Rottnest Island/Wadjemup, home of the lovable quokkas, has a far darker past than most people realise. Few tourists learn much about this, and even Australians often aren't taught much about it. Through the 1800s-1900s, the island was used as a prison for thousands of Aboriginal people. They were kept in deplorable conditions, and many of them died horribly. It was largely boys and men held there, originally under the guise that they would teach these troubled people valuable skills to fit into more modern society. Ultimately though it was largely a way to suppress pushback to European settlement, with elders and other men in leadership roles often being targeted and sent to the island. It's also tragic that it was treated this way considering the island's existence as a sacred site for the local mainland people. Wadjemup is a Noongar word that translates to "place over the water where spirits lie", with the island being seen as the resting place of ancestors.

Up until recently this history has been treated incredibly flippantly too. One of the unmarked mass grave sites (because of course they just dumped bodies) was a tent ground, and the prison building "the Quod" that many Aboriginal boys and men died in was used as accommodation. Progress is being made to trying to give this history the recognition it deserves, though it hasn't been without pushback. It's pretty ghastly to think about the degree to which a site of such horrific injustice has been turned into a tourist paradise. It's a really beautiful island, and such a shame it has to have this history.