Skip to main content

Rottnest Island Nursery

The Rottnest Island Nursery is helping to keep the native landscape alive.
Leaves
Leaves

The future of flora

The natural and unique landscape of Rottnest Island is one of the main reasons why so many people come and explore it. But the environment is as delicate as it is beautiful and as tourism grows, so does the risk for native flora.

A lot of foot (and bike) traffic, especially around beach access areas, means that Rottnest Island needs a plan for revegetation. This is where the idea for the Rottnest Island Nursery came from — it’s how we plan for the future of the island’s natural landscape.

Samphire
Samphire by the salt lakes

The Rottnest Island Nursery

To maintain this unique island ecosystem, there can be up to 40,000 native seedlings propagating in the nursery at any one time, from woodland melaleuca to spinifex and everything in between. And thanks to the team of volunteers, who dedicate 2,500 hours to this project each year, the Rottnest Island Nursery is helping to keep the native landscape alive.

This nursery sets the stage for seed collection, treatment, storage, and propagation of seedlings native to the island; what you can’t see is how this land would have looked in the future without their hours of work.

Interested in volunteering some time to tree planting around Rottnest Island? Visit the Rottnest Island Authority website to find out how you can help.

Learn more about volunteering
The diverse plant landscape

Experiencing the island’s flora

The work of the Rottnest Island Nursery can be seen all over the island. There’s samphire around the lakes, spinifex in the dunes at Longreach Bay, tea trees along the bike path between The Basin and Longreach Bay, and saltbush along Parker Point Road. 

All of these native flora species have a home here on Rottnest Island and create the awe-inspiring landscape that attracts so many people each and every year.  

Learn more about nature experiences

More about sustainability