DISTANCE: 3,414km (2,121 miles) one way
TIME: One week
START: Perth
END: Wyndham
POINTS TO NOTE: This route requires the use of a vehicle (click here for tips on driving in the Outback), although if time is tight Qantas and Virgin fly between Perth and Broome. It can be combined with Routes 14 and 15, or done as a standalone adventure. You can return to Perth or continue into the Northern Territory towards Darwin. Spring brings wildflowers and the Staircase to the Moon phenomenon, but avoid the worst of the Wet and cyclone season: November–April. Note: when travelling across Aboriginal land, respect for the culture, privacy and people is paramount.
Urbane, polite Perth is a long way from pearl-farming Broome and the epic environment of the Kimberley, in terms of distance and culture. Here casual conversations can be about crocs or coffee, and people go flight-seeing instead of sightseeing.
If you have time to explore, take the coast-hugging route from Perth via the parks, settlements and resorts that shadow Shark Bay (for more information, click here) and the Ningaloo Reef-facing parts of the Pilbara (for more information, click here). Otherwise, sort out some good road trip tunes and do the last section of Route 15 in reverse, travelling 1,600km (994 miles) to Port Hedland on the Great Northern Highway.
Along the coastal route to Port Hedland
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Broome
From Port Hedland (for more information, click here), head east along the arched coast called Eighty Mile Reach to Broome 1 [map]. The Visitor Centre (1 Hamersley Street; tel: 08-9195 2200; www.visitbroome.com.au; Mon–Fri 8.30am–4pm, Sat–Sun 9am–noon) provides information on attractions and activities, ranging from pearl tours and camel rides to indigenous cultural experiences and flight-seeing trips to the famous Horizontal Falls on the far north coast.
The website publishes dates for the ‘Staircase to the Moon’ phenomenon, an optical illusion created when moonlight reflects on the flats of Roebuck Bay during low-water spring tides, celebrated with night markets where all sorts of food and drink is available.
Camel ride on Cable Beach
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A sunset camel ride along Cable Beach, a 22km (14-mile) stretch of white sand, is a memorable experience; the Zoo Keeper’s Store (see 1 [map]) is a great place to refuel. Native animals can be viewed at the popular Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park and Animal Refuge (Broome Road; tel: 08-9193 6580; www.malcolmdouglas.com.au; daily 2–5pm) – feeding time for the crocs is 3pm. At various points around this coast, giant dinosaur tracks, thought to be 130-million-years old, can be viewed (see www.dinosaurcoast.org.au for more).
Cruising along dirt roads near Cape Leveque
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Pearls
During the 1920s, Broome was the capital of the planet’s pearling industry, with more than 300 luggers (pearling vessels) competing for finds off the northwest coast. Most of the divers were Japanese, for whom the real wealth lay in the mother-of-pearl shell, which was used in jewellery and for buttons (a pearl was an unexpected bonus). It was a dangerous job, as the Japanese Cemetery testifies.
Broome suffered a crash when plastic buttons flooded the market after World War II. The recent development of cultured pearls has revitalised the industry (although the harvesting now occurs in remote aquatic farms), and several Broome jewellery shops, including one owned by the dominant pearling operator, Paspaley Pearls (www.paspaley.com), sell fine pearls in a variety of settings.
With a strong Aboriginal culture and large Asian population, Broome has retained plenty of character, apparent during a stroll through the timber dwellings of Chinatown, with its multilingual street signs. The town comes alive each August/September, when fishermen, farmers, miners, drovers and tourists swell the population tenfold for Shinju Matsuri – Festival of the Pearl (www.shinjumatsuri.com.au).
Cape Leveque
If you have a 4WD and a sense of adventure, a road trip from Broome to Cape Leveque, traversing the Dampier Peninsula, is amazing. Parts of the Cape Leveque Road remain unsealed, very sandy and badly corrugated, however, and can be impassable for standard vehicles. Always check conditions before settling off.
At Beagle Bay the Sacred Heart Church has a beautiful altar decorated with mother-of-pearl, while Middle Lagoon (www.middlelagoon.com.au) offers great fishing, safe swimming, camping, beach shelters and self-contained log cabins. Lombadina (tel: 08-9192 4936; www.lombadina.com) is an Aboriginal community offering accommodation and tours from a stunning beach. One Arm Point (aka Ardyaloon; tel: 08-9192 4932) is another welcoming community where you can visit an aquaculture hatchery breeding juvenile trochus shells.
Derby
Around 216km (134 miles) northeast is Derby 2 [map], epicentre of West Kimberley’s huge cattle-producing region. From here, sightseeing is mostly done by light plane, to places such as King Sound and the Buccaneer Archipelago – experiences that reveal one of the world’s most spectacularly beautiful coastlines, a maze of islands, red cliffs and white beaches, uninhabited except for the mining communities of Cockatoo Island and Koolan Island.
Some 7km (4.5 miles) outside Derby is a stout boab tree reputed to have been used as an overnight prison for prisoners being transported during colonial times. The boab (a close relation of the southern African baobab tree) is often known as the ‘bottle tree’ and can have a circumference greater than its height – the girth of this one exceeds 14 metres (46ft).
Wandjina paintings
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Gorges
To the north of the sealed Great Northern Highway are several gorgeous gorges, which may not be accessible at certain times and in some vehicles due to the state of unsealed roads after heavy weather.
Windjana Gorge National Park 3 [map] (tel: 08-9195 5500; https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/windjana-gorge; open during the dry season only, Apr–Nov) on the Lennard River has good walking and camping. This is a spiritual place for the Bunuba, who believe powerful creation spirits called Wandjina reside here. Aboriginal guerrilla leader Jandamarra, who led an organised armed insurrection against European colonisation, used the gorge as a hideout, and was wounded at Pigeon’s Rock during a gun battle in 1894.
In Tunnel Creek National Park 4 [map] (tel: 08-9195 5500; https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/tunnel-creek; dry season only), you can walk through an underground stream course populated by bats. This cave system was another hideout for Jandamarra, who was killed outside its entrance in 1897, after being hunted down by an indigenous tracker called Micki, whose children were being held by authorities.
East of Derby, on the Fitzroy River near the township of Fitzroy Crossing, is Geikie Gorge 5 [map] (tel: 08-9191 5112; https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/danggu-geikie-gorge; dry season only). At 14km (9 miles) long, with limestone cliffs up to 30 metres (100ft) high, this is one of the northwest’s most spectacular gorges and a cracking camping spot. Boat tours (May–Oct; see website for bookings) take place along the river, where freshwater crocodiles sunbake at the water’s edge and flying-foxes, sea eagles and rare purple-crowned fairy-wrens flit through the air. Below you can see sawfish and stingrays that have adapted to life in fresh water. Interesting boat tours conducted by Aboriginal rangers (call 0417 907 609/08-9191 5355 to book tickets) also take place, explaining their connection to the land.
The Great Northern Highway cuts along the southern perimeter of the Kimberley before entering the modern township of Halls Creek, with its comfortable hotels and air-conditioned supermarkets. At Old Halls Creek, remnants of the 1884 gold rush can be seen. Around 130km (80 miles) south of Halls Creek is the Wolfe Creek 6 [map] meteorite crater, the world’s second largest.
Purnululu National Park
The turn-off 110km (68 miles) north of Halls Creek leads to a 4WD track to one of the most astonishing natural features in the world: the Bungle Bungle Range 7 [map]. The Bungles cover some 640 sq km (247 sq miles) of the Ord River Valley with a labyrinth of orange and black (caused by the black lichen and orange silica) horizontally tiger-striped, domed mountains. Within the canyons and gorges of the Purnululu National Park are palm-filled grottoes, enormous caves and white-sand beaches. The rough track from the highway deters many, so a thriving industry has arisen in Kununurra to fly tourists over (and, more recently, into) the Bungle Bungles.
A true gem of the Kimberley lies to the north of Purnululu: Argyle Diamond Mine, owned by Rio Tinto, is the world’s largest, extracting some 1,000kg (6.5 tons) of diamonds each year. The Argyle Diamond Pipe was discovered in 1979 and remains the only source of deep-pink diamonds. Air tours to the mine are available from Kununurra.
Wyndham
The most northerly port in Western Australia, Wyndham is a small, scattered community that has changed little since the days of the gold rush. You can see large crocodiles lying on the mudflats below the Wyndham wharf; cattle that miss their footing when being loaded onto ships provide an occasional meal. Stop by the Croc Café and Bakery (see 2 [map]) here for classic Aussie light bites.
Food and drink
1 Zoo Keeper’s Store
2 Challenor Drive, Broome; tel: 08-9192 0015; Thu–Mon 7am–noon and 5.30–9pm; $$$
Brilliant breakfasts and delicious dinners made from gourmet and local produce. A top spot to simply sit and sip a coffee, long juice or beer by Cable Beach Resort.
2 Croc Café and Bakery
12 Great Northern Highway, Wyndham; tel: 0457 826 616; Mon–Sat 7am–2pm; $
You’re not exactly spoilt for choice in Wyndham, but you don’t need too many options when the crocodile and barramundi pies are this good. Finish off with a lovely lamington – it doesn’t get more Aussie than this.