A LABOUR of love that was ten years in the making, Cale McMillen’s Rottnest Island: The Cultural Landscape is a stunning photographic tribute to the island.

He captures all sides of Rotto from the crystal clear blue seas and colourful reefs to the ferocious storms and dusky sunsets.

A seasoned traveller and photographer, McMillen has been living on the island since 2005.

• Some of the great photos in Cale McMillen’s book Rottnest Island: The Cultural Landscape.

He is sort of Rotto royalty – a sixth generation descendant of island pioneer Francis Armstrong, a 19th century methodist who learned to speak Noongar and worked to improve relations between Aboriginals and the Swan River Colonists. 

Armstrong has a bay on Rottnest named after him and originally lived in the now heritage-listed K Cottage in Thomson Bay.

“The Rottnest project came about after having documented a bunch of my travels over the years, but realising I hadn’t ever really gone about capturing the island at all,” McMillen says.

“A year-long 2015 road trip around Australia kind of kicked it into gear; that solid amount of time away from the island was enough to really cement my passion for the island and its cultural landscape.”

The book is not only a joy to look at, but informative, with the accompanying text adding historical and cultural depth to the photos. It makes the whole thing feel like a beautiful history lesson.

McMillen says he loved photographing the isolated, rugged coastline at the western side of the island.

“You have some of the most dramatic cliff formations and powerful ocean movements, it’s just full of energy,” he says.

“In contrast the salt lake network of the island’s interior is often overlooked by tourists, the tranquillity once you get off the roads and start walking the Bidi network is memorable in its own right.”

McMillen is a master of capturing the vibrant and beautiful colours in the sea and shoreline around Rottnest, but one of the Chook’s favourite shots is a lightning strike at night.

The Rotto lighthouse is pitched against a bruised sky as fork lightning explodes around it. It’s super dramatic and atmospheric.

McMillen first got into photography back in the early noughties when he shot surf landscapes on analog film using a Hasselblad Xpan panoramic camera and Velvia 100 film.

• Some more stunning photos from Cale McMillen’s book Rottnest Island: The Cultural Landscape, which was featured in the Arts in our printed edition.

By the time he took on the Rottnest project, he had converted to digital and the trusty Nikon D810: “It never skipped a beat.”

In recent years, clips of quokkas going viral on social media, especially those involving celebrities, have seen Rottnest visitor numbers soar.

This has been compounded by glamping sites and other high-end developments.

So has Rotto lost some of its unspoiled charm?

“The island has most certainly gotten a lot busier,” McMillen says.

“Thankfully the A-Class Reserve nature of the island itself means that the landscape is still pristine, and outside of the daytrip ferry times you can still find yourself completely alone enjoying the beaches.”

To find out more about Rottnest Island: The Cultural Landscape see rottnestdreaming.com.au. and for more photos from the book see our ONLINE EXTRA! at fremantleherald.com.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK