Broome is a coastal, pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of
Western Australia, 2,240 km north of Perth. The permanent population is
estimated at 14,436, growing to over 45,000 per month during the tourist
season. Broome International Airport provides transport to several domestic
destinations. History
Broome is situated on the traditional lands of the Yawuru people.
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.
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.
= Pearling Industry= The town has a deep 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.
At first, aborigines were blackbirded and forced to dive naked, with little or
no equipment. Especially pregnant girls were used as they were believed to have
superior lung capacity. In 2010 the Shire of Broome and Kimberley
commissioned a Memorial to the Indigenous Female Pearl Divers.
When slavery was abolished and diving suits were needed for deeper diving,
Asians and islanders were given the dangerous job instead. Especially
Japanese were valued for their experience. The riches from the pearl
beds did not come cheaply, however, and the town's Japanese cemetery is the
resting place of 919 Japanese divers who lost their lives working in the
industry. Many more were lost at sea, and the exact number of deaths is
unknown. The Japanese were only one of the major ethnic groups who flocked to
Broome to work on the luggers or the shore based activities supporting the
harvesting of oysters from the waters around Broome. They were specialist
divers and, despite being considered enemies, became an indispensable part of
the industry until World War II. Each year Broome celebrates this fusion
of different cultures in an annual cultural festival called Shinju Matsuri
which celebrates the Asian influenced culture brought here by the pearling
industry. = Recent History=
Broome was attacked at least four times by Japanese aircraft during the Second
World War, and the worst attack was the 3 March 1942 air raid in which at least
88 people were killed. In 1950, Broome was the setting for
Arthur Upfield novel "The Widows of Broome", 12th novel featuring Detective
Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte. The West Australian mining boom of the
1960s, as well as the growth of the tourism industry, also helped Broome
develop and diversify. At Gantheaume Point and 30 m out to sea
are dinosaur footprints dated as Early Cretaceous in age. The tracks can be
seen only during very low tide. In 1996 some of the prints were cut from the
ground and stolen, but have since been recovered. Plant fossils are also
preserved extensively in the Broome Sandstone at Gantheaume Point and in
coastal exposures further north. Racial segregation was common in Broome
until the 1970s. Broome entered into a sister city
agreement with Taiji, Japan in 1981 as historic ties between the two towns date
back to the early 1900s, when Japan became instrumental in laying the
groundwork of Broome's pearling industry. The annual dolphin hunt in
Taiji was the subject of the 2009 documentary The Cove, and sparked a
unanimous decision by the town's council, headed by Graeme Campbell, to
end the relationship with Taiji if the dolphin hunt were to continue. The
decision was reversed in October 2009. Cable Beach
Named in honour of the Java-to-Australia undersea telegraph cable which reaches
shore here, Cable Beach is situated 7 km from town along a bitumen road. The
beach itself is 22.5 km long with white sand, washed by tides that can reach
over 9 m. The beach is almost perfectly flat. Caution is required when swimming
from November through March as box jellyfish are present during those
months. There have been cases where crocodiles have been sighted off the
shore, but this is a rarity and measures are taken to prevent these situations.
Four wheel drive vehicles may be driven onto the beach from the car park. This
allows people to explore the beach at low tide to a much greater extent than
would be possible on foot. Sunset camel rides operate daily along the beach.
Cable Beach is home to one of Australia's most famous nudist beaches.
The clothes optional area is to the north of the beach access road from the
car park and continues to the mouth of Willie Creek, 17 km away.
Located directly east of Cable Beach over the dunes is Minyirr Park, a
coastal reserve administered by a collaboration of the Shire of Broome and
the Rubibi people. Roebuck Bay
Being situated on a north/south peninsula, Broome has water on both
sides of the town. On the eastern shore are the waters of Roebuck Bay extending
from the main jetty at Port Drive to Sandy Point, west of Thangoo station.
Town Beach is part of the shoreline and is popular with visitors on the eastern
end of the town. It is also the site of the famous 'Staircase to the Moon',
where a receding tide and a rising moon combine to create a stunning natural
phenomenon. On 'Staircase to the Moon' nights, a food and craft market is
operated on Town Beach. Roebuck Bay is of international
importance for the millions of migratory waders or shorebirds that use it
seasonally on migration through the East Asian – Australasian Flyway from their
breeding grounds in northern Asia. They feed on the extensive intertidal
mudflats and roost at high tide on the red sand beaches of the Bay. They can be
seen in the largest numbers in summer, but many of the younger birds remain
throughout the first and second years of their lives. The Broome Bird
Observatory, sited in pindan woodland close to the northern shore of Roebuck
Bay, was established by Birds Australia in 1988, and formally opened in 1990.
The purpose of the observatory is to study the birds, learn how to protect
them, and educate the public about them. A mixed black flying fox and little red
flying fox colony of around 50,000 megabats lives all year in mangroves
next to Broome township's small Streeters Jetty. They chatter and
socialise loudly before flying out at dusk each evening. The bats are key
pollinators and seed dispersers for native trees and plants.
Climate Under the Köppen climate classification,
Broome has a semi-arid climate, like most parts of the Australian tropics, it
has two seasons: a dry season and a wet season. The dry season is from April
through November with nearly every day clear and maximum temperatures around 30
°C. The wet season extends from December through March, with maximum temperatures
of around 35 °C, rather erratic tropical downpours, and high humidity. Broome's
annual rainfall average is 603.3 mm, 75% of which falls from January through
March. Broome is susceptible to tropical
cyclones, and these, along with the equally unpredictable nature of summer
thunderstorms, play a large part in the erratic nature of the rainfall. For
instance, in January 1922, Broome post office recorded just 2.8 mm of rainfall
while in the same month of 1997, the airport received 910.8 mm. Dewpoint
averages at 24°C in the wet season and is as low as 8.4°C in the dry season.
Frost is unknown; however, temperatures during the cooler months have dropped to
as low as 3.3 °C. Broome observes an average of 48.4 days
a year that record measurable precipitation.
Media Localised television stations available
in Broome include GWN7, SBS, WIN Television Western Australia, ABC
Television Western Australia and Goolarri media. GWN7 broadcasts a
half-hour news program for regional WA, GWN7 News, at 5:30pm on weeknights with
a district newsroom covering Broome and surrounding areas based in the town.
Sport and recreation Broome hosts a lawn bowling club [2] and
a golf club [3]. The town also has four Australian rules football clubs; Broome
Bulls Football Club [4] the Broome Saints, Towns and Cable Beach all
competing in the West Kimberley Football Association with games played at Haynes
Oval. Save the Kimberley campaign
The Broome Community led a campaign to protest against a proposal to
industrialise the James Price Point out side of Broome. The campaign has
received ardent support from public figures such as John Butler, Missy
Higgins, Clare Bowditch and former leader of the Australian Greens, Dr Bob
Brown. A concert for the campaign was held on 5 October 2012 at Federation
Square in Melbourne, Australia, and was attended by approximately 6,000 people.
Much of the concern was due to the myriad of well preserved dinosaur tracks
that are found in the intertidal zone outside of Broome. These include
possibly the largest known dinosaur footprints, sauropod tracks upwards of
1.7 m long. It is suspected that the sauropod that made these track might
have been 7-8 m tall at the hip. Footnotes
References Bailey, John. The White Divers of
Broome. Sydney: MacMillan. ISBN 0-7329-1078-1.
External links Broome tourism
Broome Football History Broome Environment, Flora and Fauna
Broome - Tourism Australia