gear

Two sleeps to go. Where are they biting? Even if we don't catch anything, Rotto Bloggo will look good at the natural jetty with this Plano tackle system.

It's a belt with zipped pouches, but tackle system sounds so much better. It was a gift from the American in-laws. In two pouches are plastic containers, where you put your bait, hooks and whatnot. We guess the idea is to be mobile and not have to scamper back to the rock to bait up again. That is a hassle. But it's never a hassle coming back to the rock with a monster fish.

Rotto Bloggo doesn't fish anywhere else. But it's very soothing on Rottnest. It's kinda atavistic, catching your food. Mrs Rotto Bloggo gets bored with it and will stay home and knit.

Even thought we're only a Rottnest angler, we do like looking at fishing porn.

old news

Apologies for the hiatus. Only three sleeps until we're on the beautiful island.

The Rottnest news has been piling up during our absence. One item we liked was this, from Murdoch Uni: the academics did some research, which was forgotten until someone found the interviews and photos in a box.

“One recording was of Jack O’Donoghue, who had clear memories of his childhood spent on the Island where his father was a warder at the Prison in the earliest years of the twentieth century.

“Another was with a family who had an original sketch map hand-drawn by a German sailor interned on Rottnest during the First World War, which they gave to the project and is now held at the Rottnest Museum."

A positive look at Rotto from this New Zealand reporter: she describes it as "Perth's very own island getaway".

"It sits 19 kilometres off the coast of Fremantle, is 11km long, 4.5km wide at its widest point and its coast is ringed with bright-white beaches and coral reefs." Fancy!

(Or is that: "Ut's cust us tunged with bright white beaches"?)

still there

OMG the Cottesloe pylon is gone. Or it's hanging by a filament. Big news, anyway. There have been many news stories in the last 36 hours about wind and rain: Rotto has been copping the full force of the elements.

In yesterday's post we were going to theorise what the five wonders of the Indian ocean were, but couldn't think of enough. We'd settled on Phuket barmats, Mozambique's flag, and the pylon.

A wasted opportunity. Imagine how prescient we would have looked if we'd mentioned the pylon (which doesn't seem to have it's own Wikipedia entry).

Some good coverage of the downed pylon. Why are we talking about? Hats off to Chris Thomson at WAToday for his wonderful pic of the scene: you can see Rottnest in the background. It's still there! The Wadjemup lighthouse has withstood the hurricane and perfect storm. No worries.

* Pic is from WAToday. If the company or Chris is unhappy with its use here we will take it down immediately! Just spreading the word to the small army of Rotto Bloggo readers about the excellent work by Chris and WAToday!

pristine pink

Only 12 sleeps until we're on the beautiful island. Much excitement in the Rotto Bloggo compound last night, when we came home to our bumf.

The night before we came home to bumf, too. The nice RIA people sent it twice - no matter.

Inside the envelope were 12 luggage stickers, a flyer for the general store, the remittance advice, arrival and departure information, maps, the list of what's in the accommodation, and a list of stuff we can hire (a pack of two tea towels is obly $6.50 for six or more nights).

There was also a Rottnest postcard. Rottnest island - Open for Business - One of the 5 Wonders of the Indian Ocean. The other four, according to the card, are Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives, and Sri Lanka (especially since they've stopped waging war with each other).

"I'd forgotten what a pristine paradise this is," says the pretend text on the back of the card. We haven't forgotten.

green daylight

Never mind the Rottnest Orange on the buildings or the blue of the water - the beautiful island turned Green on the weekend.

Voters at the picture hall in the Freo by-election were solidly behind Adele Carles: she scored 49 out of 88.

Others: Peter Tagliaferri 21, informal six, Sam Wainwright four, and two each to Nik Varga, Jan ter Horst, Carmelo Zagami and Rosemary Lorrimar.

Rob Totten, Steve Boni, Andriette du Plessis, and Julie Hollett scored exactly null points.

The ABC's psephologist Antony Green had a bit of a tanty on Saturday night, wondering why the results from the hall weren't available, but we can't see it on his page today.

It was also a comfortable win for right-thinking daylight-saving aficionados, with 51 for and 37 against.

The latest rumours sweeping 'round the beautiful island after the weekend's voting:

A green latte-sipping quokka will be Carles' electorate officer...

Peter Tagliaferri is opening up an Interfoods branch at Geordie...

Jim McGinty will find the soul of the Labor Party at the bottom of the Rottnest trench...

Rotto is so fabulous it will still be OK even with no daylight saving later this year.

teaching Thomson

Rotto Bloggo became rebarbative this week upon hearing of a primary school in the western suburbs that took its kids on an excursion to Maylands.

"Did they have innoculations?" a bystander inquired.

It was an incredible revelation. We had laboured under the misapprehension these students stayed in the bucolic western suburbs.

Today's image was snapped at a western suburbs primary school that stays safely within the Golden Triangle. A school excursion to Rottnest: wonderful.

Rotto Bloggo has been racking its brains to try and remember where it went on school excursions. In primary school there was one to Kalgoorlie, during which we encountered grilled tomato for the first time. Hideous.

In high school there were camping trips out of Port Hedland, and an end-of-year trip out of Rossmoyne to some dank spot down south. Ghastly. The strongest memory is of watching kids lighting their farts.

picture perfect

Only 17 sleeps until we're on the beautiful island: what photos are we going to take while we're there?

Like notorious blogger The Worst of Perth, we like taking photo photos. Except we're not very artistic, and we don't out much effort into the process. We have a folder bulging with Rottnest pix, but they're pretty run-of-the-mill.

We don't really need magnificent works of art. But it's nice to take a nice photo.

Rotto is like the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Royal Show, Hanouma Bay, Masada: there are set photos everyone takes. It can be hard to come up with an original pic.

Think of the Thomson Bay jetty that points to the CBD. Riding a bike. Quokkas. Been there taken that.

The challenge is on. In the meantime we can take inspiration from people like 1 thousand words on Flickr. He has some excellent Rotto pics. The jetty fishing one is Geordie Bay, and the lighthouse one is fresh and well-composed.

rotto revenue

Good to see the beautiful island is doing its bit for the GFC (global financial crisis).

After yesterday's Budget 99,000 public servants are worried about losing their jobs, you'll have to get a bank loan to heat the house this winter - and the cost of time on Rottnest is going up.

After we saw the Perth Now headline Rotto Bloggo's heart hammered - but then we saw the hikes apply from July 1. Our 13-day retreat is still within budget (and, if today's Inside Cover is right, we may bump into Tourism Minister Liz Constable while we're over there).

"Fees for an extended stay will rise by $5.10 for adults (to $18) and by $5.50 for children aged 4-12 (to $6.50)," Perth Now reports. (Hikes of nearly 40 per cent and 650 per cent).

"Day tripper adults will be charged an extra $1.60 (to $14.50), while the day fare for children will rise by $4 (rising from $1 to $5). (Smaller hikes).

"Admission fees are normally included in the price of ferry tickets, which can be expected to rise to cover the increases.

"Seniors' fees will also rise for extended stays, by $2.40 (to $15.30), but will fall slightly for day trippers (down 60 cents to $12.30). (More for seniors: hike of around 18 per cent).

"However a new two-adults, two-children discount tariff for extended stays of $41.75 will be introduced."

Postscript: As usual, we should have looked at the source material before posting. This isn’t the end: there will be “CPI” hikes for the next five years. The cost of staying at the youth hostel steeples by about 30 per cent (from $26 to $35), and rugby teams will have to find about 25 per cent more for their 18-bed cottages at Governor’s Circle (from $430 to $525).

everywhere

And quite often
Water around the ferry
But not potable.

Island discontent
In winter: wet wet wet and
Even more water.

Turtles on order,
As quite often no turtles
Populate the depths.

Blue swimmer dreaming,
Her ring around the autumn
Of a fantasy.

'building a house from the top down'

We're not often first with the news on Rotto Bloggo, but a media release has been fired moments ago from the Rottnest Society cannon.

The Society has asked Tourism Minister Liz Constable to delay the Island Management Plan "until building blocks are in place".

"The draft Rottnest Island Management Plan 2009-2014 (RIMP) attempts to have us believe that a local holiday and recreational island is the same as an ecotourism destination. This is, in our view, at odds with Sections 11 and 12 of the Rottnest Island Authority Act 1987 – to say nothing of the often-expressed wishes of the Western Australian community. This tension needs to be resolved before proceeding further," RS covenor Sue Folks said.

"the draft RIMP proposes the development of a number of strategies and plans which, when completed, should be building blocks on which the management plan is based - but which as yet are only sketchy outlines. Since these strategies and plans largely appear to support a divergence from the Act they should be developed after the Act is reviewed, and the purpose for which the island is managed is clarified."

Sue wants you to bone up on the Plan and - if you're concerned - contact Minister Constable and your local MP and support the Society’s position on this.

More information at www.rottnestsociety.org.au or phone 9438 1413.

Pic is the logo of the Rottnest Society. We haven't got the all-clear from Sue but we're sure she won't mind.

best job

The winner of that dream job has been announced. Rotto Bloggo has been chosen from 2.7 billion applicants to be the live-in model on Rottnest. Our every stroke on the putt-putt course at the Brett Heady Family Fun Centre, every wetting of a line, every page turned in books we read will be broadcast live on Teh Interwebs to show people what a paradise Rottnest is...

Oops. Sorry about that. We were fantasising about what could have been after reading stories on the Brit who's got that Hamilton Island job. Ben Southall will get $150,000 for having to snorkel, blog and swim. His Canadian girlfriend will be joining him.

"I hope I can sell the reef as much as everybody is expecting," Southall said after he was crowned the winner at a ceremony on Hamilton Island. "My swimming hopefully is up to standard."

What would we have said if we got an equivalent gig on Rotto? "I hope I can smoke herring to the quality everyone is expecting," Rotto Bloggo said after they were crowned Momentous Ambassador For Life For Rottnest. "My Scrabble tiles are stained with the tears of illiterate quokkas."

bits and blogs

Did you get your submission in to the Rottnest Island Authority about the management plan? It was due today. The Rottnest Society had around 100 people at their East Freo meeting last week. Nice Beatrice Thomas story in the West here on the Society's views.

After last week's welter of grumpy students, some positive views of the beautiful island: Shawn Freeman says Rotto is "awesome". He has some nice photos on his blog. He calls Freo 'Fremo' but.

And Paul at fremantle biz is always perceptive and writes well about the island. Here he's on the natural jetty.