Broome to Darwin - 1986

Alright, its time four part four of my, seemingly never ending, photo essay of a trip I did around most of Australia back in 1986. I say photo essay because I'm basically relying on the old photos to tell the story and jog my memory a bit. At the end of part three Leigh and I had just arrived in Broome, now just as I raved about the Pilbera in part three, I'm going to rave about Broome in part four. To have the red desert sand coming down to meet the white sand of the beach, while metres away the beckoning, turquoise water of the tepid Indian Ocean lapped at the sand, it was like we'd arrived at my idea of paradise. To be truthful we didn't know much about Broome before we got here, we hadn't even heard about Cable Beach, so to find such an intriguing spot totally off our radar (and almost everyone else's back in '86) was a real bonus.

I can't recall the name of the Caravan Park we stayed at in Broome, but looking at this photo it appears that it was out near Sandfire Flat somewhere!

DC3 Broome.

Looks like I was trying to save on washing powder on my time up north, I never seem to have a shirt on.

Broome time.

This is serious road train country up here, this guy is trundling into Broome.

And this guys trundling out. Check out the old Land Rover under the tree, only it wasn't so old back in '86.

Cable Beach was fairly uncrowded back in '86.

Now lets have I think, would I rather be back in Melbourne at work or here.....?

Broome has a long history of pearling, this cemetery is for the early Japanese pearl divers.

Gantheaume Point, Broome.

Leigh at Gantheaume Point, that's Cable Beach stretching into the distance behind him.

Anastasia's Pool, this little pool was carved out by a Lighthouse keeper in ye olde days for his arthritic wife Anastasia so she could bath in its warm water.

After having a wonderful time in Broome we eventually packed up the XB and headed off into the Kimberley, now back in '86 we were a little limited how far into the  Kimberly we could get, don't forget that the main highway still wasn't completely sealed, let alone the minor roads. We did do a bit of the Gibb River Road though before we headed down the even rougher Fairfield Leopold Downs Road, a drive that took us all day. Heading around through Halls Creek we turned north to Kununurra, on our way we stopped at a small settlement called Turkey Creek, this place is now called Warmun and is the last stop on the highway before heading into Purnululu National Park. Unfortunately Purnululu was only just being discovered by white fellas when we motored by in '86 so we didn't get to visit on this trip (a situation that has been remedied numerous time over later years).

Leaving Broome and heading east, hey hey were on the down hill stretch now.

The old boab prison tree in Derby, the tree was allegedly used to look up indigenous prisoners on their way to Derby for sentencing, it all sounds feasible enough considering our history, but there is no actual evidence that it was ever used as a prison.

Looks like travellers back in '86 still felt the need to leave their mark everywhere, this is from inside the prison boab. 

The start of the Gibb River Road, yeah what could go wrong, hey?

Gibb River Road.

Our camp at Windjana Gorge.

Windjana Gorge.

Windjana Gorge is home to a large concentration of freshwater crocodiles.

The walk into Windjana Gorge is quiet easy.

Checking the oil before heading down the Fairfield Leopold Downs Road.

On our trip down the Fairfield Leopold Downs Road we stopped at Tunnel Creek to explore a little. Tunnel Creek is a cave that passes right through the Napier Range, famously used by aboriginal freedom fighter Jandamarra as a hide-out until he was killed outside the cave in 1897.

Leigh, celebrating being back in the sun light on the other side of the range.

It took us all day to traverse the 140 kilometres down to the Great Northern Highway.

These creek crossing don't look like too much trouble, but when your not in a 4wd you have to be a bit careful of sump crushing rocks.

The previous wet season had made a mess of the road in places.

Most of these water crossing require us to walk through first to make sure that there was no deep holes.

It's to far south for salties Leigh...I think!

Our camp beside the Great Northern Highway near Turkey Creek.

Heading through the Kimberley on the Great Northern Highway.

Our first distance sign for Darwin.

After our trip across the Kimberley we eventually arrived hot and dusty at Kununurra where we set up camp at a caravan park on the shores of Lily Creek Lagoon, this was the first time that we had camped by a large expanse of water since we'd been in the tropics and we quickly found out that the XB wasn't the best when there were squadrons of mosquitoes around. After a few days of rest and recreation in Kununurra and then down at Lake Ord, we continued our journey east towards Katherine. Now we had heard of Katherine and it's gorge before but even so the scale of the gorge took our breath away. We did something smart here and took a cruise up the river, something that I've repeated numerous times over the years, its a great few hours. After our time in Katherine was over we pointed the XB north and headed up to Darwin. 

Ivanhoe Crossing near Kununurra...should be no worries for the XB.

We stayed at this caravan park on Lily Creek Lagoon in Kununurra.

Looks like the roads had taken there toll on this donga. 

After a bit of a break in Kununurra we headed down to the Ord River Dam for a couple of days.

The amount of fresh water in the Ord River Dam is almost unbelievable, it looks like an inland sea.

The Ord River downstream of the dam.

Some what unusually for the deep north in the middle of the dry, we got rained out whilst we were at the Ord River Dam.

Overcast dry season skies as we start our drive towards Katherine.

The grey skies didn't last long though.

Crossing the Northern Territory border on the Victoria Highway, the highway was a little narrower in those days.

Another night beside the road, this time on the Victoria Highway heading towards Katherine.

Jedda's Rock in Katherine Gorge or as it's more commonly called now days, Nitmiluk.

I've never seen water that I didn't want to swim in, there is a cruise boat heading into the gorge at the top of the photo.

The Dirt.
We did around 2000 kilometre on this leg of our journey. The further north we got the more uncomfortable it was sleeping in the back of the van, if anyone is reading this and considering sleeping in a vehicle in the tropics then consider getting some sort of insect screens on the windows so that you can let some air whilst keeping the mozzies out. The Kimberley region of Western Australia is probably the last frontier when it comes to Australia, there are still area's up there that probably haven't been touched by white fellas, it's a great place to get away from it all and explore....but it's hard country. Nitmiluk National Park is a great spot to visit, with plenty of camping, walking, swimming and canoeing options, not to mention a massive amount of indigenous history, infact the park is now owned and run by the local Jawoyn People.
Other Relevant Posts.
Part 1 of this trip.
Part 2 of this trip.
Part 3 of this trip.
Darwin December 2006 
Eighth Gorge, Nitmiluk National Park May 2004.

Nitmiluk is a beautiful oasis in the hot dry country around Katherine.