Broome Time



Willare turned out to be quite a popular park, with what looked like full motel accommodation as well – most of the motel accommodation appeared to be filled by people working in the area however the vast majority of people camping there were travellers. It was also only the second place (after Broomehill) to offer free washing machines to campers. The campsite itself was quite pleasant with plenty of mature trees and grassed areas as well as a pool available for guests.

Well, the Derby emergency department placed something called a ‘wick’ into Max’s ear and provided some medication to also go into his ear three times a day, with us being asked to drop into the Broome hospital two days later to have the wick removed.


Not sure why we bought the swag!!

With that we headed out of Broome, for Willare Service Station, which also operates a caravan park. While max and I are quite happy in the free parks we figured that washing in a bucket only lasts for so long and we were once again due a shower.
The following morning we moved on to Broome. First stop was McDonald’s as I needed to check some emails etc. while Max was dying to try out the Wi-Fi capabilities of his DSi. While there I rang Lucy and Paul Hollis, who had moved up from Bunbury a couple of years previously. Lucy had worked with Liz and they had got on really well so Liz was disappointed to not be with us at Broome to visit them.
We ended up going around for lunch as they were also on holidays. This lunch turned into a full afternoon and in the end we stayed with them for our entire time in Broome. Their hospitality probably became the highlight of this sojourn.
While we were there we also visited Gantheaume Point, which was Liz’s favourite place when she and Max had visited Broome several years before, Town Beach, The Entrance and Cable Beach.
Gantheaume Point was beautiful, Town Beach was well set-up for a range of uses with playground (including a water play area), cafe, parks area as well as the beach. The Entrance is just past the Port and was also very picturesque while Cable Beach, while I can understand the attraction, left me a little flat.
The main problem for Cable Beach was firstly the comparison with other areas of Broome we visited and secondly its comparison to many of the beaches at home. Obviously the weather isn’t conducive to beach going at this time of the year at home and this would seem to be the major attraction to Cable Beach, but the significant tides result in almost too much expanse of beach for a lot of the time. In addition there is a requirement to regularly move all your gear, or end up setting up a long way from the water.
That said, Max and I did enjoy a couple of hours below the surf club a lot, mainly involved in a series of constructions trying to see who could build structures that would hold the water back for the longest as the tide came steadily in.
The local museum was a visit that was well worth the time we spent there, with a range of specific Broome based artefacts as well as more generic ones. Importantly they were, for the most part, well interpreted which meant that we both got a lot of value out of our time there. The Pearl Luggers Tour was similarly valuable, with the stories and explanations by the tour guide more valuable than the artefacts that accompanied it. Finishing with both a taste of pearl meat and the opportunity to handle a pearl valued at over $100,000 absolutely blew Max away, although if you gave him the choice to keep one I think he may have taken the pearl meat as he seemed to genuinely enjoy its taste.
The final must visit place we looked over was the Sun Picture Theatre. The idea of an open air theatre fascinated Max and he was exceptionally impressed to find that the original deck chairs were still being used.
When we had arrived we had found that the Shinju Matsui festival was due to open up on the coming Saturday and therefore extended our stay a night to catch the first day. The markets we interesting (although apparently starting to tail off as the wet season is coming to an end) with Max and I sharing some Filipino Spring Roles for lunch. I was very impressed with Max for being prepared to try these as the last time he had agreed to try something new at markets we had had Pho for dinner while in Darwin which he didn’t really enjoy, therefore I wasn’t convinced he would be prepared to try something new again in similar circumstances (especially at the urging of Dad!).
We followed this up with a visit to Peter Strain’s “Line of Sight Exhibition’ (www.wildlife-art.net) being held at the local Notre Dame campus. These were an arresting series of photographs, mainly of local animal and marine life. Peter himself was there and with nobody else visiting for much of the time we were there Max ended up in deep conversation with him. In addition to the quality of the exhibition I also found the name interesting, given that my friend David Bruce operated Line of Sight Photographics. I am wondering if David is getting any additional web hits given this exhibition has already been shown at the WA Maritime Museum.
Mid-afternoon was the Shinju Matsui parade and the quality of many of the floats was exceptional. The Filipino float absolutely stood out while the lead dragon and accompanying drummers put on a fine show. The low point, while topical, was probably the anti James Price Point element of the parade. This is in no way suggesting that this message shouldn’t have been part of the parade – it is a very topical and passionate part of the current Broome landscape. More the quality of the entrants was poor and smacked of travelling demonstrators who had managed to latch onto a ‘cause’ that enabled them to spend time in a beautiful part of the world while attempting to project an altruistic persona. There efforts at costumes etc. was poor enough that Max at one stage turned to me and asked if they knew they were embarrassing themselves and on another occasion told me that they were spoiling the rest of the parade. For those that know Max, these sorts of comments don’t come spuriously or lightly, normally he just wouldn’t have noticed them (as happened when the ABC float went past and he failed to notice Lunar Jim who had been his favourite TV character for a couple of years). One thing that really worked for me with the parade was holding it mid-afternoon. This allowed an hour or so after it finished before a community concert etc. kicked off which meant that the parade participants and all the helpers had a chance to also participate in the concert. In addition the floats were all lined up near the concert venue so that people could look over them rather than them all tearing off home as it is getting late – which tends to happen with the Christmas parade at home.
Following the parade we went Back to Lucy and Paul’s for a rest before heading out to see ‘Red Dog’ at the Sun Theatre as the final part of our Broome experience. The night started well when the other three had to wait around at the front when the projectionist nabbed me to help him move films around so he could find the right reel. After moving film back and forth we finally worked out it was the only one that DIDN’T have a name on it. Max found the whole exercise fascinating however.
Once in the theatre we all thoroughly enjoyed the movie, with tears from all of us at the required moment (including Max, who absolutely loved it once he worked out that is was predominantly a retrospective narrative – initially that confused the heck out of him). To top off the night the projectionist was waiting outside for us when we came back out to make sure we had enjoyed the movie. This gave Max the chance to find out the answer to a question that had been distracting him all night (the answer is that there is an average of about 2.5km of film to a movie).
Next step is to mosey on down towards Port Hedland where I hope to catch up with a friend I haven’t seen for a few years. In addition, following watching last nights movie, Max is now adamant that we have to visit Dampier, not that this is a long way out of our way given that Cossack is already on the list.