Looking around Broome

 We have a 6 hour guided tour booked for this afternoon, so this morning, we just went for a walk down to the seafront to see what else is around. Only a few hundred meters away, was Town Beach, with the imposing Town Jetty.

Old Town Jetty (the tidal difference here gets to 10 m)

It looks like a lot of money has been spent here over the past few years, modernising the park area.

Town Beach

A monument in the form of a sculpture has been erected looking toward the jetty, to commemorate the Japanese attack on Broome in WW11. Broome was never bombed, but was a base for a number of Catalina flying boats that were being used to rescue people ( mainly Dutch) from Timor and Indonesia. The Japanese launched a strafing attack to try and destroy the aircraft on the water and the monument tells the stories of those involved.

There were 9 Japanese Zeros involved in the attack, symbolised by these 9 figurines.

On each of the aluminium figures, there is a personal story about the attack.

Also within the park, is the Pioneers Cemetery, a small cemetery where some of Broome pioneers were laid to rest.

This afternoon we have an organised tour and it looks like it covers most of what there is to see in Broome. It leaves at 12 noon and goes for 6.5 hours, so we head back to our room to get organised.

Our bus arrives on time, having picked up other tourists from various hotels around Broome. The driver/guide introduced herself and we could tell we were in for an entertaining afternoon. Brenda is originally from Uralla (NSW), and settled in Broome 11 years ago after caravanning around Australia 7 times. She clearly likes it here and obviously loves her job.

So after hearing her brief life history, we drive off to Chinatown, which is effectively the township of Broome. We are soon off the bus and walking the streets to our first stop, Sun Pictures

Off the bus and on our way to Sun Pictures

Sun Picture Gardens is the World’s oldest picture gardens still in operation. Opened in 1916 showing silent movies with musical accompaniment from a local pianist known as “fairy”. In 1933 talking movies arrived.

At the entrance there is a bit of a museum exhibiting some of the old projection equipment.

And then we entered the theatre proper with under cover seats looking out over an open air screen and gardens.

We were all seated in the theatre and listened to an audio broadcast that recounted the history of the theatre. Overall it was very well done.

It is now time to hit the streets again, and move to another part of town where we are going to visit Willie Creek Pearls, to hear all about the pearling industry. To get there, we through  Johnny Chi Lane, a little laneway in the middle of Chinatown lined with specialty shops

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Just before we reached Willie Creek Pearls we stopped at Streeters Jetty, originally built in 1897, for Pearl Luggers and small merchant vessels to get access to the town.

It has been upgraded over the years and the tramlines that used to run along it removed, but it remains as a reminder of the old pearling days

Finally, we reach Willie Creek Pearls, which is more of a museum of the history of the company and the early days of pearling in Broome. Their actual modern pearling business is located elsewhere.

Once inside and seated, Brenda takes over as tour guide and relates the story of how the pearl industry got started in Broome and some of the subsequent history.

The initial interest in the pearl industry was not to harvest pearls, but to collect the oyster shells for mother of pearl. Pastoralists noticed that as part of their ceremonial dress, aboriginal men wore a teardrop shaped shell engraved with an ochre pattern, known as a Riji. The men would wear this around their waist on a belt of human hair

Aboriginal Riji

They quickly saw a commercial opportunity in collecting this product, and in the 19th century, when mother of pearl reached is peak demand for the button industry, Broome was supplying more that 80% of the World’s supply. The introduction of plastics after WW11 bought an end to this massive demand for mother of pearl. The cultured pearl industry then developed, with help from the Japanese who developed the technology.

Divers had a tough life wearing this heavy diving gear and spending hours under water 6 days a week.

The attrition on divers was high, and they worked long hours, most were Japanese or other Asians. The master pearlers were all Europeans and definitely the main beneficiaries of the trade.

An example of how pearls are grown in racks

An old pearl lugger

Enough history for a while, the next visit is to a brewery. It is around  2pm and the troops are getting hungry, so the stop over at Spinifex Brewery at Cable Beach is a welcome change of pace.

Newly established, Spinifex Brewing, is apparently an offshoot of a Mandurah Brewery. A lot of money has been spent in building this modern facility at Cable Beach, a pretty brave investment when craft breweries are collapsing all over Australia and there is already a very well established craft brewer in town with loyal following, Matso’s.

We are seated inside, giving an abridged tasting opportunity of 2 beers and one ginger beer. Salt and pepper squid and hot chips are also provided, whilst we are given a presentation on the brewery 

, their philosophy and some info about the samples we are about to try. It seems they are trying to incorporate local ingredients into their brews and it seems to be a pretty woke organisation, no doubt having received some government financial support. 

The beer was not good, and whatever native ingredient they put in the ginger beer really didn’t work.

There is a large outdoor area for games and a children’s playground.

Overall, I don’t think Matso’s have much to worry about.

The highlight for me was when the camels came past having completed their time at cable beach.

Next on our visit list was the Japanese Cemetery. It was here that the real toll of the pearling industry had on Japanese Divers became apparent. There were 900 graves including 1 European. Apparently when the Japanese set up this cemetery, there was one existing European grave there, and they do not believe in moving the dead., so left this grave in amongst the Japanese ones. At some point in time a number of the natural stone headstones were vandalised, including the European one. The Japanese got together and raised funds to replace all of the damaged headstones, including that of the European.

There is a mix of old and new headstones

The only headstone written in English, that of the only a European in the cemetery 

The tour continues in to Gantheame Point, the site of dinosaur footprints along the shoreline. Sadly for us, the prints can only be seen at very low tides and we are there at almost high tide. Nevertheless, it is a very scenic spot, with a lighthouse and an impressive house built right on the point. From the the point you can look right along the length of Cable Beach.

The weathered sandstone on the point results in some amazing formations.

We can see all of Cable Beach

Meanwhile, whilst we have been sightseeing, Brenda has been off looking for bush tucker. She knew where there were a few Kadadu Plum trees and had collected some fruit for us to try. It was not particularly memorable, but they are sticking it in local beer at Spinifex, and gin at a local distillery.

Kakadu Plum tree and fruit below

It is now time for the highlight of our tour, a drive down onto cable beach (in the bus), to sit on the beach and watch the sunset. Once we are parked amongst the myriad of cars there, the luggage compartment is opened and out come foldable chairs for everyone. Bottles of wine and beer appear, as do a range of cheese and bikkies, olives, salami etc to complete the experience.

Plenty of cars on the beach when we arrived

Our bus and passengers all organised to have a quiet little drink and watch the sunset

The sunset was a fizzer, but there was plenty of interesting activity on the beach and in the water to keep us amused.

Kimberley Quest was anchored just offshore and were receiving guests back on board from a visit ashore

A whale watching boat brings their tourists ashore on a Sealegs amphibious boat 

It was 6.39 pm when we finally got back to our hotel after a busy afternoon. We went to a nearby restaurant, Papa Fuego, for dinner and had a very nice meal.