28th to 30th August 2012 (Broome)

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Days on the Road = 61 Days (8 Weeks & 5 Days)

Distance Travelled (Town to Town) = 3,770km

The Dental Visit

Over the past week my eldest daughter has been complaining about a sore back tooth and gum and on investigation it appears that she may have lost one of her fillings, okay time for a visit to the dentist, but which one??? Back home the girls went to the dentist through the school which was free, so what to do when we are on the road, private, government dental centre or through the distance education school they are enrolled in. After many phone calls and investigation by their school it appears that they can actually go through the local primary school's dentist clinic in Broome which was Broome Primary School. Great! So for anyone travelling with school aged kids just check with the local school to see whether they are running the government school children dentist programme and if they are you should be able to use this for free. All you will need to do is fill out the forms when you get there but at least it's free.

Lucky for my eldest it wasn't a missing filling but a wobbly tooth, duh! Didn't get that one but at least we had her checked out and now know that we can use the local government school's dental clinic.

Broome Museum

We've decided to take a visit to the Broome Museum to learn about the history of Broome and what a fantastic museum it was. It was cheap to get in, had wonderful displays and interesting facts about Broome. The kids were also able to do quizzes about information and displays they found around the museum and received a certificate on completion which they were really thrilled with. I would fully recommend a visit to the museum.

Broome History

Founded in 1883, Broome was named after the then State Governor, Sir Frederick Napier Broome and back then was a mere shanty town (Chinatown) with a multicultural population and little shacks housing the pearl luggers. Broome was bombed in 1942 by Japanese air raids which desecrated their flying boats that were anchored in Roebuck Bay and saw many lives lost (mostly immigrants). During this period, the pearling industry died off but was resurrected afterwards and today Broome is home to the world's finest cultured pearls. The town is thriving where the general population is approximately 14,500 however, during the peak tourist periods the population increases to a staggering 45,000.

Chinatown

Our visit to Chinatown was just amazing! As the original settlement for Broome, we were able to see the old buildings from that time still standing strong and so full of character, especially the world's oldest operating open-air picture gardens "Sun Pictures". We will definitely have to come and watch a movie whilst we are here. Looking down the main streets of Chinatown and knowing the history, you could certainly place yourself back in time and imagine what it would have been like in those days. There are also lots of commemorative plaques and monuments around Chinatown which pay tribute to the pearling industry and the lives lost from the air raids, these were all fantastic to see and informative. I've never been one for history, maybe because my teacher at school was boring in how she delivered it, but this place has so much of it and I'm finding it fascinating.

If you are looking at buying your pearls well this is the place to come, pearl shop after pearl shop, you can also visit the Pearl Luggers to learn more about the pearling industry but we've decided that we will be doing the Willie Creek Pearl Farm Tour later on in our stay in Broome.

Japanese Cemetary

Next stop, the Japanese Cemetery. This place is eerie but supports and recognises the ties that the Japanese people had with Broome during the early pearling industry days. They were employed as pearl workers and many of them lost their lives due to drowning, divers paralysis "The Bends" and the cyclones that visited these shores. The cemetery is well worth a visit.

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