5/4/26: Broome's Chinatown & Staircase to the Moon

  

After two idyllic weeks exploring Western Australia's capital, Perth, and a good chunk of the state's southwest, Steven and I were excited to delve into the state's northwest. Since we didn't have an extra two weeks to comfortably drive the 2,240 km from Perth to Broome, the state's northern gateway, taking the 2.5-hour flight was a no-brainer! Even though Qantas is Australia's major airline, its terminal was oddly located about 8 km away from Perth's main international and domestic airport.

As requested by a blog follower, here's a map showing Perth in the southwest, the driving route in purple for our getaway trip from the capital, the flight in green up to Broome, and our upcoming 10-day cruise in red from Broome up to Darwin in the Northern Territory. The map gives you an excellent perspective of how immense the country is!

We came to Australia's outer northwestern rim for two weeks, so we could cruise through the remote Kimberley region after spending a few days visiting the city that clings to a 15-km-long peninsula of pindan, or red-soil land that juts into the Indian Ocean. The city was described as both an oasis with one of the country's most famous beaches and a frontier with a fascinating history.

For orientation, Broome sits smack dab in the heart of the tropical zone, just below the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. Generally, the tropics have a wet season from December to March and a dry season from April to November. But for the local Yawuru people, there are six seasons, observed not as fixed lengths of time but through environmental changes in both flora and fauna.

The vibrant colors of the sign welcoming us to the region represented "the colours and textures of Yawuru Country: the red pindan, turquoise water, and yellow sands."

After dumping our bags at our lovely B& B in Broome's downtown area, we set off to explore. Almost immediately, we saw a historic multilingual street sign in the city's Chinatown, representing Broome's multicultural history as a pearling hub. From top to bottom, the languages are English, Yawuru, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, and Arabic.

We had to be ultra-careful strolling around Broome, as pedestrians needed to yield to cars rather than the other way around, as we were used to.

From the moment we walked past Sun Pictures in the heart of Chinatown in Broome's shopping and business area, I couldn't wait to see a movie in the world's oldest still-operating movie theater! The Asian Emporium, a dry goods store, stood on the site in the early 1900s before it was converted into a Japanese playhouse. After it was demolished in 1916, pearling master Ted Hunter built the picture theater. A pianist accompanied silent movies until 'talkies' were screened to a full house in 1933, and the theater became Broome's central entertainment venue. Movies once arrived by steamship in big silver tins.

The Broome icon has witnessed floods, cyclones, low-flying aircraft on the flight path from the nearby airport, war, and racial segregation. Before 1967, Europeans, aka White people, sat in the middle, Asians sat on the left, and 'colored people' sat on hard benches on the right; each group had its own entrance. Until a levy was built in 1974, the 'picture garden' flooded regularly at high tide! 

The striking Fusion: Interwoven Culture sculpture welcomed visitors to Chinatown, Broome's traditional heart. The curved base signified a pearl shell or pearling lugger hull, from the city's rich pearling heritage. For those of you who may not be familiar with the term, a pearling lugger is a sturdily built, shallow sailing vessel historically used to harvest pearl oysters and mother-of-pearl shell along the northern coasts of Australia.

Steven and I were lucky to discover the Broome Cultural Trail, as we hadn't known it existed until we arrived. The public art became a way to share stories with locals and visitors about the town's rich, diverse history shaped by Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures.

The pillars were titled The Japanese in Broome, paying homage to the Japanese community's contribution to Broome. The patterns are used in many Japanese designs and carry traditional meanings and good wishes. 

Tazulo Kaino, an Aboriginal Djugan woman, recounted how gambling was a big thing when she was growing up in Broome. There were "piles of money ... pounds and pounds ... and this was in the daytime. We'd pretend we were just walking past, and we'd have a look. We used to crawl under the floorboards and collect the money that fell through. You had to be very quiet!"

The Shopkeepers abacus sculpture paid tribute to the merchants of old Chinatown, representing the unique selection of shops and the people who ran them. I appreciated how the art trail celebrated the town's heritage and created a sense of place, connecting people to the land and to each other. Stay in this space for more fascinating pieces we found on the Art Trail!

Other images that caught our eye in Broome on our short walk:

You may recall the story of the boab tree, often called a baobab tree elsewhere, which was transported from the Kimberley region to giant Kings Park in downtown Perth. Since we would soon see a massive number of these remarkable bulbous trees as we traveled through the Kimberley on our upcoming cruise, I fell in love with them! 

The Courthouse B&B was our home away from home for several nights in Broome, and more than originally intended when an overnight trip was canceled! Thank goodness, our room was lovely, the hosts were friendly and very accommodating, and the breakfasts were ample.

Whenever there's a full moon between April and October in Broome, the moon's reflections gleam across the mudflats of Roebuck Bay at low tide, creating an illusion known as the Staircase to the Moon or the Stairway to Heaven. Though Broome's is the most famous example, visitors to certain other sites in Western Australia with east-facing mudflats can experience the same phenomenon. We knew about it months in advance and were relieved we'd arrived just in time to see the unforgettable natural phenomenon.

On our way to Town Beach, where the Staircase is accompanied by an evening food and crafts market, we passed the site of Jiljirrgun McDaniel's Camp, pearling camps, and workers' living quarters. Asian crews, far from home and family, shared their curries, which became a staple of Broome's local cuisine.  

We knew we were in the tropics when we smelled the heavenly scent of a plumeria, also known as a frangipani!

This was our first pizza truck oven!

Believe me, I'd want to sell prints of my Staircase photo, too, if they were as good as this one!

Ruth: Please tell Al that he could have given these two musicians a run for their money, although we did enjoy their Jimmy Buffett songs!

A large and enthusiastic crowd eagerly awaited the moon's great reveal well after the sun had set at 5:30!

We hardly dared to blink once we saw the beginning of the 'staircase.'

Although the reflection wasn't nearly as spectacular as we hoped, we were still thrilled to experience one of the world's rare sights. It only lasted ten minutes max.

The Women of Pearling, a three-meter bronze cast sculpture of an Indigenous female diver coming out of the water with a pearl shell in hand, honored the women who contributed to Broome's pearling history for over a century. Thankfully, the sculpture also acknowledged those who were exploited as divers along the coastline south of Broome during the 'blackbirding' phase. That was the forcible kidnapping of Aboriginal women to pearl luggers, where they dove for pearl shells in deep water, often without breathing apparatus. Unsurprisingly, many of the women drowned.

On our way back to our B&B, we passed Bedford Park, which made me think of my Mum, who was born and grew up in Bedford, England, before emigrating to Canada as a War Bride in 1946,

Next post: Learning the ins and outs of the pearling industry, before walking to and through the city's distinct cemeteries.

Posted on September 5th. 2026, from our home in the western suburbs of Denver. Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.