5/7/26: Broome's Dinosaur Footprints & Other Special Places!

 

After the long day exploring the standout Bungle Bungles, mostly on a small Cessna plane the day before, I could understand why Steven decided to sleep in and skip getting up bright and early again for the private Broome Dinosaur Experience!

My guide, amateur paleontologist Dianne Bennett, explained that Broome's dinosaur footprints were only visible early in the day, before the tides rolled in. She joked that "If you live in Broome, you have to be a morning person." I guess that rules out our ever relocating to Broome, as Steven is definitely not an early bird!

I loved the views of stunning Gantheaume Point and Cable Beach just after daybreak. The former was named after Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume, a French naval officer.

Just ten minutes outside Broome, the early-morning views were spectacular, with the red cliffs and rocks turning crimson and glowing as if on fire.

Dianne said that I'd see one of the world's most varied collections of dinosaur footprints on one of Broome's gorgeous beaches. However, there was no signage or publicity for one of the city's major attractions, as there were concerns it might be vandalized.

Dianne said it was a culturally sensitive area, as it was a spiritual place for the local Yawuru people.

She cautioned me to stay away from the rock edges, as the sandstone was very thin.

Gantheaume Point Lighthouse was first built in 1905 but was decommissioned in 1922. Another new tower was built in 1984.

Even before I learned about the vast evidence of dinosaurs living on this tiny speck of land in far northwest Western Australia, I was curious to explore another facet of what made Broome so special.

Broome Sandstone, consisting of eight layers, is a major geological formation in the onshore Canning Basin in northwestern Western Australia and dates to the Early Cretaceous era, when it was deposited in shallow-marine, coastal, and lagoon environments as the sea regressed. The period occurred between 125 and 140 million years ago. 

Dianne said there are 600 species of Sauropod dinosaurs, a type of lizard with long necks, tails, and smaller front feet.

Dianne then talked about some other dinosaurs. By comparison to the sauropods, the Diplodocus, found in Patagonia, was far larger, weighing between 70 and 80 tons, the size of 15 African elephants! Their front feet were very close together. The familiar Tyrannosaurus rex, found only from Mexico to Canada, had the biggest jawbone force, and, because most had some sort of feathers, they are actually considered a type of bird, something I hadn't known before!

Ornithopods walked on two legs and had "weird humpy shapes," according to Dianne. They had small beaky mouths and walked for two or three steps before standing up. Little ones hung around in groups.

 
Only 700 examples of Theropods, the smallest dinosaurs that ate meat, have been found in the world.

Crabs made these minute ball groupings all over the beach!

Most Stegosaurus dinosaurs, which developed spikes all over their bodies, died out in the Jurassic Period. 

Amazingly, Dianne said the markings in the sandstone were only recognized as dinosaur tracks in the 1960s, which was very late by paleontological standards. Researchers had since identified 21 dinosaur species in a 71km area around Broome, and she alone recorded 4,500 tracks there. Before booking the tour, I knew she was a member of the Dinosaur Coast Management Group and worked closely with paleontologists from The University of Queensland. 

After wandering along the beach for a while, it was really exciting to finally see my first dinosaur footprint. This was a sauropod track. Broome had the greatest variety of dinosaur track species of any place in the world - who knew! Thank goodness, I decided to see them with Dianne.

Dianne mimicked the sauropods' shuffling moves that, she said, were evident in the compressed sediment. 

Her stick pointed to a cross section of a sauropod footprint.

I think I understood her to say that the small footprint on top was from a sauropod's right foot, and the larger one was from its left.

Dianne showed me many more prints, but she was going at such a rapid-fire pace that I couldn't write down the information and take pictures fast enough to keep up. 

I think this was a kidney-shaped front left footprint.

The tracks were relatively close together, so Dianne and I could see the path the dinosaurs took all those millions of years ago! In addition, she said she could estimate this particular dinosaur's height up to its hips at least because of the foot-length ratio. Since the latter was 73cm long, it would have been 2.8 m tall at the hip. If that wasn't amazing enough, she could tell it was going 4 km/h.

The back foot measured 83 cm long.

Its toe prints:

As I gazed over the rocks, I appreciated the breadth of the dinosaur field more.

Dianne pointed to the bigger soldier crabs that had made large balls.

We walked a little farther to search for theropod tracks.

The three-toed animals were one meter tall and had the deepest middle and side toes, based on the impressions they had made in the sandstone.

It looked almost like a maple leaf, so it was easy to tell this was another theropod toe track.

Nearby were many more sauropod tracks.

Here were some examples of their front and rear tracks.

And more theropod tracks, one of which measured 32 cm long.

Dianne knew from her extensive research in this area that there were 60 tracks in total, with 10 different types of young animals just in this very confined area. She posed the question of what they might have been doing right here - was it social and just hanging out, or were they possibly hunting? She thought it might have been the latter, because it would have been easier to hunt in groups when younger animals were present.

Nearby was an older theropod with the best-preserved tracks, which were 1.6 m long.

It was even easy for me to pick out a theropod track after I'd seen so many that morning!

I thought Dianne said this feathery animal was a Morelladon dinosaur, named after Morella, the area in Spain where it was first discovered. According to AI, it lived during the Early Cretaceous period. But that time frame didn't match what I understood Dianne to say: that the dinosaur was known to Australia's Aboriginal people and taught people how to live together. 

In this one rock, four different tracks went in different directions!

I bet you can also identify this next track as a theropod!

Even though sand had almost completely covered the track, Dianne knew from the ridge this was another sauropod track.

With a final look back at what I'd been lucky enough to see under Dianne's helpful tutelage, I was almost ashamed I'd never seen the hundreds of dinosaur footprints and fossils at Dinosaur Ridge, not a half-hour's drive from our home. Crazy, isn't it, that I was hellbent on seeing these umpteen thousands of miles away, and also some in Peru years ago, and not those almost literally in our own backyard?

A disheartening perspective: As we drove back to Broome, conversation switched tracks (!) from dinosaurs to her interactions with Aboriginal people in Broome. Her perspective was that "housing is a problem because Aboriginal people ruin the homes." She stated that her home was broken into twice by primary school-aged Aboriginal kids, and that there were no consequences from the courts or recourse with the families. 

Dianne believed the root of the problem was a lack of rules in the family unit. She said that Aboriginal people had "little regard for White man's environment in terms of discarding trash onto the streets and the beach. They are only concerned with their own (sense of) Country, and not White man's land." She continued by saying that "there were a few Aborigines in positions of power in state offices that she respected."

Steven and I hadn't seen any dingoes during the brief time we were in Broome, but Dianne said they were quite common. She and I passed two wallabies, but I wasn't quick enough to get my camera out.

Since Steven and I had an extra "free day" after our overnight portion of our Bungle Bungles tour had been canceled, we rented a car on the spur of the moment to visit the Broome Bird Observatory, located about 25 km away by Roebuck Bay. I'd wanted to explore more of Dampier Peninsula, which we'd seen from the air on the way back from the Kimberley, especially Beagle Bay Church. Steven smartly said it made no sense to drive two hours on an almost deserted road just to see an exquisite mother-of-pearl altar, especially with no guarantee the church would be open.

Instead, we drove along another deserted road, a very challenging dirt track, for the final stretch to the observatory! We had to rent a larger Toyota RAV4 instead of a Corolla to navigate the deep sand on the unsealed roads. Even so, Steven had to drive hell for leather so we wouldn't get stuck!

Large portions of Roebuck Bay were formally listed in 1990 as a Wetland of International Significance because of its massive diversity and its regular support for more than 20,000 shorebirds. Twenty-three species of waterbirds, including one percent of the global population, were represented here. 

In addition, the bush and the region's grassy plains provided diverse habitats for more than 300 recorded bird species, about 40% of Australia's total bird list. Scientists studying life on the mudflats have also found greater diversity and abundance than on any other tropical mudflat in the world! We were happy to know that May was considered the best month to visit the observatory.

A sign welcomed us to Yawuru Country and hoped that we'd enjoy looking at all the birds that live here and those visiting from the Northern Hemisphere.

Somebody with far too much time on their hands had penned a hilarious note in the bathroom about people stealing the toilet paper: The Lament of the Loo Roll Bandits. I highly recommend you click on the poem to enlarge it for your laugh of the day!

The appropriately-named Shade House was the bird blind cum picnic area. It was supplied with an assortment of complementary teas, snacks, and sunscreen for the die-hard birders.

Of the several trails in the sanctuary, we randomly chose to take the Pindan Trail.

We skirted the ant trails.

We heard a few birds in the forest, but didn't see any. Evidently, we're not birders!

It seemed odd that the much-ballyhooed observatory had created a trail that crisscrossed the main road several times.

This was the only flower we spotted on the trail.

The trail had been less than exciting, but we had OMG views of the bay from the viewing platform later.

A couple of days ago, we caught a glimpse of the bay in Broome near the Pearl Luggers Tour, but here was a stretch of the bay that swept east, with a shoreline very few people see. 

Nope, I didn't crop anyone out; the beach was really totally deserted!

There were lots of shells on the dark red sandy beach. I wonder what critters might have inhabited them, Maggie.

Rather sadly, this was the only bird we saw. I think it was a Great Blue Heron, but don't hold me to it, since I know next to nothing about birds. 

We didn't realize until later that we could have borrowed some mud boots to explore the mangrove ecosystem in Little Crab Creek.

Our footprints in the deep sand!

In 2008, a team from the Alaska Science Center of the US Geological Survey tracked a satellite-tagged Bar-tailed Godwit from Broome and revealed that it flew nonstop to the Yellow Sea north of Taiwan from April 15-19. That first leg took 94 hours and covered 5,870 km. 

After refueling in the Yellow Sea, it left on May 26 for another nonstop flight to its breeding grounds in Siberia, landing on May 28 after 4,800 km. After a stint in the New Siberian Islands' post-breeding grounds, it traveled 3,580 km, a 105-hour nonstop journey to the Yellow Sea, another 4,200 km, an 82-hour-long nonstop journey to Flores, Indonesia, before the final 1,500km, a 26-hour nonstop journey back to Broome. The round-trip journey was a staggering 21,870 km!

I didn't realize until we were all the way back in Broome that I had left my purse somewhere at the observatory. Thank goodness, Steven didn't blow a gasket, as it was no picnic for him having to retrace our ride along the final part of the rutted road. Wouldn't you know it, that was our first time renting a car with only 100 free km, and I'd caused us to waste half of that on a return trip. 

I was extremely lucky that after a few frantic searches of places we'd stopped at the sanctuary, my purse was sitting undisturbed on a table in the Shade House! The fully-equipped kitchen and blind were empty except for a couple visiting from Brisbane, 4,200 km away on the Gold Coast, who had seen many types of finches the day before.

We then hightailed it to Cable Beach as we'd already lost some valuable beach time at "Western Australia's most famous sands."

I couldn't blame Steven for wanting to just soak up the rays, but I went for a long walk along the gorgeous beach. 

Finally, a shorebird that had been missing from us earlier!

I read that if you ask most Australians what they think of when they imagine Broome, odds are it'll have something to do with riding camels on Cable Beach at sunset! Sure enough, I was there to see the animals we'd ridden in Mongolia on our first overseas trip in 2013 and plan to ride again in the Sahara Desert in southern Morocco in early November!

How I wished Steven were here to see the animals again!

A competing company's camel ride:

Fortunately, I woke Steven up in time for him to see the camels being walked down the beach, too!

A little later, we stopped at the relaxing and very photogenic Buddha Sanctuary. 

Then, we made a quick stop at the Broome Chinese Cemetery, since we'd had our fill of ethnic cemeteries a couple of days ago.

Our final stop of the day was back (for me at least) at another section of Cable Beach and then a drive to Gantheaume Point for what was supposed to be an even more magical sunset.

Clambering over the rocks was challenging, and likely not recommended for Steven, who was facing another back surgery in two months. But it was so much fun to look at the many-colored and precariously perched rocks framed by the turquoise waters.

A close-up of the lighthouse, which only I had viewed from afar that morning with Dianne: 

The sunset over the beach was almost as perfect as the one from the plane just 24 hours earlier!

Next post: Rubibi Broome Aboriginal Cultural Tour & a visit to the Broome Museum

Posted on September 17th, 2026, from Bilbao in the Spanish Basque Country, where we arrived earlier today to begin another long adventure. Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.