BROOME WA

 Hi readers, we are Marble Bar WA (south west of Port Headland) at the moment with a reasonable Internet connection which has been increasingly hard to find, so will try and catch up with things.
  We visited Broome on the west coast of WA mainly to purchase supplies and allow Marj to have her windscreen replaced. The place is busy at this time of year swelling dramatically from it's normal population of around 14000 when an estimated 100.000 travellers per year, mainly from down south, enter the district every month chasing warmer climes. In fact a bit too busy for my liking with a lot of local traffic, expensive prices and not all that much to see really. As an example Marj and I stayed in a almost full Caravan Park costing me $43 per night, the most that I have ever had to pay. I understand that this was cheap for the area at this time. The park was beside Roebuck Bay so we did have a nice outlook.
   Broome is not just a tourist destination being also famous for the Pearling industry that began in 1879 when 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. It became a town in 1883, John Forrest chose the site. It was named after Sir Frederick Broome, the Governor of Western Australia from 1883 to 1889. In the 1800 s it was not pearls that were sought but the Mother of pearl shell that was used to make buttons. The local pearl shell "Pinctada Maxima" was the biggest in the world by a long way. By the turn of the century Broome accounted for 80% of the world supply. The lugger fleet reached it's peak in 1913 with 403 registered vessels.
  I was surprised to learn that Broome was attacked at least four times by Japanese aircraft during the Second World War. The worst attack was the 3 March 1942 air raid in which at least 88 people mostly civilians were killed. I should have known this but we were never taught that stuff in school.
  Another fact that was new to me was that In 1889, a telegraph undersea cable was laid from Broome to Singapore, connecting to England. the 22 km long Cable Beach was the landfall site. Not a place to swim from November to April when box jellyfish and stingers invade the waters.
  finally, many tourists come to Broome to see the "staircase to the Moon" a phenomena that occurs when the full moon rises over the exposed mudflats of Roebuck Bay at extremely low tide creating an illusion of a staircase reaching the moon. This happens only on 3 days each month from June to October and can also be seen near Port Headland and Karratha further to the south.We were not here at the right time unfortunately.

The Cattle Muster is underway

Marj in her Campsite