Broome is a coastal tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia about 2350 km north of Perth. The town is situated on a barely 15 km long peninsula surrounded by the Indian Ocean. The permanent population is estimated at circa 15.000 inhabitants, but is growing to over 45000 in the tourist season.
Broome is situated on the land of the indigenous Yawuru people, and they have had their homes there at least thirty thousand years before the Europeans arrived. The first recorded European to visit Broome's shores was explorer, William Dampier in his boat "The Cygnet". The first European settlers were sheep farmers. They discovered beds of the largest pearl shell in the world. In year 1883 John Forrest chose the site for Broome town and it was named after Sir Frederick Napier Broome, who was the Governor of Western Australia. In the years of the late 1800, it was Broome golden age of pearling. The town supplied 80% of the world's pearls. In the were up to 400 pearling luggers and the population exceeded to more than 4000 people.
Now we are in camel country...
We did not see any wild camels in the time spend in and around Broome.
The first thing we did, was finding the information center to get a map, and then we went for the library and the internet so we could find a cheap place to sleep. We had basically lived in our car for the last 6 weeks so we decided to find a real bed to sleep this time. Also this library didn't have any plugs to charge the computer but luckily Carina's iPad had battery left. It is really annoying, when we desperately want to use the internet, but cant due to no battery left. After noticing, that all the accommodation options were really expensive, we were considering to keep sleeping in the car. But finally we found a short term room for rent trough a website called Gumtree. It's an Australian site, where people can advertise basically anything. That's where we also found our car and later sold it too.
We called to the friendly lady, went to see the room and loved it. Karen, the owner of the house, had built a kind of a treehouse on top of her own house. The room only had a ceiling fan and a big bed. A lot of fresh air came trough the "window/ walls" that was mostly a mosquito net. That was a really good thing as it was extremely warm also during the nights at that time. The room was build with the garden on all sides and the trees was almost coming in. It was soo cool!
It was perfect and we rented it on the spot. In the mornings it was nice and colder and we would wake up to the lovely songs of different birds... and in the evening we could hear frogs and gekkos :)
We had our own little terrace, which was also in the middle of the garden up in the tree.
As a welcoming we were invited for dinner. We had delicious fried shrimps and salad. For dessert there was some chocolate covered strawberries.
We were not tired of the birds or any other animals yet, but after staying there for a couple of weeks we decided to move elsewhere.
We wanted to move out of the "jungle" and in to a real house.
Our stove became handy again. Sometimes we cocked dinner on our terrace instead of the outside kitchen in the garden.
We had a lot of different visitors, when we forgot to close the door to our outside room.
This is a small cricket, but we never saw a snake in Australia.
It was specially not the nicest place in the night time or dark time, when the toilet was needed. Then we would have to go down the stairs and around in the garden to find a very primitive bathroom in the backyard. It worked and was ok, but it was not so nice to fumble around with a headlamp in the dark...
There are many many green frogs in Broome. Not only in Karens bathroom.... But
they love all bathrooms and toilets...
Now that we had a place to stay, we needed to find jobs for ourselves, as we were thinking that Broome might be our last destination in Australia.
Karen the lady who owned the house, where we rented the room helped us to begin with. She gave us small cleaning, gardening and painting jobs. That paid the rent, but we wanted something more.
One of the problems was, that the internet is so bad and so expensive in Broome, so not many people have it in their house and nether did Karen. That meant, that we had to go to the library every day to use the internet and try to get work.
We answered many vacancies on Gumtree (again!) but didn't get any results out of that. (It was the same bad experience that Markus made in Darwin and later again in Perth) Then we printed out a bunch of CV's and went around the city, basically asking every business (and one job agency) if they needed anyone to work with them.
Finally Carina got a call from the owner of the "Bali Hai" resort. She wasn't about to work in the resort, but with the owner himself, as he is paralyzed from the neck and down. In this case Carina's nursing skills were useful and she got the job. It was 3 days a week for the full day so a good start.
Carina on her lunch brake. Markus made lunch, picked Carina up from work, then we went to the beach and relaxed before it was back to work for Carina. Lovely lunch brake.
Andy, the owner of the "Bali Hai" resort in his wheelchair, and some of the staff on the rehearsal opening night for the new restaurant.
Markus got a job in the new restaurant's kitchen as a kitchen hand. Not his favorite job, but a job, that brought some money.
But first Markus got a job building up the yearly beach polo event with the luxury resort "Pinctada". The working days were long and hot, but Markus found the job itself quite nice. For a man it is rewarding to get something done with your hands!
Markus spend many days before the Beach Polo working by this shack with the flights, big and small, coming to Broome all the time.
The Beach Polo tents after Markus and his team built them.
During the Beach Polo weekend, Carina was also working. She worked as a waitress and in the welcoming team.
Non of us had never been to a Beach Polo before, and
we both found it really lovely and so cool, that we were paid to go and experience it.
We really liked the people we worked with, and so the place. It is lovely to work on a beach, and to get paid to see the sunset every evening on the cable beach is not bad either. Garry, who owns the resort "Pinctada" with his wife, was really a hands-on man and was much more comfortable in his working clothes shoveling sand, than representing in the VIP tent.
We both got work in the Races, which is another big event in Broome every year. Broome horse racing has literally evolved out of the dust over the past decade, and is now recognized as the "rising star" of Australian racing. A day at the Broome races is an experience rather than only a race day. The colorful social scene, with entertainment throughout the day, is an attraction as big and as fast as the furious racing.
From May to August the Races go on 11 times. This is the place where people have a chance to be social, dress up, wear funny feathery and colorful hats, while having a fun day out.
We got a job through a guy Carina cleans for. We were tote operators, which means we helped people to place their bet, when they wanted to bet on a horse(s) in the race.
The last job Carina had was a job in a hairdressing salon called "Chelsea Jade Hairdressing". She worked there as a receptionist/coffee-maker and shop assistant. She liked that job. There were 2 hairdressers in the salon, and the days there were fun and went fast.
We did not manage to get work on a pearling ship or on a pearling farm. We tried, but the waiting list for that kind of work is long. That would have been ideal, but it was not possible this time.
We lived in 3 different places, while we were in Broome. First at Karens, then we moved in at the "Bali Hai" staff house, but the 3rd place was the best. We got it through some of Carinas cleaning work.
This place was in the old Broome near Town Beach.
It had a pool and we had our own little unit in the back yard, where we had a big room and a toilet. We only had to go in to our housemates house, when we wanted to use the kitchen or take a shower.
And a big plus was, that they have the cutest little dog, which grow to a bigger little dog while we were living there.
Markus went to see the world cup in the living room on a big tv. and Digger, the little dog watch it with him.
But a little dog can get tired.
Hmm, breakfast...
The tides are crazy here in Broome. The difference on the water level peaks in late March and again in late April where the high tide is measured to 11,8 meters and the low tide to 1,5 meters... And it goes fast! It occurs twice a day, but the tides are different every day. In Broome you get a "tide table" in the mail once a fortnight.
On this picture you see the boat on dry land. After a couple of days it was gone. Sometimes the tide was high and there was water up to the big trees.
Chinatown is the main "shopping" area of Broome.
This is the shopping center. Like a lot of other properties around in Broome, the Paspaley family own this shopping center. They are the ones who own the Pinctada resort, which hold the Beach Polo and
they also own one of the big pearl galleries in town.
Chinatown was the most confusing name for us, because we were looking for a place with a lot of Chinese restaurants. Today Chinatown is full of food, fashion, pearl jewelry and other retail shops, with only 4 Chinese restaurants.
Here you see one of the old houses, which are still in use.
Today the house is a pearl gallery, a cafe etc...
The aboriginals live in Broome town.
They are always on the streets. Australia has a huge problem with them. Many drink a lot of alcohol, sleep around on the streets, and often do not work a lot.
We never had any bad clashes with them. They were always polite to us.
Beautiful flowers were everywhere.
This is one I pass every morning when I go to work.
In the early days Broome was full of pearling sheds, shops, opium dens, noodle houses, boarding houses and were the place, where all the Asiatics lived whilst the Europeans lived in Old Broome.
To remember the Broome history, there is this statue of a diver on the main street in Broome.
While we were in Broome, we went to the cinema 3 times. The Sun Pictures is the world's oldest picture garden that is still operating. It was built in today's Chinatown, at the beginning of the 20th century.
It's been showing movies since the 9th of December 1916.
And it still works...
The movies we watched were all new movies. The quality was good, and it was a nice and different feeling to watch the movies under the sky with the bats flying around.
Gantheaume Point encompasses a stretch of white sandy beach, that adjoins Cable Beach, as well as a red cliff face overlooking the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean, about a ten minute drive from the town center of Broome.
Here we also went to see the sunset.
The colors, after the sun was out of sight, were amazing.
Depending on the tide all these rocks were covered in water or free to walk on...
When there were some clouds on the sky, we saw the best colors.
Now the moon is rising, over the only lighthouse in Broome placed, at Gantheume Point.
The dinosaur footprints around Broome are recognized as the most significant in the world, with tracks ways stretching for about 80 km. These were laid down during the early cretaceous period some 120 million years ago, with more than 20 different species having been identified.
These footprints range from the small carnivorous Theropods to mighty Brachiosaurus, the tallest of the herbivorous sauropod family. There are measured prints up to 1.7 meter in diameter, 7-8 meter high and the wither and up to 35 meter in total length
We saw some dinosaur footprints at low tide at Gantheume Point.
More precise among other prints, a 53cm in length Megalosauropus broomensis footprint.
The tracks are embedded in sandstone at the base of the cliff and can only be seen at low tide of 2.16 meter for one set of prints and 1.46 meter or lower for another set.
The walk was more a climb and the rocks were really slippery. The problem was no to get down to the prints, even though that was hard enough, but to get back again, because the low tide was only going to give us a short period of time in daylight be fore the sunset. And the sun goes down so fast and then it is really really dark. We saw a couple of guys fall/slip and we could see
The tracks are 115 to 120 million years old. The tracks found in the area prove that all the main groups of dinosaurs inhabited Australia. Unfortunately, we did not see the stegosaurus tracks because they were hacked out of the rock and stolen in 1996.
We had some nice barbeques...
Grilled, fresh and newly caught Coral Trout is really delicious.
Specially in the beginning of our Broome stay, we went and spend time day and evening at the Cable Beach. The beach is 22km long and named after the telegraph cable laid between Broome and Java in 1889. This allowed the pearling masters to get the best shell price from Singapore. It is said that Cable Beach is one of the most beautiful stretches of beach in the world. We don't know if we agree, but it is a pretty beach.
A sunset at Cable Beach.
We often went to see the sunset so it was really handy that we had the camping chairs and a cold Emu is always good.
Carina is watching the sunset and Markus is taking a picture of the reflection in her sunglasses. Just a funny picture :)
Cable Beach was always amazing and
beautiful -
even without the sunset...
The layout of Broome Cemetery has Chinese, Japanese, Muslim and Jewish sections. They are a testament to Broome’s rich and diverse cultural history. The different ethnic groups flocked to Broome to work in the luggers or the shore based activities supporting the harvesting of oysters from the waters around Broome.
The gate to the Chinese cemetery was the nicest, so that is the one we have a picture of.
The Japanese section dates back to the very early pearling days and bears witness to the close ties Japan established with Broome in the early twentieth century.
thought it was worth a picture and a smile...
Town Beach is a wonderful safe bay and beach with grassed area, shade seating and a cafe.
The staircase to the moon is a natural phenomenon caused by the full moon reflecting on the mudflats of Roebuck bay at low tide between March and October.
We saw the big moon and the staircase once a month from Town Beach.
The day before going to Bali we woke up early, because we wanted to see the sunken armada of historic flying boats from World War II, in Broome's Roebuck Bay.
15 flying boats were bombed by 9 Japanese aircrafts the 3rd of March by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The 15 planes were refueling in the bay, when they were attacked. Approximately 80 people, including women and children were killed during the air raid.
The wrecks are visible when the tide is 1 meter or less.
It was cold in the morning.
and not a very nice feeling to walk out on the mudflats of Roebuck Bay in vague light before sunrise.
It was a bit windy and our shoes got muddy and our feet wet and cold. :(
We did not really know where to go. We were told to start at town beach and then walk about 3 km straight out.
It was only for the first 15 minutes it was cold. When the sun rose it became warmer and the wind almost stopped... :)
Luckily we were far from the only once up that morning,
and it turned out, that it was not hard to find the wrecks.
When we saw the wrecks, Carina was disappointed.
But the view was amazing.
It was still a bit cold... And in Carina's mind was, that in a couple of ours she needed to be at work, while Markus could go back and sleep.
The sky was clear and
we could see really really far.
What was left of the flights were not much.
Metal with a lot of seagrass and probably a lot of sea animals.
The pelicans were cute.
Specially on the way back we saw sea stars...
and turtles...
They were Flatback turtles. Endemic to Australia the turtles nest only in Australia.
Back on "land" and after this experience we can now say we have seen both sunrise and sunset in Broome.
It was Carinas birthday.
Markus woke up early to make her pancake breakfast. Thank you!
Birthday snack and sunset with Kelly and her daughter after work. Kelly was our house mate the second place we lived in the "Bali Hai" staff house. She is the restaurant manager of the Bali Hai resort and a good friend.
Carina got a present from home...
Thanks for the flowers, champagne and the really really good chocolate. :)
Carinas birthday present from work were all the balloons, the champagne, the chocolate, the necklace and some hair products. After all Carina is working in a hairdressing salon.
We took some last pictures at the place, the people and the dog where we lived the last a little more than 7 weeks.
We had a banana palm tree in our backyard.
Digger grew a lot during our stay.
In the end it was time to sell the car. We managed to sell it to some brothers from Taiwan. We bought it in Perth for 2600 dollars and then we were lucky to sell it in Broome 9357km later for 3100 dollars. On the road we spend about 500 dollars on reparations new break pads, new radiator etc. So in the end Homie did not cost us anything to have. But we will miss it and all the good memories we had with and in our home for 6 weeks.
Broome has an international airport, but the flights only fly to other Australian airports, so we have to fly to Perth and then from there to Denpasar in Bali.
Broome airport is situated in the middle of the Broome center. In 1922 the "airport" was a smooth patch of sand on Cable Beach. By the mid twenties a dirt strip was graded adjacent to the old race course near the airports current location. In 1935 the east-west airstrip was laid out in its present alignment.
Some of the street lights in Broome have been cut shorter due to make sure, that the planes wont hid them, when they take off and land.
It is with mixed feelings for both of us to leave Australia. We will miss the time we spend there... even the aboriginals... :)
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