The town in which we were staying
yesterday (Sorry I was far too tired to write about the day last
night), grew around the harvesting of pearl shell. When I showed the
picture of the Prison Tree I told of the blackbirding of Aborigines
to dive for pearl, well here is the place it all happened. Broome. To
begin with the shell was found close to the shore in a few feet of
water and diving was done simply by holding breath. No diving
equipment was needed. Never the less hundreds of aborigines would
have drowned as a result of being made to spend so much time beneath
the surface. Then divers came from Japan – maybe they had done a
similar job before they came here? Anyway, the shell was by this time
in deeper water and the Japanese divers had to go much further down
and so they had to endure the problems associated with deep diving.
Hundreds of Japanese died (men, women and even children) and their
sad resting place in the Japanese Cemetery is a lasting reminder of
those dangerous times
There is no such reminder of the
hundreds of aborigines that perished. In those early (bad) times, the
native people were not valued very highly. Just outside the Japanese
Cemetery we watched a trail of caterpillars marching along and maybe
the little creatures are all the reminder we need.
There are some very scenic places close
to Broome and Gantheaume Point is one of them. The rock formations
are shaped by the weather and are a perfect subject for a camera. Our
little group did not spend too long there but they managed to take
enough photographs to fill a photo album!
My own camera was working over time
too. When you are there each turn of the head give a new and entiving
image of thes rocks and the aqua sea behind them. However when
clicking through the photos to see what I had collected, so many of
them looked identical! I will be hiding many of them!
You cannot come to Broome and not learn
something about the pearling industry. Our next group activity was to
attend what is known as “pearling tour” which was in truth, a
lecture on the story of the pearling industry while we all sat on
wooden church pews in a little tin and timber shed. It wasn't oyster
pearls that was harvested but mother of pearl fot buttons.
After the second world war the market
had about dried up for pearl shell because of the cheaper option,
plastic buttons. So the pearling direction was changed to seeding the
pearl shells and growing pearls for jewelry.
This is still done today and the
magnificen Paspaley Pearls come from Broome.
In the afternoon, along with seven
others from our group of 17, I clambered aboard a little 'plane and
flew up the coast to see the wonderful phenomenum known as the
“Horizontal Waterfalls” and then on to Cape Leveque where we were
given afternoon tea and time to walk around the sand dunes.
But I want to show you a photograph
(only one!) of the wonderful waterfall that happens each time the
tide changes and the water levels on either side of a promontory of
land try to equalise. The small plane - I was in one that carried
five passengers – circled the falls several times, going first
clockwise and then anti-clockwise so we all had a chance to see the
falls and take photographs.
Sunday, Firie (my son and our coach
driver) and I spent the entire day driving from Broome to Kunanurra –
1060 kilometers. We are at this moment relaxing in readiness for
another big drive from here to Darwin – 830klm - where we shall
board a 'plane after midnight that will take us to Brisbane. The
trains will be running when we arrive so we shall then travel by
train the one and half hours to Nerang where hopefully we shall be
met and driven home! The end of a fabulous holiday.
AJ
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