shoreline, the units respond to the dunes and the contours of the site, regularly punctuated by trees and scrub. Importantly, it is the low walls to the street side courtyards that provides the opportunity for the wonderful social interaction that is experienced on any stay on the island. By placing the BBQ’s within the low walled street front courtyards Ferguson was encouraging the social experience.
