From the coastline of Perth in southwestern Australia, towering blue hills jut out from the horizon. Some days it seems so close that you can almost touch it. Some days it is hidden by fog or passing ships.
“Sometimes they want to be seen, and sometimes they want to be in the shadows,” says Glenn Stasyuk, a lecturer at Murdoch University and director of the 2014 documentary “Wagemap: Black Prison — White Playground.” “This is this entity. It has a heartbeat.”
Rottnest Island, or Wagemup as it is known by the local Aboriginal Noongar people, is located 19 kilometers (11.8 miles) off the coast of Fremantle. More than 800,000 people visit each year to enjoy the white sand beaches, crystal clear waters and quokkas, the adorable Instagram-famous marsupials that smile in selfies.
Len Corrado, emeritus professor at the University of Western Australia and a Noongar Elder, explains that it is a spiritual place for the traditional custodians of Wajemup. “In Noongar stories, when a person dies, their soul leaves their body and travels to the Western Isles, a place where ghosts live,” he says.
“Wajemup has always been a home for spirits,” Corrado explains. “But after the colonial regime, when it became the place where more Aboriginal people died in custody than anywhere else in Australia, it definitely became a more spiritual place.”
Australia’s Aborigines are one of the oldest continuous civilizations on earth and have been the custodians of Australia’s land, seas and skies, or what they call ‘country’, for at least 65,000 years. Britain claimed eastern Australia in 1770, and the First Fleet, consisting mainly of convict colonists, arrived in 1788. During the ensuing colonial period, violent conflict broke out between local Aborigines and the British.
Wadjemup became a prison for Aboriginal boys and men in 1838. The first prisoners arrived by boat and slept in caves along the coast while limestone was mined and the prison itself constructed.
Most of the inmates are accused of stealing livestock or flour food, Stasiuk said. He explains that the system was already “completely foreign” to the men and boys who were charged, arrested and sentenced in a language they did not understand. Suddenly, they are blown to an island, not knowing if or when they will see their loved ones again.
Some prisoners had traveled traumatic long distances, including from the outback Kimberley, more than 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) away. Stasiuk says people from the desert have never even seen the ocean. Corrado said many people were transported with chains around their necks, arms and legs, which was not unusual at the time.
Once on Wajemup, the POWs were forced to perform harsh labor mining materials and building the island’s infrastructure. “The piers, the cottages, the prison, the Government House, these were all built by Aboriginal prisoners,” Starciuk says. Corrado said the construction helped the colony justify the cost of establishing the prison, as the indigenous people could be further used as cheap labor in future projects after they left the island.
Their lives in solitary confinement were not easy; the prison was overcrowded and disease was rampant. According to Starciuk, these brutal conditions were made worse at the hands of one particularly “savage” overseer, Henry Vincent. “Vincent is one-eyed and comes from the Napoleonic Wars,” he explains. “He chained people in cells, beat prisoners and shot them.”
Starciuk explained that Vincent was never convicted of any of these crimes and that a street on the island will be named after him until 2022.
By the end of the 19th century, more prisons were established on the mainland, and calls for their closure grew in tandem with the growing desire to use Wadjemup recreationally. After 93 years of operation, the prison officially closed in 1902.
Approximately 4,000 indigenous men and boys were imprisoned at Wajemup. Of the 373 people who died there, most were buried in unmarked graves.
Today, many tourists who visit Wajemup are unaware of its tragic history. They ride their bikes in the sun on wide roads, snorkel on coral reefs and stroll through colonial towns with ice cream in hand. This idyllic destination stands in stark contrast to its buried and haunting past.
The island began its reinvention as a tourist hotspot shortly after the prison closed, with the main cell block converted into holiday homes in 1911. The building’s heritage was destroyed as walls were torn down and plumbing and electricity installed, Corrado said. More than that, he explains, tourists were now “paying for rooms, going to bed, and having sex in the places where the men died.”
To make matters worse, the unmarked graveyards of deceased inmates became campgrounds known as Tentland. For the next 90 years, holidaymakers slept just two feet above the ground in one of Australia’s largest indigenous burial grounds.
Stasiuk says he visited Tentland in the 1970s before learning about this history. “I went there and got sick,” he explains. “Then I went to the hospital again and ended up being admitted. I couldn’t understand it. The doctors couldn’t understand it either. Other than that, I was physically healthy,” he then told his grandmother. She immediately gave an answer. “It’s straw,” she told him. “It’s bad.”
Skeletal remains were discovered at this site in 1970, but it was not until 2007 that the campground was officially closed. In 2018, the former prison ceased operation as a tourist destination.
Rottnest Island currently offers multiple camping accommodations, independent of the Tentland site.
For Noongar people like Corrado, Wajemap remains deeply symbolic. “It’s like a lookout,” he explains. “A lighthouse that shines to show people that something is out there.”
Mr Stasiuk agreed, saying it was important not to forget the island’s Aboriginal history.
In 2020, Rottnest Island authorities launched the Wajemap project to “formally acknowledge the island’s history of Aboriginal incarceration and deaths in custody through truth-telling, ceremony and commemoration.”
The project includes honoring the burial site, preserving the original prison building, and hosting cultural ceremonies to promote healing. Wadjemup Willin Biddy (Spirit Trail) was held in 2024, with approximately 200 Aboriginal people from across the country attending a private cultural ceremony to rest in peace and free the souls of those buried on the island.
This complex history blends with the island’s modern tourist identity in the form of Aboriginal cultural tours.
A spokesperson for Rottnest Island Management told CNN the agency continues to work with the Aboriginal community “to ensure the island’s history is shared openly and honestly.”
Casey Kickett is a local Noongar guide, director of the Koordas Crew and member of the Wadjemup Aboriginal Reference Group. Koordas Crew organizes activities for children, such as painting workshops and bush track tours, aimed at introducing children to the positive aspects of Wadjemup culture. She hopes this will make children more open to learning about darker history when they are older and ready.
Kickett describes her work as a stepping stone between the beautiful island and its tragic history. Because the island is “a really beautiful place,” Corrado insisted, reiterating how much he loved visiting Wajemup despite the horrors that unfolded there.
“My people are buried there, and I really enjoy going up to them and saying goodbye,” he says.
Kickett encourages all visitors to this beautiful and complex island to stay safe with simple rituals. “If you jump off the pier, throw some sand into the water. Introduce yourself to the countryside, to our ancestors,” she advises.
Corrado agrees. “Next time you go there, be sure to go up to them and say hi. Tell everyone I know what happened to them and that you yourself will do everything you can to right the past in the present,” he says.
