The Island of Hopping Civets

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One of the best things about Perth is that there's an island right off the coast full of quokkas. There's an island off Cheyne Beach full of quokkas too but no-one's allowed on there (that's Bald Island, which is also full of Gilbert's potoroos). A quokka is a type of little wallaby, once common on the western mainland but now largely exterminated by foxes and cats. They were first seen by Europeans in 1658 when Samuel Volkerssen, skipper of the Dutch ship Waeckende Boey (which looks like it translates as "Weekend Boy" -- exactly what sort of cruise was this?), spotted some on Rottnest Island. He thought they were a kind of civet, which sounds a bit odd but they actually do have a pointy civet-y sort of face, even if the hoppiness isn't exactly a distinguishing feature of civets. They were next recorded in 1696 by another Dutchman, Willem de Vlamingh, who thought they were giant rats, again not a bad guess if it weren't for the hopping. But it was de Vlamingh who gave Rottnest Island the name it still holds today in slightly changed form -- Rattenest is Dutch for "rat nest".

Its not all that cheap getting to Rottnest Island but its a bit hard to see a quokka otherwise. There's also the added bonus of some nice birds. Some of those were on the boat trip across to the island with a couple of albatrosses being sighted, likely to be yellow-nosed albatrosses but I didn't see them well enough to tell for sure. I hired a bicycle to get around the island for a ridiculous $27. The bike hire shop on Rottnest is apparently the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, said to have 13,000 cycles. It opens at 8.30am -- why it doesn't time its opening for the arrival of the first ferry escapes me -- and it closes at 4pm. You have to have the bike back by 3.30. Their 24-hour hire period thus becomes 7 hours. You might think 7 hours would be plenty but for a while I didn't think it would be: I was on the island for three hours before I saw my first quokka! Seriously. No wonder I couldn't find any numbats at Dryandra if I can't even find quokkas on Rottnest! All was well though because after spending most of the day not seeing quokkas, at around 3pm I found absolutely loads of them coming out to feed. And that's right about when I dropped my camera and broke it. D'oh. At least it was on the last day of the trip.

Quokkas are the only land mammal on Rottnest but there are lots of birds, especially waders around the salt lakes in the centre of the island. The birds I mostly wanted to find were rock parrots, red-necked avocets and banded stilts. Rock parrots are supposed to be common here. Couldn't find any. I think the avocets might be visitors rather than residents. Either way I couldn't find any. But banded stilts I did find. There was a sign there that said they form huge "rafts" on the water but the ones I saw were more like a small flock and then some other scattered individuals. They look much like the regular pied stilt really, just with less black on them. Somehow they seemed much more attractive though. Banded lapwings were also new for me. There are quite a few reptiles on the island as well, including King's and stumptail skinks. I was hoping to see a dugite which is a venomous snake but no luck there.

A nice day all up, but I'm not sure if the cost of getting to Rottnest is really worth it for just a day-trip. I think staying on the island -- and there's ample accommodation there -- would make it a more profitable trip and you'd have a lot more freedom and time to look for the wildlife. I must do that next time I think.

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