Broome Overview

The historical pearling town of Broome is located in the northwest of Australia, looking out over the blue Indian Ocean in the beautiful Kimberley region of Western Australia. It boasts the spectacular Cable Beach and an Asian flavour, and is best visited in the May to September dry season when days are hot and nights balmy.

Broome’s history of pearl farming has brought with it a sizeable Chinese and Japanese community who originally worked the pearl luggers before eventually settling here. The result is a charming architecture with typical Australian buildings clad with Asian forms not seen elsewhere in Australia. A simple stroll along Broome’s main street will reveal some of these unique structures.

Cable Beach is by far Broome’s biggest attraction, however; a huge beach of soft, golden sand leading up to the clearest of warm turquoise waters. Cable Beach stretches for around 13 miles to the west of town and boasts amazing sunsets best seen from the back of a red sun camel. The beach also has a nudist section, dinosaur footprints and some fantastic fishing.

Broome has another beach which, although consumed by pretty mangrove forests, displays the renowned ‘Staircase to the Moon’ phenomenon at Roebuck Bay. This side of Broome is also famous with nature lovers and birdwatchers at the Broome Bird Observatory.

The town of Broome itself is a pleasure to wander around with its unique Australian-Asian fusion and many bustling markets and parks. Walking the Broome Heritage Trail will enable you to learn more about Broome's history along with a visit to the Broome Historical Society Museum, Pearl Luggers and the War Memorial.

Chinatown on Carnarvon street is the heart of downtown Broome featuring loads of shops and restaurants with a fascinating range of foods. Nightlife options are also bubbly, with the 1916 Sun Pictures open-air cinema being a big hit with families.

Other Broome must-see attractions include the Broome Crocodile Park and trips out to the massive Kimberley region proper. The coastline in this part of Australia is simply awesome, while inland the likes of Windjana and Geike gorges are known for their great hiking and river cruises respectively.

Accommodation options in Broome are diverse and reasonably priced. There are hotels, motels, holiday resorts, lodges, and hostels, as well as camp grounds. Many resorts have based themselves overlooking Cable Beach, a setting that will not leave you disappointed. The Cable Beach Club Resort is one such resort, ideal for families with its kids club, swimming pools and superb facilities.

A campfire discovered in the Broome area strewn with stone tools proves that the Aboriginals who travelled here around 40,000 years ago were the first peoples to inhabit the Broome/Kimberley area. The very first inhabitants to Broome, however, were the dinosaurs, with footprints at Gantheaume Point having been fossilised from the Cretaceous Age, about 120 to 130 million years ago.

The early white people to spot Broome were seamen, with famed Dutch navigator Abel Tasman sailing past in 1644 while charting the Kimberley coast. William Dampier landed here 44 years later in 1688, as well as in 1699, and many touristy parts of the coast are named after him or by him.

Once Broome was on the map, nothing of real significance happened here until nearly 200 years later, in 1879, when Charles Harper moved the burgeoning pearling industry moved here from farther along the coast.

About four years later, John Forrest selected Roebuck Bay for the town in 1883. It was subsequently named Broome after the Governor of Western Australia, Sir Frederick Broome, and the population quickly grew with people coming from all over Asia to work the pearling grounds.

Soon after the arrival of John Forrest an undersea telegraph cable was laid from Broome to Singapore, which then went on to England. It is this fact which lends its name to Broome’s biggest asset today, Cable Beach, which was the landfall site for the cable.

Many other ethnic groups flocked to Broome to work on the pearl luggers or on the shore-based part of the operations, including lots of Chinese. It is this fact that has made Broome what it is today with regards to its multicultural population, although the White Australia Policy of the early days did its utmost to make them feel unwelcome, or indeed to try and expel them altogether.

The pearl industry in Broome took a massive blow on 3 March 1942 when Japanese aircraft bombed the town. Around 90 people were killed by the air raid although the pearling industry improved slowly after the war.

Another prominent time in Broome’s history was the discovery of precious metals in the Kimberley region in the 1960s, which drew miners to Broome. This along with the burgeoning tourism industry after the advent of the jet age has seen Broome grow from strength to strength.

Broome’s superb climate, fantastic beaches and interesting history spurred developers and locals into realising the potential wealth they were sitting on. The northwest Western Australia town is today one of Australia’s fastest growing urban centres with an excellent tourist infrastructure and a distinct frontier feel. Cable Beach and the town are Broome’s biggest draws, while the outback is also a great focal point, particularly the fantastic Windjana and Geike gorges to the east.

Broome’s weather is relatively mild when compared with other northern Australian destinations, with its coastal location smoothing out the highs and lows. The climate here is classed as tropical monsoon with two seasons: wet and dry. Winter is dry and runs from April to September while summers are very warm and span from October to March.

The summer sees the most rainfall with January and February having substantial wet spells, while the wintertime is generally very dry. Daily daytime averages are around 33°C in the summer and 28°C in the winter, although the winter rarely sees night time temperatures dip below 15°C on the coast. Coastal breezes are the norm year round and cyclones hit between December and March.

Lightweight casual clothing is the order of the day when visiting Broome whatever time of year you come here. It may be worth packing a jacket if visiting in the winter to cater to chilly evenings and mornings, but leave the heavy clothing at home.