‘I was sleeping on a gravesite’: Rottnest Island’s complex history brought to light
With its wild, undulating coastline, freewheeling cyclists and lovable, pint-sized marsupials, the quokka, Rottnest Island – known to Perth locals as Rotto – has become synonymous with summer holidays.
Lesser known to outsiders is the island’s complex past: more than 30,000 years of Noongar history and, more recently, the largest Aboriginal deaths in custody site in Australia.
On Wadjemup, as it’s known in Noongar language, historical remnants speckle the landscape: ancient coral reefs that formed during the last interglacial period, the remains of tools used by Noongar people, and empty buildings that once housed a prison camp for Aboriginal men and boys. As a plaque on the island states: Kwidja baalap yey (the past is still present).
In November, a
