Suburbia in Broome

Suburbia comes to Broome

The red sand meets the blue sea. They call the red earth pindan. The sea is a soft turquoise colour. On Roebuck Bay you camp right on the edge of the beach. There is a million dollar view of the sun rising over the mud flats and in the evening the pink and orange sunsets reflect across the bay. If you are there in the wet season, the sky is an ink black and the streak lightening lights up the whole bay. “Don’t swim at town beach.” a local girl told me, but she would not tell me why. Meanwhile three people had been stung with stingers on the fabled Cable Beach.

Bill and Fran take a week to set up there caravan and annex on the precise site that they have done for the last 10 years. They erect shade cloth over the windows and lay flooring in their annex and pagoda. Bill mows the grass on their allocated area and takes out his weeder and digs out unwanted vegetation from his plot. The ground staff has placed the water sprinklers in position but Bill moves them to his patch and uses the hose for the difficult corners. At last he can stand back with hands on hips and admire his handiwork. We waited for a fence to go up but instead a truck arrived with potted plants to mark the border of his territory.

Over the next few days Bill sits and watches the grass grow at the same time keeping a watchful eye on his neighbours. At 10 am he walks over to the people across the way who are packing up. He reminds them of the time and that they should be gone, as his friends are waiting to take that site. In the meantime, Fran and her friend have emerged as the laundry police. They check that only one washing machine is used by each person and are disgusted that there is only one item in one machine.

It is time to leave Broome and move south; still on the pindan, but to a place that does not have a feeling of suburban small mindedness closing in on a beautiful remote area.