After much debate with myself, this morning I went back to the bead shop in China Town and indulged in quite a stock up. I planned to make really good bracelets for the females of the family, as well as ones for M and me, and perhaps some anklets as well.
In Broome, one’s thoughts tend to turn to jewellery, because of the ever-present reminders of the pearling industry to be found. Pearls were responsible for the early growth of the town, and both directly through the modern pearl farms, and indirectly through tourism, have helped sustain it in modern times.
The pearl oysters found in these waters are very large ones, which meant that, from the start of wild oyster harvesting in the 1860’s, some large pearls could be found. But also, the large shells were an excellent source of mother-of-pearl shell, used for things like buttons and handles for cutlery sets.
Diving to gather oysters became the province of Japanese divers, adding to the multi-culturalism of modern Broome. In the first part of the 20th century, an exemption to the White Australia Policy was made, to continue to permit the Japanese divers in Broome.
The mother of pearl industry was decimated by the post WW2 development of plastics, but from the 1970’s, pearl farms concentrating on producing pearls for fine jewellery developed and efforts to promote this have seen a change in the image of pearl jewellery and a revival in its popularity. The several outlets in Broome featured some superb items. I could easily spend a small fortune here – but to acquire some of the loveliest things would need one!
M and John went off together, fishing, from Cable Beach. They did not catch anything.
It was very damp in the mornings, here. Sea mist or dew? There was much condensation under the awning roof, which dripped copiously on the table and anyone trying to use same, for several hours in the mornings.
John had organized that we three would, in the morning, play Scroungers bowls at the Broome Bowls Club. It was pleasant enough. They started early, to avoid the heat, so there was still plenty of the day left, after.
After that, we went to the markets in China Town. Didn’t think much of these. Yesterday’s Courthouse Markets were far superior.
I had a quick browse in a beading shop in China Town. They had some lovely materials – very tempting, but I resisted.
China Town – John being bored while I browse shops….
We had a Subway lunch at the Paspaley shopping centre – named for the family that is synonymous with the pearling industry in northern Australia.
We found a brilliant art gallery in that area. It carried a lot of works from local indigenous artists, as well as the general run of items geared to tourist interest. I bought a wonderful painting by Melissa Waina, from Kalumburu. It was black Bradshaw type figures on a red brown background. Very effective and “different”. Her father, Kevin Waina, was also a talented artist.
M bought one of Melissa’s works too. A bit smaller than ours – and cheaper too! She bought a soft toy blue heeler dog, for a friend. M already travelled with a similar kelpie toy sitting on her passenger seat.
I went for an afternoon walk on Cable Beach.
There were bad bush fires around Broome – lots of smoke obscuring the sunsets. Apparently the worst of these was a control burn that got away! Red faces somewhere!
We had tea from Zanders take away at Cable Beach. We walked there from the caravan park. It was quite a wait for our order, but M and John’s fish and chips were excellent, as was my calamari and chips.
It was lovely to sit on the foreshore, eating tea and watching the evening light on the sea.
I went for an early morning walk on Cable Beach. It might be legendary and all that, but it is really just another beach. We have seen better. It does have vivid sunsets, and it does have camel rides, but…..
Cable Beach
Whilst walking I got chatting with another walker, a lady from Melbourne who was staying at the Resort for a long weekend. Nice to have the life of some people……
At least, out here, there did not seem to be the groups of alcohol affected, yelling, fighting indigines that were so evident in the town areas, especially at night. From our past experiences here, early morning walking in town would involve picking one’s way through much broken glass and other rubbish, including that originating in the human body!
We went to the Courthouse Markets – along with a lot of other people. The atmosphere there was quite festive and very tropical. The stalls are set up in the gardens surrounding the old Broome Court House, as the name suggests, under lots of beautiful old shady trees.
Some of the stalls here were of a much higher quality than is often found at weekend markets. There were some very good jewellery stalls with unusual, local-related items. I bought pearly shell pendants for the three daughters, and unusual dichroic glass pendants for daughter’s partner, and myself. These were done in shades of vivid blue and red-browns, so evocative of the colours of Broome.
Bought a lovely smelling bath soaps pack for the errant daughter in law – in case a Xmas gift for her would be needed.
Another stall had items based on satellite photographs of Kimberley places and a few others of interest. (This was before the era of Google Earth, Zoom etc). I was really taken with a satellite image of the Kimberley, mounted on a lightweight board. It cost $90. but I thought it would be a real talking point at home, and illustrative of the area we had travelled this year. The detail was great. That whole northern Kimberley actually looked much more rugged on the satellite photo than it did, travelling it on the ground!
The same stall had a magnet with a sat photo of Antarctica. It looked like a slightly convoluted pearly shell – most unusual, so I had to have that too.
We bought lunch at the markets where there was a good range of “ethnic” food choices.
Also bought fresh vegetable and some fruit there – excellent quality.
We drove to the town shops, because it was where I could buy the Weekend Australian. Got sidetracked, first, by a stall that was selling floor rugs and bought a small one for the van, to go in front of the bed to help prevent the sand and grit from these ungrassed sites, that was finding its way into the bed.
Roebuck Bay at low tide
Refuelled Truck – $1.44cpl.
Spent the rest of the afternoon at camp, reading the paper.
Our not-so-spacious site at BroomeCable Beach again
FRIDAY 24 AUGUST FITZROY CROSSING TO BROOME 400kms
Managed a reasonably early start, having been able to stay hitched up.
Refuelled – $1.44cpl.
Fitzroy River from bridge at Fitzroy Crossing. Caravan Park on right
Checked out the free camp area at Ellendale as we passed, but of course M was long gone – although we did wonder if her plans had worked out as intended, and she had even been there. Won’t know till we get to Broome…..
Today’s drive was less interesting than that of yesterday – no dramatic scenery of distant and near ranges.
The only points to note, amid the dry and dusty grass and scrubland, were the crossings of the impressive Fitzroy River – at Fitzroy Crossing and again at Willare Bridge, closer to Broome.
Fitzroy River from Willare Bridge
At this time of year, the river was a small flow in the huge river bed. It was hard to believe how high and raging it could become in flood times. In 1993, I’d bought a postcard of the caravan park where we’d stayed last night – with only the elevated amenity block showing amid the floodwaters from the river.
The Willare Bridge was one of the long, single lane bridges that feature in this part of WA. Again, it was hard to credit that, at times, Highway 1 could be closed here by the river in flood.
Willare Bridge (Google)
We reached the Palm Grove Caravan Park, at Cable Beach, Broome, about midday.
M was already there, of course. From her overnight stop at Ellendale, she’d had a good head start on us. She had found Old Halls Creek and its surrounding area, interesting, and worth the visit. But she had driven out to explore some of the area and at Caroline Pool had felt quite intimidated by a group of locals who told her white fellas weren’t welcome there. She didn’t stay round to argue the point.
The caravan park sites were on the small side, gravelled, but adequate. The amenities were reasonably modern, and clean. It was not the most upmarket park we’d stayed in, by any means, and really didn’t justify the $255 we paid for the mandated week’s stay. But, hey, that’s Broome.
M’s site was across the access road from ours, so at least that was convenient.
We heard that two of the Cable Beach caravan parks, including this one, had been sold, to be turned into resort units. That would put the squeeze on caravanners to Broome, even more. It was really hard to find a vacancy in a caravan park here, in the winter months. The overflow area used at this time of the year, at a gun club, was even hard to get into. It is one of those areas that poses real dilemmas for accommodation providers: in the winter months, a few more caravan parks could be easily filled, but for the rest of the year there would be insufficient patronage to be viable.
We set up, then went to the Information Centre in town, to see what we could suss out.
When I say, in town, it is because Cable Beach and the main Broome town were separated by a few kms of scrub and industrial land. The original town of Broome, and the modern one that has grown up around it, is located on a peninsula that juts into Roebuck Bay. The much more recent development of Cable Beach is located on the other side of this peninsula, facing out into the Indian Ocean.
Broome and Cable Beach (Google)
We drove around the town, looking at the changes since we were last here in 2000. There had been a lot of development and building since then. Broome seemed to be really booming – we thought this might be due to the offshore oil and gas developments. Even Cable Beach seemed to be growing rapidly – and not only tourist resort development, but housing as well.
For our Friday fish and chip dinner, we walked from the caravan park, a few hundred metres, to a van parked overlooking Cable Beach, which did a roaring trade in take away food. The prices were reasonable, the food excellent. It was very pleasant, sitting looking out over the ocean, eating our dinner. Great to be by the sea again!
THURSDAY 23 AUGUST KUNUNURRA TO FITZROY CROSSING 670kms
We were away at 7.40am, for what we knew would be a long day of driving.
Rest area at the junction of Highway 1 and the road to Wyndham (Google)
It was, of course, going over the same stretch of road that we had driven a few weeks ago, last year, and a couple of times before that. But the first part was very scenic, so it was not boring at all.
This time, there was diesel at Halls Creek! We refuelled – $1.45cpl.
We had intended to meet up with M again at the Ellendale free camp area, some 90kms beyond Fitzroy Crossing. But we had both had enough by the time we reached Fitzroy Crossing, so called in to the caravan park there, to see what was available.
They offered us a powered site in an ad hoc section away from their main caravan area. It was shady and reasonably pleasant. They were setting up to host some sort of large safari or rally, tomorrow, and so had been clearing out most of their powered sites for that. We paid $27 for the night.
Caravan park by the wide, sandy bed of the Fitzroy River. We were amid the trees on the upper RHS. (Google)
Just did a basic overnight set up. Because of where we were, we were able to stay hooked up, too.
In the cool of the late afternoon, wandered around the park – quite a pleasant way to stretch the legs after the long driving day.
A beautifully presented bower
Enjoyed a long shower in their good amenity block. Definitely better than the free camp would have been! We slept very well after the tiring day.
This Adventurous Age 