Broome
Broome is the largest town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, with 14,660 residents in 2021. Established through the pearling industry of the late 19th century, it became a beach resort in the 1980s.
- Not to be confused with Broome County in New York.
Understand
The Yawuru (pronounced Ya-roo) Aboriginal people of this area lived by the coast and fished in the sea and creeks, naming their seasons for the changing catch patterns. Only in 1988 was the first dictionary of their language compiled, and a grammar in 2011. Europeans probed the coast from the 17th century but saw no reason to linger, with the lack of natural harbours, and long distance from their existing settlements. But in the 19th century they realised the fortune to be made here from pearls, and the place the Yawuru called Rubibi became Broome, named for Sir Frederick Napier Broome (1842-96) the 1880s governor of Western Australia.
The modern pearl industry started in Shark Bay and soon spread around Australia's north coast. Aboriginals had long gathered pearls from oysters within wading depth, but demand from a growing western prosperous middle-class soon exhausted those, and fishermen and women were forced into deeper water using breath-holding or primitive air hoses. Then deeper still using pumped air, suffering high mortality from little-understood diving diseases. Bluntly these people were expendable, and replaced by equally expendable Japanese and Malay fishers recruited by "blackbirding" - kidnapping into slavery. Hundreds now lie in Broome's cemeteries.
Pearls were not just for jewellery, they had practical value as buttons, until the 1950s when polyester buttons replaced them. However pearl farming then developed, so they could be produced inexpensively without the human toll, and this industry continues. Broome morphed into a tourist resort from the 1980s, when Lord Alistair McAlpine invested in the town and built Cable Beach Club Resort.
In a straight flying line, Broome is 1680 km from Perth, twice as far as from Denpasar in Bali - it suffered Japanese air raids in World War 2, the most deadly on 3 March 1942. At about 18°S it's on the edge of the tropical cyclone belt, with a hot (30-40°C) wet season December to April. Occasional cyclones make landfall, travel is unpleasant on sealed roads and impractical on dirt tracks, and many businesses close. The tourist season is May to October when almost no rain falls and the temperature is 25°C.
🌍 Broome Visitor Centre, 1 Hamersley St, ☏ +61 8 9195 2200, enquiries@visitbroome.com.au. M-F 9AM-3:30PM. Friendly centre providing information about Broome and help with bookings.
Get in
By plane
🌍 Broome International Airport (BME IATA), Macpherson St, ☏ +61 8 9194 0600. Qantas flies two or three times a day from Perth, and Virgin Australia once daily, taking 2 hr 30 min. AirNorth flies daily from Darwin, taking 3 hr 30 min via Kununurra. Aviair flies 3 days a week from Derby, taking an hour. Nexus hops along the west coast three days a week from Geraldton via Karratha and Port Hedland. The airport is dinky small but adequate, with a single tiny cafe. Outbound, don't go through security too early, there's no aircon airside. See below for the town bus. Jetstar plans to launch seasonal international flights from Singapore for the winter starting from 25th June 2024.
By road
From Perth by road is 2360 km by the North West Coastal Highway via Carnarvon, or 2050 km by the Great Northern Highway inland via Newman. The highways join at Port Hedland.
Integrity buses run two days a week from Perth along the coast, taking 36 hours via Geraldton, Carnarvon, Exmouth, Karratha and Port Hedland. A third bus runs inland via Mount Magnet and Newman taking 22 hours to Port Hedland, where it turns back to Perth via the coast, but you change to the northbound coast bus.
From Darwin by road is 1870 km. Greyhound Australia runs five days a week, taking 24 hours via Katherine, Timber Creek, Kununurra, Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing and Derby.
The bus terminus in Broome is the sun-baked square outside the Visitor Centre on Hamersley Street.
By boat
Broome is on the cruise circuit, with passengers tendered in to Gantheaume Point (see below).
With your own boat, this is an awkward yet essential port, as there is nowhere else for fuel and supplies for a very long way. There's no marina and you use the commercial jetty at Gantheaume Point, 7 km from downtown. The moorings here are all booked out so you anchor in less-than-firm sand, and pick high tide to avoid lugging stuff way across the sands.
Get around
Broome is spread out: from downtown on Roebuck Bay to Cable Beach is 7 km. You could do it on foot in an hour, but it's damned hot, and you won't be much use for anything once you get there.
Broome Explorer Bus shuttles between downtown, Chinatown, Courthouse (for airport) and Cable Beach, a 20 minute run. May to mid-Oct it runs daily 7:30AM to 6:30PM every 30 min, mid-Oct to April it's daily 9AM to 6PM hourly but with an 11AM start on Sunday.
There are half a dozen national car hire companies at the airport, and several downtown hiring campers.
Cycling around town is easy, main roads have cycleways, but there's no shade.
Broome Cycles, 2 Hamersley St (corner with Frederick St), ☏ +61 8 9192 1871. M-F 9AM-5PM, Sa 9AM-12:30PM. Sales, hire and repairs.
See
- Cable Beach is what Broome is famous for, a 22 km stretch of white sand on the west coast facing the Indian Ocean. The waves are usually gentle May-Oct so it's suitable for kiddy-bathing, and has a bus service. The name is because the telegraph cable to Java was laid from here in 1889. Java was already connected to mainland Asia, Europe, Britain and North America, so this filled the missing link, a cable that winched Australia closer to the rest of world.
- 🌍 Pearl Luggers, 31 Dampier Terrace, ☏ +61 8 9192 0044. Daily 10AM-4:30PM. Willie Creek sells pearls, but next to their showroom are two restored pearl fishing vessels. Visit by 90 min guided tour with an excellent presentation on the industry. The pearls come from their farm 38 km north, which you can also tour, see below. Adult $30.
- Short Street Gallery, 7 Short St (corner with Carnarvon St), ☏ +61 8 9192 2658. M-Sa 10AM-3PM. This displays contemporary Aboriginal art for sale from Kimberley, Pilbara and beyond.
- Fruit bats roost near the shore at the end of Short Street, and at dusk thousands of them ascend in noisy chattering swarms.
- 🌍 Broome Historical Museum, 67 Robinson St, ☏ +61 8 9192 2075. Daily 10AM-1PM. Local history museum majoring on the pearl fishing industry and the Japanese attack of 3 March 1942. Adult $12, conc $10, under 16 free.
- Town Beach is the small east-facing sandy beach a block from the museum, sheltered by the breakwater of Croc Jetty.
- Staircase to the moon is an optical effect where the rising full moon coincides with low tide, so its beams reflect in water trapped in the beach ripples. It can be seen during the unclouded dry season from any sandy beach with an unobstructed view to the east horizon: in Broome the favourite viewing spot is Town Beach. The visitor centre posts viewing dates and moonrise times.
- Flying-boat wrecks can be seen and reached at very low tide beyond Croc Jetty. Shot up during the Japanese air raid, they'd been evacuating civilians from Java, and sixty people still aboard were killed. Another ten aircraft lie in deeper water. Wear stout footwear, there are plenty of sharp or stinging things in the mudflats.
- 🌍 SSJG Heritage Centre, 9 Barker St, ☏ +61 428 692993. Feb-Nov M-F 9AM-noon. The Sisters of St John of God are an order of nuns involved in social and health care in Western Australia and elsewhere, and this centre exhibits their work among the local Aboriginal people. They're named for João Duarte Cidade (1495-1550), a Portuguese shepherd and soldier who founded the Brothers Hospitaller to tend to the poor and sick. Donation.
- 🌍 Japanese Cemetery holds 900 young Japanese men who lost their lives in the pearl fishing industry. It's west end of Frederick St as it turns into Port Drive, open daily 7AM-8PM. There are also Chinese, Jewish, Aboriginal and Muslim sections - these last were Malay pearl fishers and Afghan camel-drivers.
- 🌍 Gantheaume Point is a jetty 7 km south of downtown, amidst colourful rock formations contrasting with the blue sea. The "dinosaur prints" signposted are concrete replicas, the real ones are beyond the jetty and only uncovered at the lowest tides. These were made by three-toed therapods 130 million years ago. Wear sturdy shoes for the sharp rocks.
- Reddell Beach is the southwest-facing sandy beach between Gantheaume Point and Kabbarli Lookout. It's 10 km from town so it's very quiet.
- 🌍 Kabbarli Lookout is at the tip of the peninsula, with more scenic red rocks. It's also known as Entrance Point as this is where ships turn into Roebuck Bay; the approach is grubby, through the industrial docklands along Port Road. There's ample parking and a ramp for boat launching.
- 🌍 Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park, Broome Rd, Roebuck, ☏ +61 8 9193 6580. Daily 2-5PM. Fascinating close encounter with various croc species plus birdlife and other fauna. Feeding time is 3PM, wear old clothes, the crocs are messy eaters. Adult $40, conc $35, child $25.
- 🌍 Coconut Well is a lagoon outlet 20 km north of town that terminates Cable Beach. Come here 2-3 hours before a spring high tide (9+ m), park up and walk 45 min to the end of the sandy spit with a Lilo or similar inflatable. You then ride the inflatable back up the flooding lagoon. Access the parking lot by the sealed Denham Road, suitable for 2WD; even 4WD should think twice about going further onto the sandy tracks.
- 🌍 Willie Creek Pearl Farm, Waterbank (38 km north of Broome), ☏ +61 8 9192 0000. Mar-Dec daily. A working pearl farm. The tour shows you the pearl nursery, the creek where they grow, and harvesting and finishing to a showroom product. The access road needs 4WD, or take the bus excursion from Broome. Adult $89 self-drive, $120 bus excursion.
Do
- 🌍 Sun Pictures, 8 Carnarvon St, ☏ +61 8 9192 1077. Opened in 1916, this is the world's oldest open-air cinema still in operation. It screens several films per night, mostly current releases. It's lost some of its original atmosphere, as since shore defences were improved in 1974 it no longer floods at high tide, the cue for he-men to scoop up their girls in bronzed arms.
- Camel rides: Dromedaries - one humped camels - were imported in large numbers in the mid 19th century to serve as heavy haulage in the outback, with great paniers dangling at their sides. They remained in use until the 1920s when they and their handlers were made redundant by motor trucks. Many camels were turned loose and went feral, breeding and eating busily, till they became a pest in spite of culls. The camels on Cable Beach plod sedately up and down: sunset is a popular (and more expensive) time to ride them. Operators are Broome Camel Safaris, Red Sun Camels and Cable Beach Camels.
- Golf: Broome GC is 2 km south of downtown at 224 Port Drive. Its 18 holes are 5926 m, par 70. Most visitors are just here for a meal at the clubhouse, drop-in customers welcome.
- Kayaking: tours suitable for beginners paddle round the offshore rocks and encounter turtles. The organiser is Broome Adventure Company.
- Boat trips: a dozen operators offer trips along the coast for sightseeing or fishing. Longer trips reach the Buccaneer Archipelago around Derby.
- Horse racing: Broome Turf Club has flat races May-August. The track is near Gantheaume Point.
- Australian Rules Football is played March-Sept at Haynes Oval on Frederick St. Eight teams compete in the West Kimberley Football Association.
- Scenic flights head out over Buccaneer Peninsula as far as Horizontal Falls. The operator is Fly Broome.
- 🌍 Broome Bird Observatory, Crab Creek Rd, Roebuck, ☏ +61 8 9193 5600. April-Oct daily 8AM-4PM. The area has 300 bird species, best-known being the migratory waders that visit Roebuck Bay over the summer and then depart for Siberia to breed during the northern summer. There's a camping area, no pets or drones allowed. Crab Creek Road is dirt, passable with care by 2WD in the dry. Do not attempt to drive here by any other route, even the migratory birds have more sense than to trust GPS or Google Map directions. Adult $10, conc $8, under 16 free.
- Shinju Matsuri is the last two weeks of August, a festival loosely themed on the pearl trade.
Buy
- Chinatown is the traditional retail strip along Carnarvon St north and south of Sun Cinema. It was prettified and "Chinafied" in 2019 but don't expect gongs, drums or parading dragons.
- Supermarkets: Woolworths is the main store, at 106 Frederick St flanking the airport, open daily 7AM-9PM.
- Fuel: the filling stations along Frederick St match each other for price. Don't leave town with less than half a tank.
- Pearls: Several shops in town sell South Sea pearls.
- Courthouse Market at the corner of Frederick St and Hamersley St is open Saturday 8AM-noon.
Eat
- Chi Mayi Kitchen (formerly Shady Lane Cafe), Johnny Chi Lane, ☏ +61 8 9192 2060. Su-Tu 7AM-4PM, W Th Sa 7AM-8PM, F 7AM-2PM. Relaxed cafe in Chinatown.
- The Aarli, 16 Hamersley St (corner with Frederick St), ☏ +61 8 9192 5529. Tu-Sa 8-10AM, 5-9PM. Good scores for food and service, just across from the Courthouse Market.
- Asian Noodle, Frederick St (at Boulevard Shopping Centre), ☏ +61 8 9192 8977. Daily 11:30AM-8:30PM. Decent Chinese food, sit in or take away.
- Matso's Brewery, 60 Hamersley St (opposite Moonlight Bay Suites), ☏ +61 8 9193 5811. Daily 11AM-9PM. Brewpub with good food, service erratic. What they brew is alcoholic ginger ale, as they reckon it's too hot for standard beer.
- Divers Tavern, 12 Cable Beach Road West (by RAC Holiday Park), ☏ +61 8 9193 6066. Su-W 11AM-11PM, Th-Sa 11AM-midnight. Good trad food and selection of beer.
- Wharf Restaurant, Unit 1/4 Sanctuary Rd (by Beaches of Broome), ☏ +61 8 9192 5700. Daily 11AM-10PM. Quality fish restaurant, relocated to Cable Beach from their edge-of-town site on Port Drive.
Drink
- Drink water and lots of it. You don't realise how much you're sweating away as it evaporates so fast.
- Spinifex Brewery is at 7 Sanctuary Rd by Cable Beach. It has a family-friendly restaurant.
- Moontide Distillery makes gin in Bilingurr 3 km north of downtown.
Sleep
- 🌍 Broome Caravan Park, 17 Wattle Drive, ☏ +61 8 9192 1776. The first you encounter as you roll into town, this is a clean site with good amenities, open all year. Tent $20, hook-up $29.
- 🌍 Oaks Cable Beach Resort, 11 Oryx Rd, ☏ +61 1300 880861. Check-in: 2PM, check-out: 10AM. Pleasant resort in gardens 500 m from beach. Aircon, pool, bar and restaurant. Double (room only) $280.
- Tarangau Caravan Park is at 16 Millington Rd, 500 m north of Oaks Cable Beach Resort, open March-Oct.
- Cable Beach Backpackers, 12 Sanctuary Road (100 m south of Oaks Cable Beach Resort), ☏ +61 1800 655011. Friendly hostel close to Cable Beach with a small pool. Dorm $30.
- Beaches of Broome is a budget hotel and hostel at 4 Sanctuary Rd, 100 m west of the Backpackers.
- 🌍 Cable Beach Club Resort, 28 Cable Beach Road, ☏ +61 8 9192 0400. Check-in: 3PM, check-out: 10AM. Right on the beach, this place gets mostly great reviews for comfort and amenities, but some guests encountered tatty old rooms or antisocial behaviour by drunken jocks. Some facilities are seasonal. Double room from $350.
- Cable Beach Caravan Park is at 8 Millington Rd, 100 m north of the entrance to the Club Resort. Open all year, it has a minimum stay of 4 nights Sept-May, 5 nights June, 7 nights July and August.
- RAC Cable Beach Holiday Park is south end of the beach at 1 Murray Rd.
- Broome Beach Resort at 4 Murray Road is nice when they occasionally clean it.
- 🌍 Moonlight Bay Suites, 51 Carnarvon St, ☏ +61 1800 818878. Spacious self-contained suites in extensive gardens on Roebuck Bay, with large pool and spa. Double $290.
- 🌍 Continental Hotel (formerly Mercure), Weld St, ☏ +61 8 9195 5900. Good value place in tropical gardens on Roebuck Bay, with 136 rooms, restaurant, two bars, and pool. Double (room only) $200.
- 🌍 Pinctada McAlpine House, 55 Herbert St, ☏ +61 8 9192 3886. Wonderful B&B in a 1910 pearling master's house, from 1982 owned by Lord Alistair McAlpine (1942-2014), grandson of the construction magnate. After a successful stint as fundraiser for the UK Conservative Party, he invested heavily to boost Broome as a tourist resort, but decamped during the downturn of the 1990s. His baronial crest sums up his legacy here, A Cubit Arm grasping a Chaplet of Pine fructed all proper, if anyone knew what that meant. B&B double $450.
- Oaks Broome, 99 Robinson Street (next to Historical Museum), ☏ +61 1300 822010. Check-in: 2PM, check-out: 10AM. Smart central place with aircon, pool and restaurant. Double (room only) $220.
Stay safe
Broome has a growing crime problem, with assaults, break-ins and thefts. Most are the doing of a small group of local youngsters, but some are by liquored-up visitors. Don't flash valuables or leave them in your car and stay clear of groups of people at night.
Go next
- It's a long way to just about anywhere from Broome.
- Derby 220 km east is a historic town with a large Aboriginal population.
- Cape Leveque is at the tip of Dampier Peninsula, 208 km northeast by dirt roads via Beagle Bay.
- Camballin 300 km east is the next stop on the long road to Darwin. It has freshwater fishing but no accommodation, come in a camper van.
- Port Hedland 610 km west is your next break of journey heading south.