Wildlife Village 18th March 2011

March 18, 2011 in Wildlife Village by Ann B

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Rottnest Island

Seeing as I have photos of Australia I can use  (not all are suitable though LOL) I thought , Why not?

When Heather first went to Australia in May 09 she landed in Perth.  Her friend from school was working on an island called Rottnest so that was her first experience of Australia.  She described it as paradise. :)

Info from Wiki

Rottnest Island is located 18 km off the coast of Western Australia, near Fremantle. It is called Wadjemup by the Noongar people, meaning “place across the water”. The island is 11 kilometres long, and 4.5 kilometres at its widest point with a total land area of 19 km². It is classified as an A Class Reserve and is managed by the Rottnest Island Authority. No private ownership of land is allowed. It is antipodal to the island of Bermuda.

The Western Australian vernacular diminutive is “Rotto”, or “Rottnest”. It has been an important local holiday destination for over 50 years.

The island is administered by the Rottnest Island Authority, an agency of the Western Australian government, set up specifically for this purpose. The authority collects revenue by imposing a “landing fee” on all visitors to the island. In 2004, a Taskforce set up by the State Government made 103 recommendations aimed at achieving a sustainable future for Rottnest Island. In recent years, implementation of the recommendations has seen the majority of the RIA-administered accommodation refurbished or upgraded.

Pre-history

Rottnest Island was inhabited by Aboriginal people from approximately 30,000 years ago, until rising sea levels separated the island from the mainland of Western Australia approximately 7,000 years ago. The island features in Noongar Aboriginal mythology as Wadjemup, meaning Place across the water where the spirits are.[2] Aboriginal artefacts on the island have been dated from 6,500 to more than 30,000 years ago.[3] Recent evidence suggests Aboriginal occupation significantly before 50,000, possibly as early as 70,000 BP[4].

There were no people on the island when European exploration began in the 17th century, and the Aboriginal people did not have boats that could make the crossing, so the island had probably been uninhabited for several thousand years.

The island was observed by various Dutch sailors from 1610, including Frederick de Houtman in 1619, and the three ships Waekende Boey, Elburg and Emeloort in 1658.

In his 1681 chart the English captain John Daniel marked what he had named as Maiden’s Isle. That name did not survive, however.

The island was given the name “Rattenest” (meaning “rat’s nest” in the Dutch language) by the Dutch fleet captain Willem de Vlamingh on 29 December 1696. De Vlamingh described the indigenous marsupial, called a quokka, as a large rat.[6]

Other explorers who stopped at the island included members of the French expedition of Nicholas Baudin in the Naturaliste and the Geographe in 1801 (when he planted a flag and left a bottle with a letter[7]) and 1803, Phillip Parker King in 1822, and Captain James Stirling in 1827. They commonly reported that much of the island was heavily wooded, which is not the case today.[5]

In 1830, shortly after the establishment of the British Swan River Colony at nearby Fremantle, Robert Thomson settled on the island with his wife and seven children. Thomson developed pasture land west of Herschel Lake as well as salt harvesting and refining from the several salt lakes which was then exported to the mainland settlement. Salt was an important commodity before the advent of refrigeration.

Aboriginal prison

Ten Aboriginal prisoners were sent to Rottnest Island in August 1838. The Colonial Secretary announced in June 1839 that the island would become a penal establishment for Aboriginal people, and between 1838 and 1931, except for the period 1849 to 1855, Rottnest was used as an Aboriginal prison to “pacify” local natives. Aboriginal men were imprisoned for offences including spearing livestock, burning the bush or digging vegetables.

It has been estimated that there may be as many as 369 Aboriginal graves on the island. Some 3,700 Aboriginal men and boys, from all parts of the state, were imprisoned.

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The Dyfi Osprey Project and the Scottish wildlife Trust  have kindly given their permission for us to post still and video images from their webcams. To visit their sites please click on the relevant link.    Loch of the Lowes.  Dyfi Osprey Project.


 


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