Aound and about in Broome

 2nd July 2026

Baobab tree at town beach

Today started with a bus tour of Broome, part of the Kimberley cruise package.  Other participants included half a dozen others from the same cruise, some about to embark on the same boat back to Darwin and some about to embark on an alternate large boat.  One lady in the latter category accepted my request to pass on my contact details to Andrea, who I met yesterday, should she encounter her.

After collecting all tour participants from their accomodation, we headed to Cable Beach - it's name coming from it's being the first point at which the international communications cable touched Australia's shores.

On the way our guide, Candy, pointed out various features including those belonging to the rich and apparently famous. including one gentleman who came from England and spent millions on facilities to improve Broome, including building the surf club facilities at Cable Beach - not because of the surf, but because every seaside town neeeds somewhere to buy cheap drinks!

The chief role of the surf patrol seems to be moving the towels etc of swimmers as the tide comes in - which it does rapidly, Broome having anything up to a 10m tidal difference.

We proceeded on to Gantheaume Point, with it's stunning sandstone and dinosaur footprints - most of which were underwater, they are only visible at a very low tide, but a couple could be seen. I am glad that I have booked a tour to explore these as I would not have identified this as a dinosaur footprint

Sauropod footprint

Candy pointed out the red Pindan soil - the dreaded red dust that permeates everything for those who travel in the region.  Apparently this area is very popular (and not inexpensive) for destination weddings and it is quite the thing for the bride to trail her hem in the red dust.  That thought rather horrifies me!

Pindan cliffs 

Wattle

We saw the main port, with it's floating jetty, which now enables cruise ships to manage the huge tides.

Pindan soil and rocks

From there we proceed to Roebuck Bay on the opposite side of the peninsular to Cable Beach, and hear more about the history of the jetties there, the pearling industry and improvement to the area. 

Candy pointed out a statue to honour the Aboriginal women, including those who are pregnant, who were made to dive to 30-40m with no aids for breathing in order to collect mother of pearl shell.  Ironically it is located opposite the club where the pearl masters would take their leisure - the pearl masters owned the boats and licenses but certainly did not participate in that activity!

While mother of pearl shells were collected  for the button industry, the advent of plastic buttons saw its demise, but cultured pearl farming took its place.

We also had pointed out to us Broome's tin shed architecture - initially practical, now a characteristic and restricted in height, so Cable Beach and Roebuck Bay will never look like the gold coast.

We also hear about the Big lizards, monitor lizards up to 2.5m long - who like the golf course and dig holes in it.  This does not make them popular with local golfers.

The role of backpackers in the economy is appreciated, as they provide much needed labour during the dry season with its influx of tourists.

I choose to be dropped back at my accommodation as I do need some food, lots of cool water and a rest. And I checked with Felicity about my planned route for this afternoon's walk and all is good 

I also looked in her studio where she creates hats and fascinators and she is very well known for this 

About two I head off towards museum with a few other possible destinations in mind, including seeing if I can find some mother of pearl buttons.

At the museum, I am again feeling hot and tired and the lady at the entrance suggests the TV room where documentaries about the history of pearling are playing.  I watch for a while, but see  only sections of documentary about the WWII bombing of Broome by the Japanese - they did not target Broome town, but did destroy a few Catalina flying boats in the bay.  It is suggested that Broome was spared because of the Japanese cemetery and it's Japanese population.

The next documentary was about the race riots in Broome, serious fights between the various races brought to the town to work on the pearling luggers, which escalated to a serious situation for a few days.

The Malays and Japanese were brought to dive as Aboriginal divers had become reluctant to continue to dive in the way demanded of them, and finally the practice of forcing them was outlawed, although did continue to some extent for a while.

The Australian divers at the time could not achieve the results that the overseas divers did and when the White Australia Policy was introduced, Broome managed to secure an exemption from the dictation test required of those from overseas as the pearling industry depended on these workers.

Diving progressed from freediving to hard hat diving as the benefits of doing so became apparent overseas.  

Glad that dive suits have progressed from these!

Divers were expected to do up to 8 dives a day, to serious depth and 'divers' illness' AKA the bends, was known but even after the RN developed guidelines, the divers chose to substantially ignore them and many died, though this number was reduced substantially by the introduction of the first decompression chamber around 1915 reduced this considerably- from an average of just under 20 per year to 1!

Recompression chamber - 1915

The inequities faced by some of the immigrants really was a bit shocking; a Japanese man who had been a contributing citizen for decades was interred for the duration of WWII, as were all other Japanese - though the community treated them well and took them goodies - and another who had been granted citizenship,  owned a pearl lugger but was not permitted to hold a pearling license because of his nationality of birth.

I looked at displays about the dinosaur footprints - 4 main categories, a lovely shell collection and some history of the Sun Theatre - Broome's outdoor cinema which originally observed strict segregation in its seating arrangements with those of social standing in comfortable chairs in the middle, the somewhat lessers behind them, others off to the sides or removed with a barrier between.  Aboriginals originally were not permitted inside the town boundary!

There were some displays I did not get to see it but was getting very close to closing time. 

I thought about walking into the town but decided about that and went straight to the markets. The food vans were of course tantalising with their offerings, but I resist a temptation for all except a sushi van, which was the one owned by sushi makers recommended by Felicity my hostess. I had some very good, freshly made sushi with ingredients chosen by me and took that out onto the jetty to sit and eat it and watch the mud flats grow as the tide receded.

Pizza cooking at the market - I found it intriguing 

I was greatly entertained watching someone take their car out over the mud flats and attempt to retrieve the boats had been stranded on the mud flats. I was not convinced it was going to be a successful exercise as a candy had earlier told us for vehicles were lost by driving on the beach. They were successful but it certainly was not the easiest and most efficient boat retrieval I have ever witnessed. 

An interesting boat retrieval

I walked around for a bit looking at all the other markets store not being tempted by their wares. I did raise an eyebrow to myself about the availability of hand knitted beanies and neck warmers, but I guess There must be a market for them. 

I did chat with a gentleman on a mother of pearl ornaments store to ask if he had mother of pearl buttons. He said he could make some but not in the time frame I needed.

Town beach - tides are responsible for the loss of a number of vehicles annually

I walked around with him at the park area on the shoreline for a little while and then contemplated my plan for the rest of the evening. It was still 2 hours until moonrise and there was a heavy cloud bank on the horizon. Deciding I did not wish wait around for 2 hours for disappointment. I walked to a place that would be easily findable by a taxi driver with unlock traffic negotiation, the traffic being insane as people headed to town beach to view the staircase to the Moon, and called my trustee taxi driver Mohammad. 

He arrived after a few minutes and delivered me back to my accommodation and then refused payment as he did not pay for his gear setup. He had been home having a rest. I tried to pay him in cash but he refused saying he had no doubt he would send me again, which he will.

I was thoroughly exhausted and the possessor of a fairly serious dehydration headache and I went to bed early. 

During the night a frog was making itself at home in my bathroom

Cute nighttime visitor