IT’S open mic night on a Tuesday at The Roey (aka The Roebuck Hotel) in the heart of Broome’s Chinatown. An Indigenous woman belts out Valerie, and if I close my eyes, I can pretend that the incredible Amy Winehouse has returned for a final performance. Well, almost. Nothing about Broome, the region or the locals is like anywhere else on earth, ruled by the gravitational pull of its tides and the pearling history that put the remote town on the map.
I’m visiting Broome during the wet season, often avoided for the intense heat and humidity, road closures and torrential downpours. There might be fewer tourists around during the low season, but the dramatic weather enhances the region’s spectacular landscape, best admired from above on a scenic flight with Air Kimberley over the Buccaneer Archipelago, Horizontal Falls, Cable Beach’s 22-kilometre stretch of powdery sand, and further afield over the Mitchell Falls and Bungle Bungle Ranges. From this aerial vantage point, it’s easy to understand why most of Broome’s professional photos are taken during the wet season.
My visit coincides with the opening of Moonlight Bay Suites after a $4 million refurbishment of its one and two-bedroom self-contained suites, tropical grounds and 28-metre pool. The resort is perfectly located to witness the full moon rising between March and October over the exposed tidal flats in Roebuck Bay, known as the Staircase to the Moon. If this natural phenomenon had occurred during my visit, I could have watched the spectacle from the balcony of my two-bedroom suite while sipping ginger or mango beer ordered from Matso’s Brewery across the road.
The suites are within walking distance of Broome’s Chinatown, and despite it being the off-season, an array of dining options are open at The Haven, Moontide Distillery, The Broome Closet cocktail bar, Zookeepers Café and the refurbished Cable Beach House, perfectly positioned to relax after a camel ride on Cable Beach at sunset. The Broome Golf Club has recently re-opened its restaurant, serving a menu reflective of the region’s multi-culturalism with panoramic views of Roebuck Bay.
One of the best ways to delve into Broome’s intriguing past is through its locals, such as Bart Pigram, who runs tour company Narlijia Experiences – I hear his Mangrove Tour is a must during the dry season. Or pop into the not-for-profit Indigenous women’s art centre, called Nagula Jarndu (meaning Saltwater Woman), selling textiles, clothing, homewares and artworks. Across the road from Moonlight Bay Suites is the Black Stump Gallery, which depicts artworks of the region and is run by artist Emma Blyth. Dispelling its reputation as a wild backwater, present-day Chinatown has a much more respectable reputation with its pearl showrooms, such as Cygnet Bay and Willie Creek.
High-grade South Sea pearls are indigenous to the region and are so highly prized that they attracted Japanese pearl farmers during the early 1900s, even though they had their own pearling industry. Legends about Broome’s lustrous pearls spread to the Far East, attracting an influx of Chinese, Malay, Timorese, Filipino and European migrants, who endured intense hardships and often death caused by a then undiagnosed decompression illness called ‘the bends’. The Japanese, Chinese, Jewish and pioneer cemeteries honour the pearl divers’ ultimate sacrifice.
What makes Kimberley pearls so unique is the sheltered bays protecting the shells from the wild tropical weather, with an annual temperature ranging from 18 to 31oC. Once the temperature drops below 25 oC, the growth rate slows down, creating a fine coating known as lustre.
Every year between August and September, Broome’s multiculturalism and pearling history are celebrated at Shinju Matsuri. If you’re not visiting during this epic festival, one of the best ways to delve into the inner workings of Broome’s pearling industry is by visiting Cygnet Bay and Willie Creek’s pearl farms, where you’ll learn about the pearl’s five virtues: size, shape, colour, surface and lustre, which many believe is the most important.
One of the most exciting aspects of visiting both farms is the harvesting of an oyster shell and the anticipation is palpable as to whether the treasure lying within will reveal itself. Farming pearls is a science and reliant on a healthy shell (the host), a nucleus (from a mother of pearl shell) and graft (from another shell). The Pinctada maxima shells found in the region are the only species producing South Sea pearls and can grow up to 12 inches in diameter. Due to their size, a larger nucleus can be inserted into the shell, ensuring a high success rate.
Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm is located on the Dampier Peninsula, reached by Air Kimberley, or during the dry season you can drive along a bumpy road radiating the red hues of the Kimberley known as pindan. Apart from having access to an abundance of shells in perfect environmental conditions, what sets Cygnet Bay apart is its research and development into cutting-edge science at a genetic level. Owned and run by the Brown Family, with decades of pearling experience, they’re considered the pioneers of pearling. Cygnet Bay offers a range of sea safaris, accommodation and a restaurant famed for its fusion of Indigenous and Asian ingredients and rare pearl meat, likened to a delicacy somewhere between a scallop and abalone.
On the jostling drive to Willie Creek Pearl Farm, you might receive a Kimberley massage depending on the road conditions, unless you take a helicopter when the roads are impassable or if you’d like a scenic flight. An insightful tour reveals the delicate process involved in cultivating a pearl and a cruise on Willie Creek, where you might spy saltwater crocodiles lounging on the mangrove-lined banks after feasting on barramundi.
It’s hard to leave Broome without picking up a precious keepsake of the region, and you must follow the golden rule of owning pearls, and that’s to wear them regularly, or they lose their lustre. Just ask the locals, and you’ll know who they are, as most of them are casually draped pearls at any time of the day or night.
Carmen Jenner was a guest of Moonlight Bay Suites.
