Fancy a quokka selfie? Here’s what you can expect from a holiday to WA’s Rottnest and surrounds.
On a quest to find a quokka, KIRSTY LANZENDOERFER and her family discover the highlights of Perth and beyond.
“Perth. I knew we were coming to Perth,” my two girls screech from the back of the car while pointing at the city’s skyline out the windows. After four months of caravanning up the west coast of Australia, we are excited to see bright lights.
We book a powered site opposite the jumping pillow and playground at Woodman Point Holiday & Caravan
Park, which is perfect for our “tribe of five”. Situated only 30 kilometres from Perth’s CBD and nine kilometres from the centre of Fremantle, it’s a great spot from which to discover the surrounding attractions and, hopefully, meet a quokka, that smiley marsupial famous in the region. But first, Fremantle.
Fremantle
The centre of Fremantle’s cappuccino strip is lined with funky cafes and breweries and all are a short walk from Fremantle Markets (open Friday to Sunday). The market stalls showcase local fresh produce and quirky souvenirs that the kids are eager to take back to the caravan. We walk down the strip to Esplanade Reserve, where we enjoy an afternoon under the Norfolk pines. Suitable for all ages, the kids, aged six, five and one, burn off energy at the playground while my husband and I enjoy watching the Ferris wheel’s colourful cabins.
Rottnest Island
Next up – and the highlight of our visit to the Perth area – is Rottnest Island, where we hope to meet the resident quokkas. We decide to visit Rotto, as the locals call it, midweek when the fares are slightly cheaper ($158.25 for a family of four). We choose to discover the 19-square-kilometre island by bike, so we load up our four sets of wheels and head to the B-Shed Ferry Terminal in Fremantle. If cycling doesn’t appeal, you can tour the island by bus.
It takes only 25 minutes aboard the Rottnest Express and we arrive early in the morning, giving us plenty of time to familiarise ourselves with the island and where we are able to go with kids in tow. We ride the challenging 5.8-kilometre one-way route to Little Salmon Bay. Here, there are reef pools underneath sheltered cliffs, rich in fish life, with some of the best coral reefs on Rottnest. It’s a perfect snorkelling spot for the kids. We get some full-faced masks, which give the girls a confident start to snorkelling, and they love spotting the colourful array of fish below.
After the return bike ride back to the main area of Rottnest, we find some very cheeky quokkas rustling among the bushes, which, of course, warrants a selfie. Before jumping back on the ferry, we are greeted with a number of dining options and we refuel our tired bodies with hot chips and well-earned cold drinks, before making the journey back across the bay.
Perth
After we meet the quokkas, we round out our visit with time in the big smoke. We head to Perth’s Kings Park, which is one of the world’s largest inner-city parks. With amazing skyline views and immaculate gardens, it’s worth a day of exploring. There are a number of play areas for the kids and they have so much fun that we decide to return the following day.
A second day also allows us time to see iconic Cottesloe Beach, a short drive from Kings Park. The beach is popular for swimming and surfing and, with white sand and inviting turquoise water, we can see why. We miss the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition (which happens every March), but we hear that the leafy sea dragon can be spotted when snorkelling at North Cottesloe. We take a dip, but fail to find any dragons, so we settle for a tasty seaside gelato, before saying farewell to this beautiful city.