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28/11/08 9:28 AMFremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from AustraliaPage 1 of 2http://fremantlebiz.livejournal.com/2008/11/25/
Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia
 
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Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
TimeEvent
10:07a
Rottnest Island - a Quokk a dreaming story 
The marsupial western-Australian wallaby called the Quokka
(Setonix brachyurus)
is synonymous with Rottnest. However prior tocolonisation they existed in thick country throughout the southwestcorner of Western Australia. There are still a few small populationsstruggling to survive in isolated areas.Visitors to the island are reminded
ad nauseam
that Dutch explorerscommanded by Willem de Vlamingh remarked in 1697 that theanimals resembled large rats. An English translation of a Frenchtranslation of a now-lost original description attributed to deVlamingh, says of his sailors: "... after killing some forest rats, theyonce again took to their path."The killings were probably done with axes, because the men had beencutting firewood. They didn't cook and eat the animals because thewere revolted by the odour emitted from the carcasses.There were three ships in the Vlamingh expedition:
Geelvink, Nyptangh
and
Weseltje.
None of the surviving journals actually cointhe word Rottnest. The closest is in the
 Nijptangh
journal where thereis an apparently casual reference to
'het Rotten-Eiland',
whichtranslates into 'the Rat-Island.' However
'Rottenest'
appears as aheading on shore-view sketches of the island by a draftsman VictorVictorszoon, who was on the
Geelvink 
with de Vlamingh. The namewas later perpetuated on published maps and charts which were basedon his cartography done during the voyage.Ironically, the island's orientation was inverted during the originalpublication and the error apparently remained unrecognised forcenturies. Was it a deliberate error to confuse potential enemies? TheDutch were a cunning bunchof rats themselves. The 1753 version shown below is online in the Australian NationalLibrary website. When turned upside down it's actually not a badeffort, with many of its aspects recognisable to me.So that dear children is how Rottnest got its name - from the cute littlecreatures which were not rats at all; and from axe-weilding Dutchmenwho didn't give a rat's arse about much, apart from discovering newbusiness opportunities and generating more wealth for the East IndiaCompany.
When east means west 
There are still lots of cute looking Quokkas on the island. Naturally Itook some photos in October. The top two are of a mother and herbaby (joey). That's its tail hanging from her pouch in the second pic.The animals are shy of being touched, but around the settlement theyare quite bold. They can nip little fingers and enter dwellings toscavenge for food if a door is left open.The other images pretty well speak for themselves. The mummifiedcorpse was typical of many we saw around the island. At times theyhave violent social life amongst themselves. The fur flies during the
 
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