Broome, Western Australia
For other places and usages, see Broome.) is a pearling and tourist town in the
Kimberley in the far north of
Western Australia. The year round population is approximately 14,000, but that grows to around 30,000 during the tourist season.
Broome is famous for its beautiful
Indian Ocean beaches and wonderful dry season climate. Being in the
tropics, it has two seasons. The wet season extends from October to March and has hot and humid weather with tropical downpours. The early
pearl masters used to send their families to
Perth to escape the wet season and beached their
luggers to avoid the
tropical cyclones that occasionally visit during the wet.
Broome was first visited by European
William Dampier in
1688 and again in
1699. Many of the coastal features of the area are named by 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 selected the site for the town, and it was named after the
Governor of Western Australia, Sir
Frederick Broome.
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.
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 cheap, and the town's Japanese cemetery is the resting place of more than 900 Japanese divers who lost their lives working in the industry. Many 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 political pressure to expel them in support of the
White Australia Policy, became an indispensable part of the industry until
World War II.
Broome was attacked by Japanese aircraft on
March 3,
1942. The air raid killed at least 88 people. Following the end of the war in 1945, the town and its pearling industry gradually recovered from the disruptions of wartime.
The West Australian mining boom of the 1960s, as well as the growth of the
tourism industry, also helped Broome develop and diversify;
Broome is one of the fastest growing parts of
Australia.
At Gantheaume Point and 30 metres out to sea are dinosaur footprints believed to be from the
Cretaceous Age approximately 130 million years ago. The tracks can be seen only during very low tide.
Image:Japanese Cemetery - Broome.JPG|Headstones in the Japanese CemeteryImage:Cable Beach, Western Australia.jpg|Camels at Cable BeachImage:Gantheaume Point Broome, Western Australia.jpg|Gantheaume Point*John Bailey,
The White Divers of Broome, Sydney, MacMillan, 2001. ISBN 0-7329-1078-1
*
Broome Pearling Industry*
Broome tourism*
Broome Football History*
Beach Webcam*
Another Webcam*
Broome Town Guide
