Broome

Coastal town in northern Western Australia, 2,237 km/1,390 mi north of Perth; population (1996) 11,400. Current industries include tourism, pearling, fishing, and beef cattle. Since the 1980s tourism has been the mainstay of the town. The annual Shinju Matsuri (‘Festival of the Pearl’) and the Broome Crocodile Park, which houses over 500 reptiles, are major attractions.

The town was named after Frederick Napier Broome, governor of Western Australia, 1883-1889. The district around Broome was explored in 1818, although a town did not emerge until the discovery of pearls in the 1860s. The town was proclaimed in 1883 and became home to more than 400 pearling luggers, together with around 1,700 Japanese and Malays working in the pearling industry. The pearl beds had declined by the 1920s. In 1942 Japanese air raids on Broome killed 70 people. The pearl industry was revived in the 1950s with the establishment of pearl culturing farms. The construction of a deep-water jetty in 1966 contributed to growing beef exports from the town.