Waiter – there is a quokka on our table

Rottnest Island. The land of the gorgeous beach. A place where kids can be let off the leash and enjoy a kind of freedom they don't have back home.

The kind of family holiday where babies and toddlers will crawl around in the dirt that will somehow cover the floor of your basic unit within seconds of your arrival and you decide you don't care because the battle to keep them dirt-free would ruin the vibe.

Tourists love the cute Rottnest Island quokkas.Credit: Katy Clemmans

An island where you send your clean kid onto the playground while you attempt to enjoy a takeaway coffee, and they inexplicably re-emerge with black feet, legs and shorts (who knew white sand could do that?).

A place where the wildlife proves fascinating and plentiful. Quokkas taking selfies in the settlement, stingrays flapping near the shore, dugites being dodged as people cycle past and peacocks strutting around.

The view from Hotel Rottnest.

But when it comes to the iconic Rotto pub (Hotel Rottnest), a superb spot to enjoy a beverage, the gorgeous view and perhaps a live band, I'm wondering whether it's time to take action on the animals.

Waiter – there is a quokka on our table.

That's right, not only are the little critters sitting under your feet waiting for scraps to drop, as usual, sniffing dangling baby feet, but now the buggers seem to be getting bolder, this one nimbly springing onto a chair and up onto our table.

Let's remember our tourist mecca is named for the creatures who early settlers thought looked just like dirty rats. They don't. They're cute.

A quokka keeps an eye on a plate of food at the Rottnest pub.

But gross.

And the waitress' solution? Wipe down the table with her overused rag. That was it.

At the same time our group – four women, one bloke, a pre-schooler, two toddlers and two babies – was under siege from a group of seagulls loitering close by, waiting for their chance to swoop in and steal something.

And don't even mention the peacock.

This big bird sidled up to our table with an eye on its prize, the food on an 11-month-old girl's high chair tray.

Coming from behind, it leaned in and snapped the food up with about 10 ultra-fast pecks that passed close by the baby girl's face.

The child screamed. The other kids cried. Loudly. We were causing a scene.

Wary though I was of the pecking peacock I jumped up and forced it away using a chair as my shield. But to move our kids and food away from the impending animal invasion was a difficult manoeuvre.

To save the food, or the kids first? The burger was too good to leave behind.

A stylish woman dressed impressively in white (!) linen jumped up to help us.

"That peacock was pecking your baby!" she shouted, protecting our plates from the birds above so we could pick the kids up.

Quokka

Once sitting inside we only had to contend with the quokkas, and it's true most don't have the courage to actually jump onto the table. Some though, do leave little 'presents' laying around on the pub floor which will no doubt tantalise your toddler. If you are lucky they will just point at them.

A bar tender said the problem with wildlife at the pub was getting worse. Quokkas had even been finding their way into people's rooms at the hotel.

Could it be our current quokka selfie obsession is driving these creatures to become bolder in their quest for human food, and less afraid to try and take it? Many tourists intent on the perfect Insta pic use food to get the creature to look down the barrel.

We were even followed onto the beach at South Thomson's by a quokka intent on eating the snacks we had brought for the kids. I'd never seen one come so close to the water, and despite being (gently) herded away from our bags, this one kept coming back to try again.

Dome Cafe had a big problem with the seagulls and seems to have taken the decision to keep them out via enough wire strung up around the patio that it almost feels like looking out of prison bars.

A friend of mine, Tazli Bowe, who remains a huge fan of the island, tells of her recent encounter with a sly seagull outside the fabulous Rottnest Bakery after seeking out a greasy bakery special to "kick away her hangover".

"I had literally just walked outside, unwrapped the paper bag containing my delicious bacon and egg roll - and I don't eat bacon, that's how bad this hangover was," she said.

"Next thing I got hit in the face by a seagull, flapping it's wings in my face, I screamed, threw the roll to save myself and it flew off with my snack."

Rottnest Island Authority Acting General Manager Environment, Heritage and Parks Shane Kearney said there had been discussions with Hotel Rottnest management about measures that could be taken to keep wildlife out of the pub, but because the building was heritage-listed it was difficult.

"We would really love to see the animals out of there," he said.

The Geordie Bay Cafe had put measures in place to keep quokkas out and they were working. New developments set to be built on the island would be designed so that quokkas, and presumably peacocks, would not make it inside.

"What has really changed is how people are trying to interact with the animals," Mr Kearney said.

"Because the quokka selfie is now a thing they are trying to interact and feed the quokkas to get that snap."

It's clear that tourists love the cute quokkas they encounter. But perhaps it's time to uninvite them to dinner.

Hotel Rottnest was contacted for comment.