The Rottnest Guides also run ‘Special Request’ tours targeted at school and community groups. Our tours are all crafted to spark curiosity and captivate interest in the rich history, sustainability practices, and ecological wonders of Wadjemup/Rottnest Island. Bookings for these are made with the Rottnest Island Authority (RIA) via the Rezdy app.
Next container is 3 cols x 2 rows wide for desktop
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Clockwise from top left: (1) Rottnest Solar Farm, (2) RVGA sustainability tour, (3) Stargazing, (4) Wind turbine viewed from the Golf Course (irrigated with recycled water), (5) Rottnest Daisies in a Tuart plantation, (6) Behind the Scenes tour. Credits: Rottnest Island Authority (1,2,4,5), RVGA (3,6)
Our normal daily tours both in the Settlement and around the island can be provided to a pre-booked group, and we also offer additional tours specific to groups:
The island now receives nearly 900,000 visitors annually, and they need a range of services from power, fresh water and ice cream through to rubbish collection and medical services. Find out more about what makes the island tick.
The tour introduces a variety of island services including power generation; desalination; waste water treatment; emergency services; barge transport and rubbish collection.
Typically the tour starts at the island’s main Service Depot and heads north through the settlement and out to the Basin and Mt Herschel
Containerised waste being loaded onto the barge for transport back to the mainland. Image: RVGA
In the 1600s early Dutch explorers reported Rottnest to be densely forested. But after European settlement started in 1831 tree cover was repeatedly reduced by fire for farming and fuel. Within 60 years all readily available trees had gone.
This tour compares previously unsustainable activities including deforestation, freshwater usage and overfishing with the six key sustainability initiatives established by the Island Authority; revegetation. use of renewable energy, desalination, maximised recovery of wastewater, recycling and the use of marine sanctuaries.
Students typically travel by bicycle from the railway station via the solar farm, back through the Settlement, out past the wastewater plant to the basin and then along the shore of Longreach Bay to Mt Herschel.
Rottnest pine (Callitris preissii) forest on garden Island . Image: RVGA
This tour for Year 11/12 Social Science students studies the changes in vegetative land cover that have occurred on Rottnest since it became an island c.6,500 years ago.
We look at the historical loss of woodland due to settlement, approaches to land cover restoration and rehabilitation, and how progress can be evaluated. Around 20,000 new seedlings are grown in the Island nursery and planted out every year.
The tour can be presented at the Vlamingh lookout in the Settlement or at a number of other vantage points across the island.
Composite image taken from Wadjemup lighthouse in 1937 and 2005 showing the increase in tree cover after some 50 years of revegetation campaigns. Images: YMCA (1937), RVGA (2005)
The walk starts at Kingstown Barracks – at its time one of the most modern buildings in Perth – and follows the curve of the old military railway up to the Bickley Battery, built in 1938 to defend the Fremantle anchorage. Although the guns have long gone, the mountings and all the buildings still remain, as does the stunning view out over Phillip Rock and Gage Roads.
Your guide will tell the story of how the 6″ (152mm) guns were installed and operated by the soldiers of the battery, and from the windows of the two observation posts you can see how the gunfire was controlled by the women of the Australian Womens’ Army Service (AWAS).
The tour follows part of the Ngank Yira Bidi along the south coast of the island.
Remains of the two guns. Image: Rottnest Island Authority
According to Greek myth, Orion (the hunter) led a tragic life that ended when he stepped on a scorpion, known as Scorpius. The gods felt sorry for him so they put him and his faithful dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, into the sky as constellations.
Wadjemup is separated from the city light haze by 19 km of Indian Ocean, so the island’s night skies offer a star display like no other. The guide will take your group to a suitable viewpoint, depending on where you’re staying and the season, to where you can experience an uninterrupted view of the heavens.
