Broome (city)

The western coast of Australia was officially discovered by the Dutchman Dirk Hartog in 1616. Until 1688, few people knew about the west coast of Australia. It was then that the English writer, artist and pirate William Dampier accidentally stumbled upon this shore, sailing under the sails of the Signite pirate ship. Returning home, Dampier published notes of his travels. His descriptions and drawings greatly inflamed the imagination of compatriots. A ship was allocated from the Royal Navy for the development of New Holland , as Australia was then called.

Dampier’s expedition to the Roubac warship was considered unsuccessful. In its course, nothing new was discovered, and the expedition itself ended sadly - the rotted Roubak filled with water and sank. Dampier managed to escape. In a report on his journey, he reported that he had found a whole colony of pearl mussels or pearl shells. Only in 1854 in a place that Dampir called Shark Bay , pearls began to be mined. However, the pearl industry was only partly successful. Simultaneously with the development of Shark Bay , huge mollusks called Pinctada maxima were found in the Nikol Bay , located next door. The shell of this huge clam served as the source of the world's best mother of pearl - raw materials for the production of buttons .

Already in 1890, mother-of-pearl was sent annually from Broome to England in the amount of about 140,000 British pounds . Although many valuable pearls were found in the shells, it was of little value. The first pearl magnates made a large part of their fortune by selling shells themselves, which often came at the cost of considerable sacrifices - many Aboriginal diving men drowned, became victims of sharks or slowly died from overwork and intolerable working conditions. Later divers appeared from Malaysia and Java . When the supply of pearl mussels in shallow water was depleted, the fishery moved to deep-sea places. To get to them, they used a mask with a long hose attached to it, through which one could breathe.

The flotilla, engaged in the pearl industry in Broome, grew to the size of an entire armada of 400 ships. A mixture of different cultures: Asian, European and Aboriginal culture - led to the creation of a unique conglomerate , which was often a hotbed of crime.

However, when the First World War began , the situation on the mother-of-pearl market deteriorated sharply, and the Brum magnates went bankrupt. The fishery revived for a short time between the two world wars, but after World War II, Broome suffered another collapse. Soon, the invention of plastic , which was soon used to make buttons, reduced the demand for mother of pearl.

At the end of World War II, an Australian delegation visited a pearl farm in Ago , Japan . There, Mikimoto Kokichi perfected the method of growing pearls by placing a grain of sand in a clam shell. Mikimoto assured the Australians that larger pearls can be grown in Australian pearls. His words were noted, and in the 1970s, pearls grown in Australian pearls gained fame as one of the largest and most valuable pearls in the world. Pearls grown in other parts of the world reach 11 millimeters in diameter, and pearls grown in these places can reach 18 millimeters in diameter. A string of such large pearls costs more than 500 thousand dollars.

Although Broome is located in the tropics, it actually has a semi-arid climate. Like most Australian tropics, Broome has two types of seasons: the dry season and the wet season. The dry season lasts from May to November with almost every day clear and maximum temperatures of approximately 30 degrees Celsius. The wet season lasts from December to March, with a maximum temperature of approximately 35 degrees Celsius, with rather unstable tropical showers, and high humidity. The annual average rainfall in Broome is 598.9 mm, 76% of which falls from January to March. ^[3]

Broome is susceptible to tropical cyclones, along with the equally unpredictable nature of summer thunderstorms, which plays a large role in the unstable nature of precipitation. For example, in January 1922, 2.8 mm of precipitation fell in Broome ^[4] , while in the same month of 1997 - 910.8 mm.

One of the most famous sights of Broome is Kable Beach - a beach stretching 7 km from the city itself along a well- paved road. The coast itself has a length of 22.5 km. The shore with clean white sand, washed daily with clean ocean water, like a magnet attracts tourists. ^{[5] The} water of the beach is crystal clear and has a turquoise hue. For those who want to swim, there are warnings from November to March, since poisonous jellyfish are active during this period. There are four-wheeler rental locations on the beach. Camel drivers offer their services. Kable Beach is the "homeland" of one of the most famous shores of Australian nudists .

• Shire of Broome - Broome District Government
• Broome Tourism
• https://web.archive.org/web/20091024014826/http://www.stmarysbroome.wa.edu.au/home/barefoot/open.html
• Flora and fauna of Broome