Rottnest holds a special place in West Australian hearts, which is why the team behind the newest venue—the renovated The Lodge Wadjemup accommodation, restaurant Sunsets and kiosk Pelicans—took such care in assuring the space was accessible to all, while maintaining a specialness worth making the trip for.
The sounds of bicycle wheels without cars to drown them out, the smell of freshly baked bakery doughnuts and pies, the feeling of sandy feet and salty hair; days spent with nothing more on the agenda than finding the best bay to swim and snorkel. Ask any West Australian about Rottnest and they are likely to conjure up nostalgic memories of an idyllic island and precious time spent with family and friends with little distractions. It’s a place that has been preserved in time, with not much changing or new opening for decades. But with the renovation of The Lodge Wadjemup and the arrival of its restaurant Sunsets, that has changed—and it’s something that the team behind it put a great deal of thought into.
“We talked a lot about how grounding Rotto is and we really wanted to help extend on that, so not be something that’s too fancy,” explains Graeme Dick, the managing director of Social Grounds Hospitality, the team behind venues such as The Alex Hotel, Jetty Bar and Little Creatures.
“Whenever we do a project we always look at what’s happening, who’s the customer, how can we best work with them to embrace what they’re looking for?” Dick continues.
“I’ve got young kids and Miles [Hull, Social Grounds Hospitality Director] has got kids and we were like, what kind of family holiday would we like to have? Families are a big part of Rotto…and we know couples are a big thing too so there’s definitely places for them to relax and enjoy too”.
The result is a vibe that strikes the balance between special and relaxed—just like Rottnest itself. To execute this in the food offering, Dick and Hull brought over former collaborator Matt Powell as head chef. Powell first started working with the Social Grounds Hospitality team at Little Creatures in 2012.
The team had already decided a Mediterranean-inspired menu would best suit the island surroundings. With Powell’s background as head chef at Italian seaside eatery Il Lido, and his experience in Spain, Dick thought he would be the perfect chef for the job. There was just one hurdle—Powell, who hails from Victoria, did not share the deep-rooted nostalgia for Rottnest that many locals hold.
“I wasn’t sure about coming to Rottnest and working, after seeing horror stories out there, mainly around logistics. And then the next minute I came over here and I said, okay, I’ll take it on”, Powell concedes.
Powell had been taking a break from his chef career to be a meat purveyor, and one of his pet projects—bringing O’Connor Beef from the Gippsland region in Victoria to WA—now features on the menu at Sunsets. The produce is known as some of Australia’s best grass fed beef, with the cattle grazing on the nutrient rich pastures of the region.
But Powell maintains his favourite dish is the prawn gnoccheti. “I love the sauce, if you get that sauce right, it’s quite intense. We don’t try to reduce it and make it overpowering. The smell of the aromas you get from it is beautiful and then the gnoccheti is handmade, it’s all fresh pasta.”
There are several pasta dishes on the menu—all handmade, as well as a butternut pumpkin risotto. Seafood also features heavily, with items like tiger prawns, Leeuwin Coast Albany rock oysters and an octopus dish that Powell says straddles the flavours of Greece and Spain.
Powell says he’s tried to source produce as locally as possible, with 80 percent of the produce from Western Australia, although he concedes those logistical hurdles he was worried about do provide a challenge. “Logistically it’s tough. We work alongside Pelagic [shipping] like everybody else on the island and you’ve only got a small window to get things over here fresh in the morning, it’s about an hour, from 5am to 6am. If we miss that they won’t come until the following day.”
The wine list is also a roll-call of WA heavyweights, not surprising perhaps considering the Fogarty family is part of the project. Dick says much of the list is modelled on the Fogarty Wine Group’s private collection.
But the “accessible” parts of the menu shine just as bright as the fancier parts. Parents will love the extensive kids section, which also features healthier options than the usual fish and chips, such as hummus and veggie sticks, as well as a child’s portion of roast chicken and veg.
“The rotisserie chicken is probably the hero piece of equipment in [the kitchen] and we’re selling around one hundred chickens a day. It’s free range, we brine it, we dry it out, we do all the right things to it,” Powell says.
On top of Sunsets, there’s also Pelicans, a casual kiosk with big plans in the works. Dick describes it as a nod to old-school milk bars. It currently serves coffee and soft-serve ice cream, as well as sandwiches and yoghurt bowls. They are planning to add a frozen coke machine and offer spider-floats, while Powell mentions plans to serve warm gooey brownies and ice-cream. “We wanted to offer something family-friendly but also a bit of fun too, that was different to what was already being offered on the island”, Dick explains.
Once Phase Two of the renovation is complete, the venue will also feature a conference center for up to 200 guests, catered by Sunsets, along with a pool bar. Guests can start their day with a buffet breakfast, which includes playful touches like a self-serve frozen yogurt bar. In total, the site will offer 109 rooms. Fortunately, Powell’s wife, Claire—also a trained chef—will be joining him on Rotto, ensuring the chef couple will have their hands full.
The same meticulous attention to detail applied to the menus extends to the accommodation, with thoughtful design choices aimed at enhancing the guest experience.
Currently, Stage One is complete with 31 courtyard rooms—refurbished from the original 143-year-old heritage building with access to an internal courtyard—and 32 refurbished lakeside rooms which are larger and offer lakeside and island views.
Stage Two, set for completion this year, will introduce 46 new rooms, the aforementioned pool and conference space, as well as the Gathering Ground—a space honoring the Island’s cultural history, designed to host events, ceremonies, and cultural sharing with the Nyungar community.
The restaurant’s name, Sunsets, was inspired by the breathtaking views across the island’s lakes, a sight that first captivated the venue’s founding partners. With both the restaurant and many of the rooms thoughtfully positioned to capture these vistas, the venue creates a deep sense of place—one that’s sure to become a cherished part of many future Rottnest memories.
Looking for more WA travel ideas? Check out WAGFG Stays for the perfect place to stay in WA.
