Rotto life built on sand and fun in the sun
Holidays, like life, were simpler in 1965.
For most West Australians - with plane travel prohibitively expensive for most - holidays were spent relatively close to home. And by the ocean.
Rockingham. Mandurah. Cervantes. Rottnest.
It meant holidays in caravan parks with communal showers and a designated area to gut and clean the fish.
There were morning walks for freshly baked bread, milk and a copy of _The West Australian _. Maybe an iced bun as a treat.
There was sunburn (long before the slip, slop, slap message), scraped knees and cut toes. And there was sand in all the wrong places.
The simplest of things became the greatest of memories.
Peter Coyle started holidaying on Rottnest as a teenager in the 1960s.
He remembers those days well.
It was from them that his love of the island grew.
He has returned to holiday with his children and his grandchildren.
And now he works as an island bus driver and volunteer guide, imparting the knowledge of the island he has collected over the past 50 years to tourists and island visitors.
"We tried to get over to Rottnest every year," Mr Coyle recalls.
"There were much fewer people on the island in those days.
"The most fun we had was riding, just like we do now.
"We also used to swim at the old army jetty, which was then an old wooden structure.
"We would swim under the jetty and have all sorts of fun swimming around the old wooden piers.
"We usually came over with other families and get cottages together, down at South Thomson.
"In those days, we used to have saltwater showers, so you needed to bring along the saltwater soap.
"The shower block was up near Bathurst.
"It's now a laundry but it used to be the hospital.
"We used to come across on the ferry, The Islander.
"Kids used to jump on The Islander as it left the main jetty and then they'd dive off the boat and swim back to shore. Just as a bit of fun.
"There was no ticketing on or ticketing off - they'd check your tickets once the ferry was under way."
According to transport historian Nicholas Pusenjak, The Islander was built in Brisbane in 1941 and started its life as an RAN motor launch.
It began its Rottnest service in 1949 but received a major refit in the late 1960s.
"Her appearance changed - the railings on the deck were faired into the hull, an elevated wheelhouse replaced the open wheelhouse just forward of the funnel and the funnel was removed and replaced with two thin exhaust uptakes," Mr Pusenjak said.
"To confuse matters, she traded under the names Islander, Islander V and Rottnest Islander."
It is perhaps a unique Rottnest holiday tradition of the 1960s that best reflects the era.
"When your holiday on Rottnest was over, you would leave a couple of stubbies in the fridge for the next tenants," Mr Coyle said.
"It was a friendly, welcoming gesture. A way of saying, 'Have a good holiday'."
Travelling by sea was still an attractive proposition for many West Australians, especially those wanting to get to Britain.
The Fremantle Passenger Terminal opened in 1960 and, at its peak several years later, was processing more than 200,000 travellers every year.
But as air travel became cheaper in the 1970s and 80s, ocean travel became less attractive.
One unique feature of the passenger terminal was the immaculately turned-out hostesses who played a significant role in assisting passengers and visitors.
Dressed in their red and white uniforms, they spoke at least two languages and had a broad knowledge of WA.
Fremantle was the first port in Australia to introduce such a service and the idea gained worldwide publicity, with a number of other ports following the example.
Interestingly, the Fremantle Tourist Association is looking to reintroduce the scheme for the 2015-16 summer cruise season.
So, maybe, some things from the 1960s are best not forgotten.
