Frommer's Australia from $50 a Day 13th Edition - To Parent Directory

THE KIMBERLEY: A FAR-FLUNG WILDERNESS 481
BROOME
2,250km (1,406 miles) N of Perth; 1,859km (1,161 miles) SW of Darwin
Part rough Outback town, part glam seaside resort, the pearling port of
Broome (pop. 11,000) is a hybrid of Australia and Asia you won’t see anywhere
else. Chinese and Japanese pearl divers used to work the pearling luggers
in this isolated little town in the old days, and as the Chinese settled here, they
affixed their distinctive architecture to typical Australian buildings. The result
is a main street so cute it could be a movie set, with neat rows of Australian corrugated
iron stores wrapped by verandas and trimmed with Chinese peaked
roofs.
The people are unique, too, because Anglo-Saxon/Irish Aussies and Chinese,
Filipino, and Malaysian pearl workers often married Aboriginal women. The
Japanese tended to return home, but not all of them made it as cyclones, the
“bends,” sharks, and crocodiles all took their toll—their legacy in the town is
found in a divers’ cemetery (see below).
For such a small and remote place, Broome is surprisingly sophisticated. Walk
the streets of Chinatown and you will rub shoulders with Aussie tourists, itinerant
workers, Asian food store proprietors, tough-as-nails cattle hands, and wellheeled
visitors from Europe and America downing good coffee at the couple of
trendy cafes. Broome’s world-renowned South Sea pearls are still its bread and
butter, but the old timber pearling luggers have been replaced with gleaming
high-tech vessels equipped with helipads and stainless steel security doors.
To be honest, it’s kind of hard to explain Broome’s appeal. There is not much
to do, but it’s a nice place to be. You can shop for pearls, and it’s a good base for
exploring the Kimberley. But most people simply come to laze by the jade-green
Indian Ocean on Cable Beach, ride camels along the sand as the sun plops into
the sea, fish the bountiful seas, mosey around the art galleries and jewelry stores,
and soak up the gorgeous reds, blues, and greens of the Kimberley coast.
ESSENTIALS
GETTING THERE Airlink (book through Qantas & 13 13 13 in Australia)
flies direct from Perth, Ayers Rock, and Alice Springs. Virgin Blue (& 13 67
89 in Australia; www.virginblue.com.au) flies direct to Broome from Adelaide
once a week on Saturdays. The trip to Broome from Sydney and other capitals
is a lengthy affair via Perth or Alice Springs.
Greyhound Pioneer (& 13 20 30 in Australia) has a daily service from Perth
that takes around 30 hours. The fare is A$295 (US$192). Greyhound’s daily
service from Darwin via Katherine and Kununurra takes around 24 hours; the
one-way fare is A$255 (US$166).
There is no train service to Broome.
Broome is 34km (21 miles) off the Great Northern Highway, which leads from
Perth in the south, Kununurra to the east. The Gibb River Road is an alternate
4WD scenic route from Kununurra (see “Driving the Gibb River Road” above).
VISITOR INFORMATION The Broome Visitor Centre is on the Great
Northern Highway (locals call it the Broome Hwy.) at Bagot Street, Broome,
WA 6725 (& 08/9192 2222; www.kimberleytourism.com). It’s open Monday
through Friday from 8am to 5pm. On Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays, it
opens from 9am to 4pm in the Dry (Apr–Sept), and from 9am to 1pm in the
Wet (Oct–Mar).
Book accommodation and tours well ahead in the peak June to August season.