Offering …

The shore of Dampier Creek offered a place where boats could be hauled out and there were fresh water soaks close at hand. It was a useful base for the pearlers. Streeter and Male founded a store nearby, a passage was cut through the mangroves and a jetty was built. It seems that the exact date is unknown but it was in existence prior to 1897. Streeters Jetty is still there and has recently been given a major facelift. It is as fine an example of a plain wooden jetty that you will find anywhere in Broome.

It had its limitations being useful only for small boats at high tide. It was underwater at very high tides and a long way from water at low tides. In 1897 a government jetty was constructed at Mangrove Point now called Town Beach. This served until the 1960’s. It was an improvement but ships still had to take the bottom between high tides.

Between Streeter’s and Town Beach there is a spot that gives a good view over the mangroves to what was then the port. There is a monument here to the womenfolk who waited here for the return of the luggers and schooners. If that gives the impression that life was a picnic spent sitting on the grass waiting for their men to turn up forget it. Think instead of the anxiety that would follow a storm. Who will return and who will not?

A fine pearl resembles the full moon …

Buttons Mainly …

but also knife handles, watch faces, jewelry boxes, in the beginning it was all about the shell.

The first pearling fleet arrived in Roebuck Bay in the 1870’s. Shark Bay and Thursday Island had been fished for Mother-of-pearl but the North West had a superior oyster, Pinctada maxima. The site that became Broome offered a suitable place to haul out boats for repair and a source of fresh(ish) water. Broome was proclaimed in 1883. Named after Frederick Napier Broome, Governor of the colony of Western Australia, it didn’t get off to a roaring start. No lots were sold until 1886. The Governor was so disappointed to have his name associated with so miserable a place he was considering cancelling the proclamation.

Mother-of pearl was in big demand, pearling was profitable Broome grew. There were some major obstacles, essential supplies had to come a significant distance – Perth is more than 2000km away, the markets for shell were on the other side of the globe. Labour was hard to find, heat, humidity, cyclones and sickness had to be overcome. Nonetheless, by the end of the 19th century there were wealthy folk living in fine bungalows in Old Broome with a plethora of servants to wash and starch their white outfits and bleach their white suede shoes.

Meanwhile in Japtown indentured workers from Asia were enjoying life of a different style and largely banned from town the displaced Aborigines were not enjoying life all that much at all. If you wish to explore the social history further let me commend Beyond the Lattice by Susan Sickert (available online from Kimberley Bookshop). A popular song dating from that era that survives today (in various forms) puts it this way…

But, forget for the moment Beri Beri, the Bends, hardship and injustice and take the time machine to the days of hard hat diving …

Of all the gin joints …

I have always been a sucker for books. Sadly, good bookshops are a dying breed but here in Broome we have one. A shout out to the Kimberley Bookshop where the lovely Gayle and I were shopping for local history and natural history books. In the bird section we know many of the authors personally, the world of truly obsessed birdos is relatively small. There’s probably not enough of us to keep more than a couple of psychiatrists in business. I turned to remark on this when I saw a name on a different shelf that came as a complete surprise.

Let me take you back 50 years. I was a junior House Officer employed by the United Sheffield Hospitals. The ink was still wet on my degree certificate, my job entailed no executive authority what ever, I was there to do as I was told, mostly by the nursing staff. Towering high above me were the gods in my pantheon, Professor Sir Paul Bramley, scholar, gentleman and an inspiration; the irascible Ronnie Rastall, exceedingly skillful hands but a devil if you were on the end of a bollocking and John Edgar deBurgh Norman, brilliant, aloof and eccentric – black cloaks with scarlet linings were not fashionable even in those remote times.

J E deB was Australian and subsequently returned home and practised as an Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon in Sydney whilst I did likewise in Melbourne. Subsequently our paths crossed only once, at a conference at which I was in the chair. Even though I was dry behind the ears by then I couldn’t summon up the confidence to remind him that we had once worked together (or that he had once resuscitated a patient who had collapsed whilst in my tender care).

Back to the present and there on the shelf …

They just don’t make names like that any more. In fact, where I come from they never did. It had to be. And indeed it was. Not only is the man distinguished in his own right he is pearling nobility, a scion of one of Broome’s founding families. G V Norman is Verity, his wife now, sadly, dead.

What were the odds?

Interesting book, by the way.

Subtitles …

I try to keep up with events in Ukraine where the people have displayed remarkable resilience. Slava Ukraini.

I was surprised (again) this morning …

I’m sorry I’ll read that again, “Ukrainian forces keep up the pressure along the Dniepro …” Automatically generated subtitles can do for a speaker what my spell checker does for me when I’m writing.

Weather …

T’is nobler to stay in bed.

It arrived last night and a tropical downpour has been drumming on the roof ever since, a soothing and hypnotic sound. Tourists were not expecting this in the dry season. Caravan parks are overflowing – just like the gutters. By road Broome is a long way from anywhere else. City dwellers may be challenged by the notion that roads will be flooded and impassable.

The Gibb River Road winds through the remote KImberley region. If you take it easy in fine weather your 4WD will get you through, with skill and care your caravan may even survive and you can pick the contents of the cupboards up off the floor when you reach your destination. If anything goes wrong you are a long way from assistance.

This gem was posted on Facebook this morning …

“During the GRR closure, are we still able to use the road to leave? We’re currently at Drysdale River Station and urgently need to get to Derby to get our fridge fixed 🙄 “

… and pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere out in space – everybody knows you can’t get a fridge repaired in Derby!

Broome Time …

The monsoonal parts of Australia have simplified the calendar to just two seasons but that is nothing compared with what Broome has done to the clock.

Ask a tradesman when he can come and fix something, measure up, give you a quote, whatever. He’ll tell you next week, maybe. If you eventually get a quote you ask him when he can start. He tells you next week, maybe. If he starts its likely that he will disappear for a while. You ring him up and ask when he might finish. He tells you next week, maybe.

If you complain about it to a friend they are are likely to nod wisely and say Broome time.

Broome time is very similar to the Spanish concept mañana but without the urgency.

S’rainin …

But it’s the dry!

I woke this morning to the sound of a gentle rain. It is the first time I’ve heard it since moving to Broome about six weeks ago. So in my limited experience this is unusual. The recent settlers of tropical Oz have dispensed with spring and autumn as far to subtle to detect. Impressed by the big changes we have ended up with just two seasons, the wet – November to April and the dry – May to October.

The people who have lived here for millennia had more to consider than whether the roads were passable or impassible. They had six seasons summed up by the school children of Ardyaloon thus …

So currently it is Barragana and yes, I have heard people complain about the cold (mean daily maximum 29.3°C, mean overnight minimum 15.2°C).

How rare is rain in June? The average is in fact 18.2mm. It doesn’t seem likely that we will break any records. The wettest June on record was in 1968 at 208.1mm.

There were clouds in the sky last night.