Broome WA

It was 164km from Barn Hill to Broome and a total of 6,400km since leaving home. We fill up with fuel at the Roebuck Roadhouse and then continue into town. We do a bit of shopping before catching up with Michael, our niece Sally’s husband. He takes us to the family block where we have generously been invited to stay. We also meet some of the family. 

In the late afternoon we head to Gantheaume Point, a lovely red cliffs promontory with a lighthouse. 

In amongst these rocks footprints from dinosaurs have been discovered. 

We then park on the white sandy beach with a few others and enjoyed a walk and then watched the sunset. 

We had dinner at the Spinifex Brewery and watched the Bombers loose to the Dockers on the big screen. The camels also walk past after their sunset walk on Cable Beach.

The next day, Friday, we went to explore Chinatown and learn about the history of Broome. The area was home to the First Nations people for at least 30,000 years prior to the arrival of Europeans. The Yawuru people are the Native Title holders for the Broome townsite. In 1668 William Dampier was the first recorded explorer to land here. In 1883, when the town was gazettes, there were a few white settlers and a scattering of pearl camps.  It soon became a multicultural population lured here by the promise of finding their fortunes - Indonesian, Malay, Chinese, Japanese, European and Aboriginal. In its heyday, up to 400 luggers lined the shores and had a population of over 4000. The pearl trade was impacted by both world wars and never fully recovered, especially after being replaced by plastic buttons. Fortunately cultured pearl farms became successful with many manufacturers and retail outlets in and around Broome. We ventured around Chinatown which got its name due to all the Asian pearl workers living here and their retail shops.

We stepped inside Sun Pictures the world’s oldest open air picture garden. 

There are a few sculptures depicting different aspects of life in the past. 

Sam Male a prominent presence during the 1950’s

There was one designed by Michael, who is a very talented artist of several different mediums.

We pop into one of the pearl retail shops that had a bit of information about the modern cultivation and diving. 

And also how they used to do dive..

Happy to be a carpenter 

Lucky it’s not a live one 

We followed the heritage trail from Jetty to Jetty. 

Mangroves

Then visited the Historic Museum ($12pp) with some more interesting information.

We meet up with Sally and Michael at Entrance Point for the sunset. We get to see some dinosaur footprints too. Then dinner is at the Matso Brewery.

The next day we went to the courthouse market. We met Uncle Neville who is a very interesting character and bought some bush oils for inflammation from him.

After a coffee and a chat in Chinatown with Sally we had a Quick Look at the cemetery.

Then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at Gantheaume Beach, watching the beautiful sunset.