Broome
When the rich pearling grounds were discovered in 1883 Broome was founded. In the early 1900's, the area experienced a true heyday, with over 3000 men working on around 400 pearl luggers, supplying 80% of the world's mother of pearl (mainly used for buttons). The advent of the plastic button spelt the demise of the pearling industry as did the world wars. Many of the divers were from Asia (and some were "co-opted" Aboriginals) and the industry became very dangerous as they overfished the shallower waters and needed to dive further using breathing apparatus. World War I caused the pearling industry to halt and it's recovery was slow. The advent of World War II caused the Japanese divers to be interned and the industry again lost many of it's divers. Broome was bombed in 1942 which also impacted the pearling industry. When it resumed at the end of the war- the emphasis altered towards cultured pearls and today there are only a few ships operating within a handful of pearl farms. The ships harvest immature oyster shells which are then taken to pearl farms and implanted with a nucleus to eventually create a pearl.
The Broome Shell Museum was well worth a look and Amelia spent her pocket money on a clam shell, a starfish and a trochus shell. We were disappointed that we missed out on visiting 80 mile beach (a great shell spot) due to the bad weather. The road down was closed (and I believe the fine for using a closed road can be $2000) so we missed that instead leaving Port Headland and driving all the way to Broome in one big long day.
Cable Beach
Close enough to Broome to be considered a suburb, Cable Beach is a tourist mecca full of resorts and campgrounds. It's also a great spot for a walk and shell collecting missions. The camel rides also looked fun (and not a bit out of place in Australia). We thoroughly enjoyed our beach walk and were glad to finally have a chance to enjoy some lovely weather.
Not sure which little creatures created these interesting marks burrowing under the sand, but they were everywhere, perhaps a small crab?
Making a dolphin in the sand
Dead coral
Cars and camels on sand- are we back in Abu Dhabi?
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