Nature has been kind to Broome, bestowing a beautiful coastline and balmy breezes. It’s always been somewhere you may marvel at surreal reflections of the moon, connect with a camel or purchase a few pearls. But now this laid-back leisure-ville also offers luxury accommodation, day spas, groovy bars and many ways to enjoy the ubiquitous mango.
o1 Pinctada Cable Beach
10 Murray Road, Cable Beach.
For 20 years, Cable Beach Club has ruled the roost as Broome’s premier beach resort. Many stylish, self-contained villas have gone up around it, but until now no other resort has graced the town’s famous beach. New Pinctada Cable Beach promises a high-end experience with a genuine Broome feel and Asian-style flourishes. Owner Marilynne Paspaley has overseen the elegant details of the resort, and ensured an eco-friendly approach to water and energy management.
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o2 Camel trains at sunset
No sunset at Cable Beach is complete without a thread of passenger-carrying camels traversing the burnt orange vista. There are now three operators offering rides (website). Arguably, it’s just as satisfying to watch from the beach (or from Cable Beach Club’s Sunset Bar) where chafing and spitting are a more distant risk.
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o3 Matso’s Broome Brewery
60 Hamersley Street.
+61 8 9193 5811.
Given the laden mango trees around these parts, it’s not surprising the local boutique brewery has worked this quintessential Broome flavour into one of its award-winning beers. Size one up against the more conventional brews or try the excellent ginger beer. Other handcrafted beers include Hit The Toad and Monsoonal Blond. Matso’s also does bar snacks and meals to enjoy while overlooking the turquoise of Roebuck Bay.
o4 Aarli Bar
Shop 2/6 Hamersley Street.
+61 8 9192 5529.
An open-air eatery on the edge of Chinatown that thrums at night, as tapas elicits the European sensibilities (chatty and amiable) of its customers. Greenery brings a sense of calm to the place, which operates during the day as a breakfast and lunch option.
o5 Lustre Bar & Grill
17 Carnarvon Street.
+61 8 9192 1030.
Situated in Broome’s main commercial hamlet of Chinatown, Lustre Bar and Grill has options: order a quick pizza or settle in for a mod-Oz meal. By day, make the most of the establishment’s corner location by gazing at the comings and goings and plan your next stop, perhaps the great little ice-cream joint down the road.
o6 Pearls
The industry that begat the town still draws enthusiasts to ogle the jewels at showrooms along Dampier Terrace in Chinatown. The only working pearl farm to offer tours is Willie Creek Pearls (+61 8 9193 6000). Here you can get the lowdown on how pearls are cultivated and what makes one strand of pearls more bling-worthy than another. Naturally, there’s a gift shop.
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o7 Pearl meat
Not an oyster, but the fleshy part of the shell that houses the coveted jewel. It’s quite a delicacy and you can sample it at various establishments around Broome. The Pearl Luggers museum includes a morsel with its tour (+61 8 9192 2059). It’s also on tasting plates at the Old Zoo Cafe (2 Challenor Drive, +61 8 9193 6200) and the Cable Beach Club restaurant (+61 8 9192 0400).
o8 Aboriginal art
Chinatown is dotted with quality galleries, many of which source Aboriginal art direct from community art centres across the Kimberley. Collectables from emerging and established artists grace the walls at Short Street Gallery (7 Short Street, +61 8 9192 2658, website), Gecko Gallery (9 Short Street, +61 8 9192 8909, website) and Monsoon Gallery (48 Carnarvon Street, +61 8 9193 5379, website).
o9 Whale watching
+61 8 9192 8163.
Broome’s significance as a whale research centre made a logical segue into whale watching last year when Sentosa Fishing Charters launched a custom-built boat with a hydrophone to better hear the whalesong. Sightings are most likely between June and October, as humpbacks calve and rest in waters at the top of their migration trail. An amphibious boat will take you from the beach to the 27-seater for a three-hour tour.
Website
1o McAlpine House
84 Herbert Street.
McAlpine House was once the residence of a pearling master in the leafy old part of town. Its grand bones and lush gardens still charm guests at what is now a boutique hotel with a garden wing, multiple garden lounges and poolside day beds. Attentive service caps off the old-style elegance at this intimate establishment.
11 Sun Pictures
8 Carnarvon Street.
+61 8 9192 1077.
At the world’s oldest operating picture garden, Sun Pictures, nostalgia drips from the corrugated tin roof and dances in the light of the movie projectors each night. The walls are adorned with Hollywood paraphernalia (by day, the place operates as a kind of cinematic museum) and striped deckchairs and timber benches complete the outdoor summer vibe.
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12 Zeebar
4 Sanctuary Road, Cable Beach.
+61 8 9193 6511.
Indulge your urban hankerings at the groovy curved bar, perfect your sangfroid on a plush ottoman lounge in a dimly lit corner, or hang out on the open deck overlooking the palm-fringed street. Peckish? Share plates and tapas provide a good enough reason to kick back and stay a while.
Website
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13 Staircase to the Moon
Visit Broome at full moon and be rewarded with this uncommon optical illusion: moonlight reflecting in puddles on the mud flats at low tide look like a stairway to heaven. It happens between March and October for two to three nights a month. Town Beach is among the best viewing places. A market coincides with the event. Check dates: website
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14 Day spas
With resort-town style comes resort-style indulgence, and the appetite for Broome’s day spas keeps growing. Adding to favourites Bali Hai (6 Murray Road, +61 8 9191 3100) and Sorbet at Rendezvous (Lullfitz Drive, +61 8 9192 5383), is the Li’tya complex at Pinctada Cable Beach (10 Murray Road, +61 8 9192 1355), complete with multiple treatment rooms and acid-washed marble floors.
15 The Cafe at the Pearle
4 Millington Road, Cable Beach.
+61 8 9194 0900.
This Cable Beach accommodation option also has a fine restaurant, Café at The Pearle, serving modern Australian cuisine. It overlooks a central pool around which The Pearle’s 35 luxury villas cluster.
16 Oaks Broome
Robinson & Saville Streets.
You know you’re seeing progress when a modest in-town hotel is upscaled to an imposing resort where exuberant drinking sessions are no longer the main pastime. Oaks Broome is on the site that once housed the Tropicana Inn, but resemblance to the original is scant. Oaks Broome mixes self-contained apartments and studio rooms to offer more than 230 berths, plus two swimming pools and an on-site cafe/restaurant.
17 Eco Beach wilderness retreat
+61 8 9193 8015.
A cyclone devastated the tents and open-roofed showers at Eco Beach Wilderness Retreat in 2000. Last May the property reopened, with weather hardiness a priority for the village-like cluster of tents, cabins and villas that retain their eco-sensibilities. Watch birds or turtles, or go fishing. Then relax at Jack’s Bar & Restaurant. The camp is on a magnificent isolated stretch of coast about an hour’s drive from Broome.
18 Malcolm Douglas Wilderness Wildlife Park
Great Northern Highway.
+61 8 9193 6580.
If not in the wild, see your wildlife in one handy spot. The sometime adventure filmmaker and wildlife enthusiast launched this 30ha park, 16km from Broome, in 2007. Through the open crocodile jaws of the entry reside dingoes, kangaroos, wallabies and birds. Billabongs are home to several dozen crocodiles. Don’t miss their daily feeding frenzy.
Website
19 Get an apartment
The prevalence of short-stay apartments lets you pretend you live here for a while. The newer ones often have private lap pools. There are also communal pools, wi-fi broadband, entertainment systems and generous private courtyards with barbecues – so you’ll have plenty of reasons just to stay “home”. Among the recent additions is Captains By The Bay, an elegant complex of two-bedroom apartments close to Chinatown. 7 Haas Street, Broome.
2o Eat out of town
Three eateries now operate at 12 Mile (prosaically named for its distance from town) on separate properties growing mangoes and herbs. The weekends-only Thai Tea House, where authentic Thai food features fare grown on the property, is open from May to August. The Mango Place (+61 8 9192 5462) uses the fruit of its title in everything from pizza bases and cheesecakes to wine and port. The 12 Mile Cafe (+61 8 9192 8552) has Malay flavours in keeping with Broome’s multicultural background.
Source: Qantas The Australian Way December 2009