Rottnest Island is known for its exquisite snorkelling locations, pristine beaches and being the home of the quokka. 

Rottnest Island, also known as Wadjemup, features 63 beaches with coral and over 400 species of fish. Although you can hike and cycle throughout Rottnest Island, I usually go there for the water, to snorkel and scuba dive.    

Rottnest Island is also a Class A Reserve and parts of Rottnest Island are part of a Marine Sanctuary Zone, which means marine life is protected in areas including Thomson Bay, Parker Point, Green Island, Armstrong Bay and West End. This means that spearguns and handspears aren’t allowed in these areas and boating restrictions might also apply. 

Visiting Rottnest Island

Where is Rottnest Island?

Rottnest Island is located about 19 kilometres from Perth in Western Australia. Although some crazy, athletic people do swim to Rottnest Island as part of the Rottnest Channel Swim, everyday folk like me should catch the Rottnest Ferry from Fremantle or Hillarys Boat Harbour. 

The ferry ride from Freo takes about 25 minutes and the ride from Hillarys is about 45 minutes. I’ve heard you can also catch a ferry from the city at Barrack Street Jetty, though I’ve never done it, and it takes about 90 minutes from there. The ferry ride from Barrack Street Jetty takes longer because your ferry needs to travel along the Swan River before hitting open water. 

What to bring to Rottnest Island

Rottnest Island is a bit large for an evening stroll but definitely a size that many people can ride around on bike. You can’t bring your car to Rottnest Island. Rotto is the kind of place you ride around on a bike or you can catch the free shuttle bus. 

Definitely take your togs (that’s swimming clothes, if you don’t know Aussie slang), towel, sunscreen and hat. We take sun safety pretty seriously over here, sunburn can be pretty bad if you don’t cover up. I always wear a long or short sleeve swimming top called a rashie and plenty of suncream. 

What you can hire on Rottnest Island

You can hire bikes when you get there, or you can bring your own bike and other equipment like SCUBA diving gear, kayaks, prams, bikes etc. Helmets are compulsory in Western Australia, so make sure you bring one along, or hire one when you book your bike. Rottnest Island is a little hilly when you’re riding a bike and it can get windy, so if you can spend a little more money hiring an e-bike then I would recommend doing that.  

When you get to Rottnest Island, you can book all sorts of recreational things, like mountain bikes, electric bikes, baby seats, bike trailers, snorkelling gear, dive tanks, wetsuits, paddleboards, mobility equipment and even tennis racquets. I recommend booking your bike ahead — you can do that online at Pedal and Flipper hire.

Accommodation and food on Rottnest Island

A lot of people go to Rottnest Island for a day trip, taking the early ferry in and leaving in the late afternoon. You can also stay a night or more — Rottnest Island offers accommodation including a luxury stay at Samphire, self-contained units, a campground and glamping at Discovery Rottnest Island. 

There are a handful of places to grab some food, from WA’s Dome Cafe to restaurants, cafes and of course you can also grab ice cream at the iconic Simmo’s or Kuld Creamery. 

Snorkelling at Rottnest Island

With 63 beaches there are quite a few snorkelling spots at Rottnest Island, such as The Basin and Parakeet Bay. The entire southern side of Rottnest Island has amazing places to go snorkelling. 

In my video, my mate and I checked out Henrietta Rocks. Although I believe Little Salmon Bay is the best snorkelling spot on the whole Island, you can snorkel anywhere you see a reef. 

If you are a little adventurous you can find some interesting underwater caves and swim throughs by simply exploring the spots that are least visited by the regular tourists at Rottnest Island. Plus the marine life is everywhere so you won’t miss out. In my YouTube video we did exactly that and explored an unnamed reef just east of Little Salmon Bay. We also explored another unnamed reef just east of Strickland Bay at the end of Marr Bidi Road.

Snorkelling at Henrietta Rocks, Rottnest Island 

Henrietta Rocks is at the south-east corner of Rottnest Island, about 3km from the main jetty and the Rottnest Island Visitor’s Centre. You can catch the bus there, ride over to it on your bike or it’s about a 30 minute walk. 

At Henrietta Rocks, you can snorkel around the sunken shipwreck where you’ll find a coral reef and stunning marine life. The shipwreck is about 50 metres from shore and it’s known as the Shark. In 1939, the Shark actually broke its mooring over in Fremantle Port. It drifted across and crashed into Rottnest Island — this is where it now lives.

During our snorkelling trip, we came across Gold Spotted Sweetlips, Red Lip Morwong, Buffalo Bream and more.    

Snorkelling near Parker Point, Rottnest Island

On our way over to Little Salmon Bay, we came across this snorkelling spot in the video, one I hadn’t been to before. It’s one of the advantages of being on a bike, you get to find spots that you’d miss if you were on the bus, places that are more secluded where you can explore without the crowds. 

So this spot was south of Parker Point, at the very southern end away from the boats. During our snorkel here, we found Brown Spotted Wrasse, Stripey, Herring, Buffalo Bream and Great Crested Tern. If you go to the 11 minute mark you’ll see a cave we found that went about 4 metres deep, there was a Western Rock Lobster hiding down there. 

Snorkelling at Little Salmon Bay, Rottnest Island

I didn’t swim there this time around because I had swam there several times before but I can tell you that Little Salmon Bay is in a protected area, sheltered from strong winds, so it’s a popular spot for snorkelling. 

This reef is definitely worth seeing if you haven’t been here before, I would just recommend that you go there first before everyone else gets there. When we got to Little Salmon Bay it was quite crowded, there was a school group as well as other tourists there. That was why we ended up leaving and heading out to a different beach. 

Snorkelling at Strickland Bay, Rottnest Island

Strickland Bay is quite large and there are a few ways to access this area. We came in on Marr Bidi, which is just off the main road.   We saw lots of Buffalo Bream which are actually quite common in Perth metropolitan waters. They are a fairly large fish that can grow up to a foot long and quite often swim in large schools which is cool to witness. 

A few years ago before I started recording my adventures I saw a school that would have easily exceeded 500 fish and they were all swimming around me, it was amazing! One thing that I like about this spot is the interesting reef structure. When I swam there I found a part of the reef that I thought looked like a shark. I tried to highlight this in my video with my limited editing knowledge to try and give you all an idea of what my imagination saw.  

After swimming for most of the morning we rode our bikes back to the Rottnest Island town centre, had some food and hung out with the cute little quokkas that live on the Island, but more about them in another adventure.

Enjoy snorkelling at Rottnest Island

Thank you for reading this article about our amazing Rottnest Island. If scuba diving is more your thing check out my video below to catch a glimpse of what it’s like to scuba dive at Rottnest Island. Keep an eye out for the Grey Nurse Sharks!

Well that’s it from me! Enjoy life! Have a great time and I’ll see you all on the next adventure!

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