The Kimberley - Australia's Last Outback Frontier738704224136
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Handful of regions of the world can offer an authentic outback encounter like Western Australia's Kimberley. The Kimberley has it all ... vast, remote and unspoilt natural landscapes, spectacular coastlines, residing indigenous Aboriginal cultures, and correct outback towns with rich and colourful histories.
The Kimberley area is positioned in northern Western Australia, and stretches from Broome in the west to Kununurra in the east. To the west it is bordered by the Indian Ocean, to the north by the Timor Sea, to the east by the Northern Territory, and to the south by the Fantastic Sandy Desert. The Kimberley covers a enormous location of more than 420,000 square kilometres, creating it more substantial than Japan, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the Australian state of Victoria.
The Kimberley is a remote outback region with a total population of about 25,000 inhabitants. It has only three towns with a population better than two,000: Broome, Derby and Kununurra. European settlement in the Kimberley is rather latest, and dates from around 1885 when the MacDonalds and the Duracks arrived to establish cattle stations there. When gold was discovered at Halls Creek, numerous other Europeans soon arrived. The gold rush was short lived, but some miners stayed on to establish the town of Halls Creek.
The Kimberley nowadays is diverse, from the laid back cosmopolitan ambience of Broome, to the living indigenous culture of the Dampier Archipelago and the outback adventure of Kununurra. Apart from mining, other critical industries in the Kimberley have integrated broome resorts pearling (specifically in Broome until the 1940s), mining (the Argyle Diamond mine nowadays generates 1/three of the world's diamonds), agriculture (in the Ord River Irrigation Region near Lake Argyle) and of program tourism.
Broome is positioned on the shores of Roebuck Bay, and is the southern gateway to the Kimberley's magnificent wilderness regions. Established in the 1890s, this former pearling port is these days a unique, exotic, and colourful seaside town with a romantic and flamboyant background. The town's multicultural heritage includes indigenous Aborigines, Europeans, Malays, Chinese and Japanese, and the subsequent cultural fusion has resulted in the town's unique cuisine and colourful characters.
The Rowleys Shoals lie some 300 kilometres off the Broome coast, and represent Australia's finest examples of shelf edge coral atolls. The shoals are house to a rich and diverse array of coral reef flora and fauna, and the area is a premier diving and nature based tourism destination which also provides world class sports fishing.
The Dampier Peninsula north of Broome is characterised by clean, sandy white beaches, the clear blue waters of the Indian Ocean, and mangrove lined creeks. Right here it is possible to expertise unspoilt all-natural beauty and to share the life style of the Indigenous saltwater men and women who have lived right here for numerous thousands of years.
Derby is the Kimberley's oldest town. It is an superb base from which to discover the 1000 islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago. Derby is also the gateway to correct outback adventure along the Gibb River Road, and the ancient rock forms of Windjana Gorge National Park and Tunnel Creek are within an effortless day's drive.
Kununurra is the eastern gateway to the Kimberley and usually the first quit for tourists arriving from the Northern Territory. It provides some of the finest adventure activities in the Kimberley, and is the best base to explore the rugged Purnululu National Park (Bungle Bungles), the Mitchell Plateau, the Argyle Diamond Mine and the Ord River.
Halls Creek is a service centre for the pastoral and mining industries and Aboriginal communities, and provides base from which to discover the surrounding Purnululu National Park (Bungle Bungles) and the Wolfe Creek Crater National Parks.
Wyndham is a small and comparatively unknown town which typifies the Kimberley character and spirit. Situated on the tidal waters of the Cambridge Gulf, exactly where the confluence of the King, Pentecost, Durack, Forrest and Ord Rivers meet, Wyndham is the northernmost town in Western Australia.
The Gibb River Road spans 660 kilometres of the most remote and spectacular landscapes in Australia. Travelling its length in between Derby and Kununurra is a single of the last really outback experiences. Luxury 4WD tours now supply simple access to this remote area, which is house to wildlife sanctuaries, ancient landforms, deep gorges and fresh water holes.
Set high on the banks of the mighty Fitzroy River, Fitzroy Crossing is a quintessential outback Australian town. It provides an excellent base from which to discover the magnificent Geikie Gorge National Park.
