Military & Maritime History

Exploration

Wadjemup / Rottnest Island has a long, rich history, spanning generations and cultures. Once used by the Whadjuk Noongar people for important ceremonies and meetings, rising sea levels around 6,000 or 7,000 years ago cut the island off from the mainland. It effectively remained undisturbed by human hands for thousands of years, with no current evidence — either cultural or scientific — suggesting that Whadjuk people inhabited or journeyed to the island during this time. 

But it still played a prominent role in the culture, and became known through the Dreaming stories (Nytting) as the place where the spirits go to rest — the Noongar version of heaven.

Without any human disturbance during this time, the animal and bird population thrived.

The earliest known discovery of Rottnest Island by European explorers is credited to Dutch navigators during the 17th century, during their search for a shorter route from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia. However, it wasn’t until 1658 that anyone actually set foot on the island, believed to have been Samuel Volkerson and his crew of the Dutch ship Waeckende Boey.

In 1696, the next recorded European visitors made landfall. Dutch sea captain Willem de Vlamingh landed on the island, giving it the famous name of Rottnest Island. This means ‘rat’s nest’ in Dutch, as he mistook the island’s abundant quokka population for giant rats.

Despite its prominence, it took until 1831 before any large presence was established on Wadjemup. As part of the Swan River Colony, Robert Thomson moved his family to the island and began building up the main settlement, now known as Thomson Bay. 

1838 saw Wadjemup enter a sorrowful chapter of its history, with the construction of the Rottnest Island Aboriginal Establishment — a prison and forced labour camp that incarcerated over 4,000 Aboriginal boys and men over its 93-year lifespan.

The dawning of a new age

Despite the safeguards put in place to protect ships and their crews, seven more ships ran aground on reefs surrounding the island between 1878 and 1891. To help combat this, a second, larger lighthouse was built on the same site as Wadjemup Lighthouse. 

Designed to replace the existing structure, this newer, more modern lighthouse was built at the highest point on the island. Standing at 38 metres tall, it is the fourth tallest lighthouse of its kind in Australia.

The newer building provided a clearer beacon for seafaring vessels. Where the original lighthouse used a revolving catoptric light, that used a series of mirrors to reflect the light of a lantern, it only shone for five seconds every minute. The new lighthouse featured a more advanced holophotal dioptric revolving light that flashed every 20 seconds, providing much better navigation for any vessels passing by Wadjemup.

But in 1899 tragedy struck again, with the vessel City of York running aground on the island’s reefs, with 12 lives lost.

This spurred the construction of a second lighthouse at Bathurst Point. This new lighthouse would enable navigators to pinpoint their location by triangulation, greatly increasing safety over the seas. 

While the beaches of Gallipoli and the muddy fields of France and Belgium were far, far away, Wadjemup still played a part in Western Australia’s efforts during World War I. Australia’s Department of Defence commandeered the island as an internment camp from 1914 to the end of 1915.

In September 1915, the camp held 989 people on its shores. While most of those within the camp were there purely due to German and Austrian heritage, there were some legitimate prisoners of war. 

Despite the initial fervour in the war effort, however, the internment camp was abolished, and recreation and holiday pursuits returned to Wadjemup in December 1915.

Inside the Fortress

September 1937 saw Rottnest Island declared a permanent station for Australian troops, with personnel from the Army, Navy, Airforce, and the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) and Women’s Royal Australian Navy Service (WRANS). And to perform their vital defence duties, a number of other buildings were constructed to support Bickley Battery and Oliver Hill Battery.

As well as construction of a barracks at Kingstown, in 1938 a four-storey Battery Observation Post was constructed at Signal Ridge, and another at Bickley Battery. The upper floor housed instruments to observe and direct gunfire from the Oliver Hill Battery. The floors below were used by Fire Command, or Fortress Command, as it was known, a station that coordinated gunfire of all the batteries in the Fremantle Fortress area. They shared the space with important roles such as the searchlight control engineer, a signal group, and other personnel.

Signal Ridge, the ridge just next to Oliver Hill, was chosen as the site of strategic signalling and military installations. A Signal Station was originally sited at Bathurst Point in 1904, but was dismantled and moved to this more practical location in 1939. The new site allowed the signallers to see ships approaching in any direction, allowing better communication with incoming ships, and ensuring faster response times should the guns be required. Staffed by WRANS personnel, the two-storey building afforded a full 360-degree view over the island.

World War II comes to Australia

After war broke out in 1939, Wadjemup was declared a prohibited area in June 1940. All recreational activity ended. A declaration that was intended to last three months, this continued for a further five years until June 1945. The island was occupied by military and naval personnel only during this time, with the two gun batteries manned 24 hours a day. 

Accommodation was needed for further personnel on the island, so WRANS House was established for the signallers operating the Signal Station. They worked in shifts of four hours on, and eight hours off, and rotated duties between Rottnest Island and Fremantle. The first signallers arrived on the island in 1943, and stayed until the Signal Station closed in 1945.

And yet, despite the impending threat to Western Australia’s shores, the guns were never fired at an enemy vessel. 

As the country’s military focus moved north, the fixed defences at Rottnest Island were reduced. Peace came once again to the island — but the guns, the gun emplacements, the tunnels, and the buildings and infrastructure required for war still remained.

After the wars

By April 1945, all buildings at the main settlement had been vacated by the military, except for the bakehouse and garage. Approximately 200 Italian prison camp internees were sent to the island for four months to carry out repairs and renovations.

In June 1945, the prohibition order on Rottnest Island was lifted, and civilians were again allowed back to its shores.

Oliver Hill Battery was put into maintenance mode and decommissioned in 1960. Despite its use long since gone, it was never dismantled, and the entire emplacement remains intact, ready to explore. This was part as testament to the role they played in Western Australia’s defence—but also due to the high cost of dismantling them and shipping the scrap back to Perth.

Bickley Battery remained in operation until 1968. At this point the guns were decommissioned and dismantled. One can be found installed out the front of Kingstown Barracks, as a reminder of the area’s significance. The other was transported back across the channel, and can now be found at the Leighton Battery on Buckland Hill, Mosman Park, almost directly opposite Bickley Point across the waves.

The Kingstown Barracks themselves were still used for military purposes up until 1984. But with just 43 days’ use out of the entire year, it was decided to close these too. Following this, it began its new life hosting hundreds of school children and groups in Barrack-style accommodation, before becoming the accommodation location it is today.