Out of Derby and off to Broome

Before leaving Derby we visited the Mowanjum Gallery, a little way down the Gibb River Road, home of some of the wandjina art, in fact the main building of the gallery is in the shape of a wandjina. 

 

I understand that the Derby and surrounding area aboriginal groups are the Worrara, Wunambul and Ngarinyin people and I think that it is the Worrorra that have the gallery.

Kimberley area aborigines credit the wandjina with the creation of the dreaming and believe they made the world and all that it contains. Wandjina are generally shown full length, standing upright or lying horizontally. They have large mouthless faces, usually with large black eyes with their head surrounded by a band with radiating lines. I was told that if they also had mouths they would be far too powerful.  The lines represent the feathers that they wore and / or the lightning they control.

I would have liked to add to my small aboriginal art collection with a wandjina painting but they were all out of my price range at $150 to$300 and upwards for quite small prints and $500 to thousands for originals.

The Worrorra aboriginal people also sell decorated boab nuts and I was fortunate to meet Madeline / Maddie one afternoon. Maddie welcomed me to her country and offered me a nicely decorated nut that she had done and I bought it.  The nut, coincidentally, has a small wandjina head.

During our last evening in Derby we once again visited the jetty at sunset. This time I came across a group of white breasted woodswallows  clustering on the local power lines as woodswallows love to do. One posed very nicely on the power lines for me.

Some people I spoke to have been more than slightly amazed that we stayed in Derby for more than a week, but we really enjoyed it, very relaxing with plenty to see.

On the way to Broome we stopped at the Willare Bridge Roadhouse  for a cuppa and, lo and behold right next to where we parked was a lone red tailed black cockatoo feeding. I had been trying for weeks to find one, ever since we crossed into WA.  On our last trip 3 years ago they were very plentiful, but not this time, so it was nice to finally get a reasonable pic.

The rest of the trip through to Broome was uneventful, well, we didn’t go to Broome itself, Broome being the most dog / pet unfriendly place in the known and unknown universe, so we stayed at Roebuck Plains Roadhouse about 30 Km outside of Broome. 

We have visited Broome before and have seen most of the sights. In my humble opinion, Broome is one of those places like Ayers Rock that you should probably visit once, cross off your list and then forget.

We did make the obligatory trip to Cable Beach at sunset and, surrounded by large numbers of sundowners and some very smelly camels, we watched the sun fall into the ocean. Maestro was a bit mystified by the camels.

In the end we only stayed two nights in Roebuck Plains / Broome. All Broome caravan parks were full and many caravanners were directed to ‘overflow areas”, like the Broome Pistol Club or the PCYC. We had a look at the pistol club down near the port and it was a very dry and dusty area with vans all over the place. I don’t think that Broome people really like caravan people and maybe prefer their tourists to fly in!!

WARNING, RANT AHEAD….

When we arrive in a city or town, it is normal to call into the tourist information centre. These centres used to be operated by friendly people, often by part timers or enthusiastic volunteers. These days, the centres seem to be operated by local council staff whose aim in life seems to be to sell as many tickets as they can on local flights or tickets on local cruises or attractions. I guess councils are addicted to the commissions that these attractions pay.

If you ask about local maps or information on local free attractions you may be given a crummy black and white photocopied map if you’re lucky.  Not really good enough people !!

Next stop Barn Hill Station

Next stop Barn Hill Station and on to Port Hedland