Talk:Rottnest Island

earlier comment

NPOV is required in this article, it reads with too many superlatives, and it is not a travel article! "happy and fun experience!" is not a style to be encouraged. There are better ways of putting it. User:SatuSuro 05:19, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

Image

I have added an image of The Basin to replace the image an admin deleted and left a redlink behind. If anyone has a better one please feel free to replace. Nachoman-au 11:57, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Just came across this message. I can't say the image I have is any better but it's an option - here you go - it's a slightly different vantage point. Actually I'm not even sure if it is a picture of the basin or taken from the basin....

It is, but its dark! Its probably the basin some time ago, the basin beach has changed a lot in the many years that I have known it. User:SatuSuro 01:02, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Cottage Names

Needs separate article, 'List of Cottage Names on Rottnest' with them in alpha order, otherwise difficult to follow while still in this state in this art. User:SatuSuro 15:51, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Please Help

The new List is List of features on Rottnest Island, please check the alpha order and completeness of the lists, thank you! User:SatuSuro 13:03, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

I presume you mean List of features of Rottnest Island, but I have to ask: is this really necessary? Couldn't we just add the main features into the main article? -- Ian ≡ talk 15:02, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Quokka Soccer

There may have been mistreatment of quokkas in 1986 (and other times), but I doubt the nimblest of soccer players would be capable of catching or kicking a quokka. More likely somebody found the juxtapositioning of the two words to be quite funny, and people then assumed a poor quokka was used as a soccer ball. 136.153.2.6 00:12, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

The subject is a problem. First, do you speak from experience? It is possible to apprehend quokkas in a nunber of ways, and it is also possible to mistreat them in ways that have earnt some people criminal prosecution. The less said the better. Second, the expression is no fantasy, it has happened. Do not try it, its against the law. 60.230.231.74 02:07, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

This is the sort of thing I think needs a citation (though I doubt any exist beyond repeated hearsay). Kicking a quokka is one thing (they're pretty trusting and docile). Australian black humour is another. MuJoCh 19:28, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

• Here is a reference to cruelty in 2005 [1] but the cruelty was handling the animal not kicking it. The person charged was 19 and offered in his defence drunkenness. The more neutral language used in the media release is probably worth adopting. This 2000 report from Curtin uni National Drug Research Institute [2] does mention the words "quokka soccer" as a quote from one student and refers to a prosecution for cruelty in 1998 to a quokka by kicking the animal.

General perception was that this year’s group was the best behaved group of leavers for quite a few years, but with the behaviour that occurred in ’98, it was fairly easy to look good by comparison. Negative expectations of the leavers were created by two major incidents in the previous year. These were a major diving accident and the student caught (and eventually prosecuted) for kicking a quokka. These events really marred the ‘98 celebrations and the bad press put pressure on the ‘99 group.

--Golden Wattle ^talk 21:36, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Cheers for that. I should stress that I in no way dispute that there is cruelty or a term 'quokka soccer'. I merely find a chicken/egg problem with the term and act, if you follow me (irrelevant to the article, probably). Stories of gruesome quokka massacres have reached urban legend status. Other exagerrations have travelled[[3]]. I'm curious to see the origins of this stuff pinned down. MuJoCh 02:56, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Links

Note commercial links are not part of the main text of article. User:SatuSuro 12:59, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Crayfish

This doesn't particularly fit here, imho. Rottnest is not the only place for crays, amateur or commercial (it's of little significance to the commercial fishery).

Stories about crayfishing and the season should be added to Western rock lobster, if attested.

The list of recreation on Rotto should certainly include diving & snorkelling, but also cycling, swimming, offshore surfing, reef fishing etc.

The channel swim seems much more significant than what Gage Roads Brewing do as a promo.

The above anonymous comments were posted by user:Callophylla, before I knew how to sign. Callophylla 08:21, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Salt Lakes

Removed the 'unique feature' part of the caption on the Salt Lake picture, as Rotto is hardly the only island in the world with interior salt lakes. -- Ghostreveries 10:58, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Australian places named by Dutch explorers in the 17th Century

The section "Australian places named by Dutch explorers in the 17th Century" seems unnecessary for an entry about a single geographical location. Peewee2007 (talk) 03:03, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, probably. It is called a navigation box; it allows you to navigate between allegedly related articles. They are all the rage ATM. :-( Hesperian 03:12, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

new comment

The Aboriginal Prison entry is incomplete and misleading.

I propose it be replaced with the following:

From 1838 to 1931, Rottnest Island was an Aboriginal prison for 3700 men and boys from all parts of Western Australia. At least 370 Aboriginal prisoners are buried in unmarked graves next to The Quod in the former Tentland tourist campsite. Five Aboriginal men were hanged in the Quod courtyard. Hundreds more died of disease, malnutrition and prison beatings in tiny overcrowded stone cells now used for premium-priced tourist accommodation. Most of the island's historic Settlement - including Government House (Hotel Rottnest), the Church, Salt Store, Museum & Gift Shop, original waterfront cottages and The Quod itself - was built by forced Aboriginal prison labour working under extremely harsh conditions. See also Wadjemup; Neville Green & Susan Moon "Far From Home - Aboriginal Prisoners of Rottnest Island", University of Western Australia ISBN 1-875560-92-0.

{{editprotected}} Williewagtail (talk) 05:55, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

 Not done: According to the page's protection level you should be able to edit the page yourself. If you seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. Please make the edit yourself. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 09:33, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

John Pilger

A recent (2013) John Pilger article supports that above suggestion. In fact, his writing suggests the situation was if anything worse than noted above:

John Pilger article

What was done was the torture, humiliation and murder of the First Australians. Wrenched from their communities in an insidious genocide that divided and emasculated the indigenous nations, shackled men and boys as young as eight endured the perilous nine-hour journey in an open longboat. Cold, sick and terrified prisoners were jammed into a windowless "holding cell", like an oversized kennel. Today, an historical plaque refers to it as The Boathouse. The suppression is breathtaking.

In the prison known as The Quod, as many as 167 Aboriginal prisoners were locked in 28 tiny cells. This lasted well into the twentieth century. I booked a room there. The prison is now called Rottnest Lodge. It has a spa and there are double bunks for children: family fun. Noel Nannup stood in the centre of the room and described its echoes of terrible suffering. The window looked out on where a gallows had stood, where tourists now sunbathed. None had a clue. A "country club" overlooks a mass grave. A psychopath who ran the Quod was Henry Vincent, who liked to whip prisoners and murdered two of them, an inquiry was told. Today, Vincent is venerated as a "pioneer" and tourists are encouraged to follow the "Vincent Way Heritage Trail". In the Governor's Bar, the annual Henry Vincent Golf Trophy is displayed. No one there had a clue. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.232.250.50 (talk) 17:35, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

Pilger is more of a polemicist than a journalist and is certainly not a "neutral historian". The Aboriginal Prison part of the Island's history is very notable and needs to be properly presented (albeit not in some propagandist manner), we don't need Pilger's say so to know that!

Relationship to Perth Tourism

Trips out to Rottnest Island (don't let the name put you off, its quite friendly place as a side note) is a MUST as this is what a lot of people do when they come to Perth so I think that fact should be included in the article. Also Rottnest Island is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world I think that should be in the article also hehehehe 118.209.46.14 (talk) 20:01, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

How is it isolated? Fremantle is 18km away. Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic Ocean, is 2,816 km from South Africa. Refer Extreme_points_of_Earth#Remoteness. –Moondyne 00:16, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Ofc Freo' is 18km away, why would I say that Perth tourists have a trip out to Rottnest? Duh!! 118.209.3.187 (talk) 09:24, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Winnit Club

Is the Winnit Club a significant/notable organisation on the Island? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 07:06, 27 July 2013 (UTC)