Pioneer Memorial, Marble Bar

A bit different from my normal blog. I don't have to write much, they plaques speak for themselves! In a way it is a picture of what Tony & I have learnt about this amazing area of Australia. Probably The Never Never Cemetery of Elsie Station started the "real" realisation of the hardships, disrespect & bravery faced by the pioneers of the remote areas of NT & WA in the history of modern settlement of Australa by people so far from their comfort zone.

The murder of Miller recruiting Aborigines for the pearling luggers would probably have been warranted for the time as he would have been "black birding". In other words he would be taking aborigines by force to become pearl divers. Often they were free diving to fair depths without any air. Young pregnant aboriginal women were discovered to be excellent free divers so they would also have been blackbirded against their will.

The memorial in the Main Street is for pioneers buried on properties, river banks, beaches (mostly Afghans) & in lonely scrub areas. Interestingly Lang Hancocks parents & sister were also included & they are buried on the station "Mulga" not too far distant.

The final photo is In Marble Bar Pioneer Cemetery but it is indicative of the lonely graves of the pioneers remembered from the local area in the wall photos above.

 

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Broome to Marble Bar

Leaving Broome & the Kimberley behind we have started to head south towards the Pilbara. Once again we travelled through the open plains. Something about these open spaces that Tony & I love but then when we have had enough the coast beckons.

 

 

 

 

Our first stopover was in a free camp where we caught up with some caravanning friends made during our stay at Kunnunnurra & again in Derby. We had a great welcoming committee from Neita & Ray as well as Lynn & Joe. The other couple, Terry & Pam were the proud owners of the purple fun bus, "Mutton Dressed up as Lamb.

 

Lots of motorhomes, especially converted buses, have been given some creative names, we have only seen a few caravans with a nickname - we must be the conservative ones? I forgot to ask about the fluffy toys!

 

 

 

 

 

After another enjoyable happy hour discussing everything from "nothing much, to the black sheep of the QLD family Kevin R to of course, the inevitable, FOOTY, we enjoyed another beautiful sunset. Amazing how good the silhouette of a dunny & shelter shed looks at this time of night.

 

 

Turning off the Great Northern Hwy to Marble Bar the landscape changed & iron ore country along with the mining trucks were our companions.

 

 

 

 

 

Marble Bars claim to fame dates back to the 1930's when they had around 130 consecutive days where temperature didn't fall below 37.6 deg. It is still in the Guiness Book of Records. The town does not have a lot going for it as a town to reside in however it is an interesting stopover. I am sure the locals love their town.

 

 

 

 

The servo come supermarket come PO services the town with essentials. The other servo (out of diesel note on pump) provides the other essentials, take away & pizza.

Sat morning at 11am nothing was open & not a car in the street.

 

 

 

 

Gold mining is still active in the area & a prospector told us there is still some gold in "them there hills"!!

The town was named from a large ridge of stone on the outskirts of town. It is actually Jasper not Marble, and a beautiful modern war memorial has two polished faced slabs of the coloured sedimentary rock standing sentinel before the flag pole.

 

 

 

 

Buildings in the town are few & the only ones of note are the Police Station/Court House, Iron Clad Pub & RC Church all for different reasons as you will see in the photos below.

Police Station

Iron Clad Pub

Roman Catholic Church

A day trip out to Coppins Gap was an enjoyable trip despite having to share a pretty good dirt road with mining trucks. Some beautiful scenery on the way & various wildflowers are starting to announce the coming of spring so we might get lucky & see more as we keep travelling further south where the flowers are more abundant.

 

 

 

 

Already wattle has been lining the roadside in colours varying from milky creams to golden yellows. Some plants tough it out amongst the rocks & unashamedly produce brilliant balls of fluff above small hard leaves while other wattle flowers hang gracefully on strands like yellow feather dusters.

 

 

 

The destination beckons along a red dirt track. This is the only gap in a 100km rock wall.

 

 

 

 

The reward at the end of the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Broome

Trying to describe the town of Broome doesn't come easy. It is a town of contrasts. From the beautiful blues of the ocean & sky at Cable Beach that clash with the red Pindan dunes, to the shops stocked with beautiful Broome Pearl jewellery worth tens of thousands of $ to the corrugated fence graffitied with "No grog for our mob" & "Jesus loves yous" at the Community village on the old Broome Rd.

The buildings, both domestic & commercial are virtually without exception, built of corrugated iron. It is a town of pitched iron rooves & walls of ribbed iron. Red lattice work decorates buildings & bus shelters. The dark green & red colour scheme adopted by the town is reminiscent of the Asian influence & was made popular on the buildings of the iconic Cable Beach Resort built by Lord McAlpine.

This is one of the old buildings converted to a gallery in the retail sector.

 

This is a row of newer terraced shops that is typical of the growing development. The verandah outside the shops are raised from pavement level due to the inundation of the town before flood mitigation works kept back the water from the king tides that filled the streets.

The popular tourist towns boasts trendy cafes, restaurants & modern holiday resorts while still retaining its character as a remote outback town with a unique history. Like all sleepy places that become popular not everyone enjoys the "progress"

 

The population in the wet season is approx 7000 which swells in dry season with the influx of tourists flooding in to enjoy winter days in the high 20's. The caravan parks would hold over 4000 at any one time populated by grey nomads & families on the trip of a lifetime taking up to a year off to travel.

It is a creative town & the indigenous community contribute strongly with music & books telling the history of the place. Songs from bands like the Pigrim Bros tell of the life of the Pearl divers, the perfume of the native frangipani trees & Mums fish soup. Books published locally have stories from the dreamtime & personal experiences of growing up in the early days when the community was more segmented into areas created by the Japanese, Chinese, Afghans, Aborigines & white settlers. The main part of town is still called China Town but it does not resemble the areas in cities that bear the name.

Broome Cultured pearls are a big industry for the town & are some of the best in the world. Originally the industry was based on the mother of pearl shell which was used for the massive world button manufacture & Asian furniture inlays before the invention of plastic. Plastic almost sounded the death knoll before the art of cultured peals revitalised the growing of the pearl on a commercial level. They have a saying "You dont choose a pearl, the pearl chooses you". Unfortunately my pearl must be still in its shell as none of them cried "Your mine" as I enviously looked in the glass cabinets.

The Stairway to the Moon is also a festive occurrence for three days during a few months of the year. We were lucky to be in town & joined hundreds on the foreshore of Roebuck Bay to watch the phenomena.

As the large tide falls away over the sand of the bay the soft ambient light & colours give way to the golden crescent shape of the moon as it grows & becomes a gleaming orb. As the sun sets over Cable Beach to the west the huge moon sneaks above the horizon in the east.

 

 

The dusky light disappears behind a midnight black sky & gradually the moon reflects on the wet seabed of sand & the stairway shines for a magic moment.

Our month in Broome has been an enjoyable time, experiencing what Broome has to offer. From lazy beach days, paddling the kayak over crystal water, enjoying satays & dim sims at the markets & meeting other intrepid travellers from all parts of Australia - all in all not a too shabby time!

One day we might return!

 

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Beagle Bay, Gnylmarung Retreat, Cape Leveque,

Leaving our van in the storage section of Broome Caravan Park we headed north up the corrugated, sandy red dirt Cape Leveque Rd, destination Gnurmarang (Newmarong). Psyching ourselves along the way that we don't mind roughing it in our two man tent.

Arriving at the Beagle Bay community we were surprised to find a tidy well kept community town. The "white mans rubbish" (paper wrappings & bottles etc) in little evidence as opposed to towns like Katherine where the flotsam of the days shopping & eating is left on the ground for others to collect or the wind to discard to the never never. The place is famous or its beautiful church built by the missionaries & local people early in the 19 th century. The church is beautifully maintained by the local people.

 

 

Decorated internally by mother of pearl shells, the wall, altar & pulpit are a combination of Christianity & indigenous culture colliding to create a little gem of a building in this remote peninsular of WA.

 

Travelling further we arrived by another rough sandy track at the community run campsite, Gnylmarung, where we set up the trusty tent for a few nights. While facilities were basic, firewood was provided & a community landline phone was available free of charge. The camp was very secluded ( great for a bush pee at night) & only about eight other campers were here.

The beautiful beach rarely had more than four people sharing it any time. A nice change after busy Cable Beach in Broome.

 

Beachcombing here was what you imagine with lots of little shells & if you get lucky, the odd big shell floating on the waters edge at low tide. Amazing when you are the only one on the beach with the waves rolling gently to one side & wild undeveloped sand dunes on the other. The tide here is like all this area, where there is approx 8 meters between high & low.

 

 

The beautiful rock pools at low tide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First footprints at 11am & the beach around the rocky headland to ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another beautiful sunset setting the sand dunes glowing in the evening sky.

 

 

 

 

 

Our little faithful mate "brown dog" who adopted us. She spent each night & breakfast with us & we did get attached as she was just a lovely little dog. A lot of dogs look like a bit of dingo but many like her have little short legs & bodies.

 

The final morning I was over at the loo when next thing two little paws & nose come under the door. I said we were going home that day ( as you do when talking dog talk) & with that off she went & we didn't see her again. Guess the next visitors would be her new best friend.

A little dry season only cafe called Whale Song a bit further north was a welcome find on the way to Cape Leveque. Serving good coffee in double walled Bodum glass cups & delicious home made slices it was a nice treat in the middle of nowhere. Sitting on the edge of a vivid red cliff the views to the beach were spectacular.

 

 

 

 

Planning to stay at Kooljamin Camp on Cape Leveque, we arrived to find the place booked out. After a quick look at the beach & Lighthouse an executive decision was made to head for Broome instead of finding an alternative camp. The comfort of the "Lotus" beckoned & we took off for home.

The amazing colours at Cape Leveque.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The old lighthouse pointing the way back home.

 

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Taste of Broome & Camel Ride on Cable Beach, Broome

We enjoyed a good nights entertainment on Friday night at an event put on by the local aboriginal people. Called a "Taste of Broome" it was a showcase of local music, crafts & food. Tried some yummy Japanese curry, Indonesian satays & super yummy Fillipino cassava cake. While the cake is gluten free, calorie free it ain't.

I looked for a recipe on line & discovered both the cake & topping have carnation, condensed & coconut milk. No wonder it was so good!

 

Opting for the $20.00 tickets we took our own chair & sat behind the VIP section & thoroughly enjoyed the slide & films projected behind the band & singers on stage. The songs & slides started with interesting footage of the old pearling days through to when WWII came to Broome & finishing with clips from the movie Bran Nue Day. It was a family night of good old fashioned entertainment.

8th July was a very important day for me & and a celebration was called for. What better way than champagne on the beach & a camel ride at sunset.

Kelsie, Sara & Sophie gave us the ride as a Christmas gift so while we took our time getting here to use the voucher it worked out well to combine a Christmas & Birthday treat.

Hello to our camel Mustva & all looks easy until.... you try to throw a leg over the camel. My leg got stuck on top needing some help to drag it down & Tones groins seized up. While we were riding along he said he hoped I had camel riding out of my system.

 

 

 

 

Anyway we survived the rocky ascension from sitting to upright while our camel made lots of groaning noises which apparently had nothing to do with us it's just his thing.

It's a long way down once you're up

Attractive eyelashes, unattractive teeth!

 

Sun gradually set as we rocked & rolled along with only an occasional moan from Tone and none from Mustava.

 

 

 

 

 

One very tired camel at the end of a long day carrying tourists up & down.

"Take me home will you, I want to go home"

 

So what a way to spend a birthday - not complaining at all!

 

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