The Nolans' entry

Nature Play ANZAC Day competition winners

Back to the competition winners

It was such a memorable way for us to spend Anzac Day 2011 at Rottnest Island, especially given that Rottnest Island played a military role in both World War I and World War II.  
It allowed us not only to have a great day full of unstructured fun but to also to remember what Anzac Day means and understand the sacrifices many people made to enable us to be doing this today.
 
There were so many favourite parts of our day.  These are a few:
 
R - Rock climbing at the Basin.  Our very first activity of unstructured play.  We enjoyed exploring the caves, taking in the beautiful views out to sea and back to the coast.  Perth looked so small from here.  We played "spot the crab" in the many rock crevices and pools and climbed up to the very top (can you see Daniel in the white shirt?).  

O - Outdoors and enjoying walking in the sunshine, swimming at the beaches and bays and climbing trees (even sitting in a tree eating my lunch.  Why not, that's unstructured).
 
T - Train ride to Oliver Hill to see the gun that still stands. Taking time to absorb the meaning of Anzac Day and remember how lucky we are to be enjoying this day. 
 
T- T-shirts.  Wearing out t-shirts, we got lots of comments from people on the island asking us to slow down so that they could read them (hence the uncompleted missions!)  Mum washed our T-shirts that night and Daniel wore it proudly to the Fremantle street festival the next day.
 
N - Never ending fun in the sun.  We walked, swam and climbed.  We saw so many unexpected things, including landmarks and animals.  Apart from our favourite (the quokkas), we also say a lizard, peacock, pelicans and lots of fish.
 
E -  Exploring nature - taking time to pat the quokkas.  How we loved these little creatures that we had never seen before.  We must have taken a thousand photo's and never stopped getting excited when we spotted one.  The inland lakes were so unexpected and magical.
 
S - Swimming in the glorious bays.  Jumping in the sand, making footprints.  Swimming amongst the schools of little fish.  Catching the waves, building sand castles. 
 
T - Taking the ferry to an island we have, for many many years, looked at from afar but never had the opportunity to visit before.  It was dad's, Brooke's and Daniel's first time to Rottnest and we are now official Rottnest Island fans.  We can't wait to go back again.
 
If we had to pick our very favourite part of the event, it was the opportunity to walk up to these strange little creatures, the quokkas.  We had never seen them before and to be able to pat them was amazing.  What gentle little animals they are.  We found a sleepy one under a tree and we patted him/her to sleep.  It proves to us we don't have to visit theme parks and alike to have fun.  Nature (and being part of nature) is fun (... but exhausting!).
 
Thank you Nature Play for giving us the opportunity to visit Rottnest Island and being part of the day.
 
The Nolans.
Mum, Dad, Daniel (9 years old) and Brooke (7 years old)