Rottnest Island

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Nearby places (by ferry)
Fremantle
Hillarys

Rottnest Island is located 18 kilometres off the coast, near Fremantle.

The island is very popular with holidaymakers from Perth. Securing accommodation on the island is however difficult, especially during peak demand times and needs to be booked well in advance. A lottery system is often used to allocate the available accommodation.

The island has accommodation for up to 2,850 visitors, and day-only visitors can number up to 5,000 on any one day.

The island is 11 kilometres long and 4.5 kilometres at its widest point, and covers a total area of 19 square kilometres.

Rottnest Island has few permanent residents, with most island workers commuting daily from the mainland.

The island is isolated from the mainland by the Indian Ocean. It has no fresh surface water, and providing water, power and waste disposal has always been an expensive challenge. A supply barge arrives from Fremantle each day, delivering fresh supplies and removing rubbish.

The meager freshwater found on the island is supplemented with desalinated groundwater using a reverse osmosis plant which produces up to 500 thousand litres per day.

With the increased power demands from the desalination plant and the increasing price of fuel to driver generators, harnessing the available wind power was logical solution. A wind turbine is generates approximately 37% of Rottnest's power requirements, which saves over 400,000 litres of diesel fuel per year.

Two lighthouses operate on the island to aid passing maritime traffic, these are Bathurst Lighthouse and Wadjemup Lighthouse.

Connections to the National Broadband Network are not due to be available in Rottnest Island until after 2015. Learn more.

Find jobs at Rottnest Island.


Rottnest Island. Photograph © Daniel Meyer. Courtesy of Panoramio

Scuba Diving at Rottnest Island

Vidio © tennam01. Courtesy of YouTube.