Day 52, Tuesday 24 May, Eco Beach to Broome
We start early for a beach walk at Eco Beach, followed by a cold shower inside our glamping tent, before getting on the road for the short drive to Broome.
Our tent at Eco Beach has an indoor shower but our one bedroom apartment in Broome only has an outdoor shower? Anyway delightful accomodation for our next three nights in Broome.
With our local itinerary courtesy of the Broome Visitor Information Centre we take a driving tour of the Broome peninsular and finish the day at Cable Beach for sunset.
Day 53, Wednesday 25 May, Broome
We discover that the Visitor Information Centre has free electric vehicle charging and take time away from the car to walk the town. We soon realise that pearling remains a key part of the town’s economy with several pearl shops in Chinatown, one with a fascinating mini museum of the local pearling history. Well-suited pearl diving was not without risk. Oxygen was provided from the mother ship and it was not unknown for the skipper, when faced with impending rough weather, to cut the lines to the diver and depart to avoid risking boat and crew.
From our visit to Cossack we understood the strong Japanese connection to pearling and the local industry. The Japanese developed the cultured pearl industry and, when one enterprising Australian wanted to do the same, legislation was passed to make it illegal in order to protect the pearl shell industry. During WWII the pearl shell industry was shut down because of the Japanese connection and never recovered after the introduction of cheap plastic buttons in the 1950s. The restriction on cultured pearls was eventually lifted and Broome remains the place for ”South Sea” pearls, both natural and cultured.
Day 54, Thursday 26 May, Broome
Motel pickup at 0730 for a flight overhead the Horizontal Falls today. A boat traverse of the Horizontal Falls must top the wish list of most tourists to Broome. The 10 metre tidal range in this part of the WA coast is the second largest in the world and gives rise to the Horizontal Falls, with differing sea heights compensating by rushing through a 20 metre gap and another, eight metre gap.
Our preference would certainly have been a seaplane flight to the Horizontal Falls followed by a boat ride through the Falls. However these book out early and, in any case, yesterday was a Neap tide. It seems that everyone in this part of the world knows what a Neap tide is but I have to admit that, despite living close to an east coast beach, I did not. A Spring tide occurs with maximum difference between between high and low tide levels and a Neap tide occurs midway between Spring tides when the high/low tide difference is least. A Neap Tide meant no seaplane flight yesterday due to weak flow at the Falls and we hope that today’s tidal movement will also be minor in order to minimise our disappointment.
But our flight is great. In fact there are two flights and, two pilots, Matt and Ed, in two six-seater Cessna 210s. Broome airport is located very close to the CBD, with an eastern end takeoff immediately over Chinatown and one to the west over Cable Beach.
Our young pilot, Ed, gives great geographic and historic commentary throughout our flight. After some minutes circling over the Falls, we follow the coast around to land at Ardyaloon for morning tea, an ocean swim and a visit and tour of sea water tanks with marine life. These tanks were originally for research but are now operated by the local indigenous community to demonstrate the local sea life. Afterwards lunch before the one-hour flight down the coast taking in Cape Leveque and Beagle Bay on the wayback to Broome airport. Ed and Matt both get us safely back to Broome and add a few more hours to their logbook on their path to a future airline position.
Late afternoon we re-visit Cable Beach for our last westerly sunset. A camel ride on Cable Beach at sunset is probably second on the tourist list but only one (of three) camel tours seems to be operating and camel rides are in demand. We choose instead to photograph from ground level.
Day 55, Friday 27 May, Broome to Derby
Approaching Derby we stop by the Prison Boab Tree, believed to be 1500 years old. Derby seems to be the area for Boabs and this old tree was an overnight rest area for indigenous prisoners being transported long distances to gaol in Derby. Most prisoners were accused of killing cattle from a time when aboriginals had little understanding of the concept of ownership of land and animals and white pastoralists were moving into the region.
In the afternoon we take the long walk to the Derby jetty, reinforcing the huge tidal range as in Broome. Unfortunately the jetty is closed and under repair. On the walk back we stop briefly at artwork in the mudflats as the sun sets.
Early evening we receive reports of the unfortunate boating accident at the Horizontal Falls early this morning.
Day 56, Saturday 28 May, Derby
A visit to the old gaol reinforces the harshness of incarceration in the early 20th century. We follow with a visit to the pioneer cemetery, mostly for whites but also a few Japanese. One grave is for police constable William Richardson reportedly killed by aboriginal police tracker, Pigeon. Pigeon led a rebellion again the pastoralist settlers and his is an interesting story of being caught between two cultures.
We drive a short way out of town to the Waste Water Wetland but most birds seem to have flown. We return to the One Mile Camp Dinner Tree and join conversation with Spencer and others of his mob. He is keen to relate news of the Horizontal Falls boating accident, correct our misunderstanding on local tidal flows and talk enthusiastically about sleeping out to catch Jupiter kissing Venus around 4 am some weeks ago.
On our walk to the local pizza shop in the evening, we come by an interaction between police and a local indigenous group. As we have seen elsewhere it seems a good natured exchange with plenty of banter being shared, certainly not an adversarial relationship that easily assumed from afar.
The father-and-son pizza shop is also interesting, with dad’s collection of Italian motor bikes. And several locals appear to be receiving pizza seemingly with little or no currency changing hands. A nice touch.
Next east across the Kimberley