Day 12 - Larrawa Station to Broome

An unenventful stretch of road with a couple detours to get to the tourist town of Broome.

Quick Stats

• 6.5 hours on bike
• 634 km
• 5225 km total

Waking early at the station, I pack up the tent, have another excellent hot shower, and then head off early to try to beat the heat (spoiler: failed miserably).

With the bare minimum phone coverage at Larrawa Station, I'm heading off without much of a plan. Something to be sorted at the first fuel stop.

First, I need to get back up the 4 km red dirt driveway without eating it. Success.

A couple hours to my first fuel and coffee for the morning at Fitzroy Crossing. I've been hearing about this crossing since the WA border as it remains the only low lying concrete causeway crossing left that can be cut by rains, the signs (and blue skies) have been positive.

The crossing goes fine, the fuel stop less so. Getting fuel from the servo (after negotiating the process of having the attendant release the fuel bowser from behind the steel rebar cage and Abloy padlock), I grab an iced coffee and take in the settlement. There is a lot going on for 8 am, construction workers and tradies abound as they work to build a bridge to fix the crossing once and for all, but the locals are out as well.

In five minutes, I witness two car prangs and an ambulance attending to an unconcious man who apparently tried drinking petrol... anyway decided I'd best be going. Onto Derby, which I held hope might be better.

The monotony of open bushland is briefly broken by the King Leopard Ranges off on the right. These follow the roadside for a good 50 kilometres before I'm back to scrubby bushland.

Outside of Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing (and the station itself), I haven't seen a single dwelling in nearly a thousand kilometres, it really is mind boggling.

I come to the Derby turn off. Derby is a 42 km one way detour, its 10.50 am and its already 32°C. I decide to give it a shot.

Most of the way there, I come across the Boab Prison Tree.

It's believed this tree was used as a makeshift prison for aboriginals before the establishment of the Derby township in the 1880s.

In the mid- to late- 1800s, where Britain and even the USA had abolished slavery, it was still going strong in Australia. Like the sugar cane industry in Queensland, the North West needed skilled divers for the growing pearl shell industry.

Enter the practice of blackbirding, where indigenous populations were used as slave labour. Where Queensland predominantly kidnapped from nearby Pacific Islands, here they enslaved the local aboriginals. This continued for over thirty years. The practice died out not for ethical reasons, but because modern diving suits (and Japanese workers, but don't worry, we'll solve that, more later) became more common.

Anyway this tree was an overnight stay on the way to the pearl luggers (boats) stationed at Derby that would take the slaves across towards the Dampier Peninsula.

Off to Derby, I pull in for fuel and attempt to locate something for lunch. What little town there was appears to have been hit very hard by COVID. All the cafes are permanently closed as of 2021, even the Chinese restaurant is boarded up.

I grab a sandwich from the servo and head out to Jetty Road for a look.

Derby is known for the insane variance between high and low tide. With the differential being 11.8 metres. During high tide the enormous field in the above photo becomes the ocean. Alas thats not for 4 hours, and its hot, so I head down to the low tide jetty for my look at the ocean and then head off for Broome.

Pulling up at a roadhouse, I start looking for somewhere to stay in Broome. It seems my fellow riders last night were correct, there are no rooms at the inn. I get a coffee at the roadhouse and keep searching, finally settling to spend $470 for a single night in Broome. I smell a tourist trap.

Back on the bike for two and a half hours and I arrive, making a beeline for my resort.

Yep, my hotel has a pool and bar overlooking Roebuck Bay. Slight contrast to sleeping on the ground at a cattle station.

I have a cold shower and go for a walk down to the jetty.

Town Beach Park, across from the museum, has an interesting exhibit on the White Australia Policy of the 1900s. While the policy was used in Queensland to deport all the blackbirded Pacific Islanders before they could get their compensation, Western Australia used it to deport (or deny re-entry) to South East Asian and Japanese workers. Nice.

Back to the hotel. Think I'll get Indian for dinner while I try reconcile current day Broome with what its like only two hours down the road.