BROOME - POPULATION: 14,436

SUNDAY 8.09.2013: B-E-L-I-E-V-E IT OR NOT - This is a one off that HAS to be recorded. As we were leaving the Derby caravan park the Manager advised us that should we ever need a reference to support how well behaved our dogs were she would be only too happy to oblige - well who would have ever "thunk" it or for that matter believed it!

Feeling rather 'chuffed' we set sail to Broome. It is seldom boring when driving and today was no exception. Out from the bush runs a very well tanned man featuring a pink "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" pair of underpants. With arms waving he sprinted to the side of the road. Given the circumstances we were not prepared to stop, but some 50 metres up the road we hailed down a passing work truck. On a very desolate highway we pulled up side by side (as you do), and explained what had occurred and could they please ensure he was okay. The two men believed he was a hitchhiker, albeit rather atypical. Some days later we heard fellow tourists relating the tale of having to avoid the same man in the same outfit, standing in the middle of the road - nothin' like the outback!
We have been looking forward to visiting Broome as people have been 'black and white' in their opinions - "we loved it" or "we hated it"! It is often mistakenly thought that the first European to visit Broome was William Dampier in 1688, but he only visited the north of what was later named the Dampier Peninsula. In 1699 he explored the coast from Shark Bay to La Grange Bay, from where he headed north leaving the Australian coast. Many of the coastal features of the area were later named for him. In 1879, Charles Harper suggested that the pearling industry could be served by a port closer to the pearling grounds and that Roebuck Bay would be suitable. In 1883, John Forrest chose the site for the town, and it was named after Sir Frederick Broome, the Governor of Western Australia from 1883 to 1889.

CABLE BEACH

In 1889, a telegraph undersea cable was laid from Broome to Singapore, connecting to England. Hence the name Cable Beach given to the landfall site.

CABLE BEACH

 

JAPANESE CEMETERY

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




The town has an interesting history based around the exploits of the men and women who developed the pearling industry, starting with the harvesting of oysters for mother of pearl in the 1880s to the current major cultured pearl farming enterprises. The riches from the pearl beds did not come cheaply, and the town's Japanese cemetery is the resting place of 919 Japanese divers who lost their lives working in the industry.