Smiling quokkas of Rottnest Island

By AG Staff 3 September 2015
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A curious Quokka and her tiny joey check out photographer Jeanne’s camera gear on Rottnest Island, Western Australia

This week’s reader photo was taken by Jeanne on Rottnest Island, Western Australia:

“My husband, Bing, and I live in Sydney and we travelled around Western Australia for seven days last week. Our journey started with the drive along the Coral Coast to Exmouth to snorkel at Ningaloo Reef where we luckily saw a whale shark (whale shark season was supposed to have ended when we got to Exmouth). Then we spent three days around Perth, including a day at Rottnest Island.

Our aim at Rottnest Island was to finally meet the famous, always-smiling quokkas, and to explore the beautiful island. We were very pleasantly surprised to find quokkas to be extremely trusting, gentle and inquisitive, with seemingly permanent smiles on their faces! They were truly one of the highlights of our trip to WA. One day at Rottnest Island was definitely not enough and we will back again for a longer stay at the island.

Quokkas, along with other Australian marsupial natives, are truly the precious gems of Australian fauna. In all honesty, we reckon quokkas are underestimated and they deserve the worldwide recognition that other more well-known Australian marsupials enjoy (eg kangaroos and koalas),” she said.

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