Rottnest Books

An exotic name that started with a mistake by a French cartographer! Eleanor Smith’s 1953 book title Isle of Girls was referencing a once common nick name for Rottnest Island. The first Dutch to see the island had named it Isle of Mists perhaps for the misty haze from the eucalypts in the heat. The word for mists is very close to the word for miss or girls so the cartographers mistakenly translated the name of the island to L’lle des Filles. The English translated the French maps and followed suit and the name stuck.

If you are wondering about the girls who became immortalised on Rottnest they were: Catherine, Marjorie, Mabel, Nancy, Fay, Henrietta, Mary and Vera.

Eleanor Smith 1904-2002 was educated at Perth Girls’ School and worked as a nurse and writer.

Published in the 1940s this little cardboard covered book contains anecdotes and poetry and some black and white photographs of the period. Of interest is the story about the wreck of The City of York told to him by a Fremantle pilot crew member who was there as the tragedy unfolded.

Rottnest Island’s first ‘Famous Five’ styled adventure. Jim, Jack and Ric go camping on the island and find themselves in an adventure involving steep cliffs, mysterious caves that hold a sinister secret and a character called Old Walt! Published in 1951 with hand drawn illustrations and a fabulous map of the island.

Four children with freedom to explore the island get a holiday job searching for abandoned bikes. Great fun until they discover a mysterious gang of bike thieves and find themselves in a dangerous adventure. Published in 1982 with illustrations and the cover by Graeme Base.

John Thomas McMahon was a monsignor and educationalist within the Catholic Church and moved to Perth from Ireland in 1921 when he was 28 years old. He travelled throughout Western Australia as an educator within the church and wrote about his travels including his time on Rottnest. He was closely involved with the University of Western Australia and helped establish St Thomas Moore College in 1955. Its library was named in his honour. This book is a collection of essays on his travels and includes the time he visited Bing Crosby on set in Hollywood! He was the author of thirty books and in 1970 was appointed OBE.

Originally published in Dutch in 1976 this edition in English was published in 1985. Schilder tells the detailed story of the Vlamingh voyage from 1696-1697 to explore and chart the great southern land that pervious Dutch ships had discovered on their way to the Spice islands. The book includes extracts from Vlamingh’s logs, copies of the charts that were created and the hand drawn illustrations made by Victorszoon.