Cable Beach WA

Cable Beach and a selection of my photos.

The Indian Ocean

Cable Beach, Broome. Western Australia

Cable Beach in Broome.

There are no high-rise buildings at Cable Beach or in Broome.

Cable Beach is a 22 kilometres (14 mi) stretch of beach near Broome, Western Australia. Cable Beach was named after the telegraph cable laid between Broome and Java in 1889.
Last year, on or about 25 Feb. 2014, a 12-foot (approx. 4 metre) long saltwater crocodile caused a brief but excited shutdown of this beach to all public swimming.

Broome is an isolated town, many people drive onto the beach taking a bottle of wine, food, table and chairs and have their evening meal on the beach in the northern part of the beach.
There are cricket games, footballs teams, all kinds of activities some late afternoons where by people entertain themselves.

There are so many people that come each evening to see the sunset.

The first two photos is where people who don't have a vehicle come to lay on the beach.

There is a large carpark plus restaurants, the surf club, lots of green grass with manicured lawn along a small area before heading down the steps to the beach.

This is the northern area where you can get on a camel and off you go at sunset.  I did hear that the camels do go other times in the day as well.

Me cooling off.  Yes, I have my handbag with me, well can't leave it ashore.

The above photo gives you the idea of an afternoon on the sand.

Sunset at Cable Beach, Broome WA

It's difficult to choose the photos to show of the lovely sunsets at Broome.  If there is cloud, the sunset is more dramatic.  We went several times driving onto the beach and along the beach at Broome in WA.

Several times we went down to the beach Cable Beach to take sunset photos.

The photos are taken from the beginning of the sunset to the end looking at the Indian Ocean.

Camels of Broome

There is just something special at Cable Beach when the camels arrive to take people on a ride along the beach at sunset.  The ride goes for half an hour and more women seem to do it than men. 

Camels of course are not native to Australia but suited to out back Australia.

*The very first camel to ever set foot on the red Australian soil arrived in 1840 and came from the Canary Islands. (This was a somewhat unlucky camel, as it accidentally caused its owners death and was subsequently shot...) But this first camel was soon followed by others. 24 more camels arrived in Australia in 1860 to be part of the Bourke and Wills expedition. And in the next fifty years an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 camels made their way to Australia!

The camels came to Australia mostly from India and Palestine, and nearly all of them were dromedaries (the one humped variety Camelus dromedarius). Apparently there were only about 20 two humped camels (bactrian camels of the species Camelus bactrianus) imported during that time.
On top of that Australians also started breeding their own camels.

The first of several Australian camel studs was established in 1866 in South Australia, and the studs went on to operate for fifty more years. (Interestingly the working camels bred in Australia turned out to be of much higher quality than the imported camels...) It was the camels, and the camel drivers or cameleers, that opened up the Australian Outback.
The camel drivers came mostly from Afghanistan, but also from Pakistan and the Turkish Empire.
*Taken from Outback Travel Secrets..

Cable Beach, Broome

We arrived in Broome last Friday our 3rd visit.

Broome is on the Western Coast of Western Australia (WA). It's a pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, 2,240 in north of Perth.  The permanent population is estimated at 14,436, growing to over 45,000 per month during the tourist season which is Winter.

I took these sunset shots Thursday evening, tonight was a grand sunset much nicer that these.
Many people come to see the sunset at Broome. They bring their wine or beer, a chair to sit on and a few bring there cameras, but heaps bring their Tablets and use those for photos.  There are Camel rides to be had with 3 sets of Camels as in Companies. Many people drive onto the beach going up the nudist end and park to watch as we do. That's what you do in Broome in Winter when 30 degC or more.

Broome is an isolated place, there is no getting in the vehicle and driving to the next town. The next town is 600 km away down south.

Australian Camels.

Australia is set to begin exporting thousands of live camels to the Middle East after one of Saudi Arabia's richest men invested tens of millions of dollars in a ship designed to open up the trade.

The ship, on its way to Fremantle in Western Australia after being launched in Singapore this week, features super-sized doorways and two decks designed for adult camels.

The businessman made the investment after picking up on international coverage of Australia shooting thousands of feral camels causing environmental damage in the outback.

A local exporter said the camels could be exported from Broome, Fremantle and Adelaide as soon as they became available in sufficient numbers.

The Federal Government culled about 160,000 camels over four years as part of a $19 million program that ended last year.

The feral camel population was estimated at one million at the start of the cull, about 40 per cent of them on Aboriginal-controlled land.

International Livestock Export director Graham Daws said the trade in camels had been held back by the lack of a purpose-built vessel. "It is very exciting, especially for indigenous people," he said. "There is a whole new business there."

The man behind the venture, Hamood al Khalaf, has imported more than $1 billion worth of livestock over a long career.

He has spent $100 million converting the Awassi Express for sheep, cattle and camel exports and on associated infrastructure in Australia and Saudi Arabia.

Mr Khalaf will charter the vessel for sheep, cattle and camel shipments to the Middle East, pending a breakthrough agreement between Saudi Arabia and Australian to reopen live exports.

Taken from the newspaper in Western Australia. Written by Brad Thompson 

Camels on Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia.

These camels are used to take people on a ride along Cable Beach at Sunset, it's where I took these photos a few years ago.

Waiting for a ride.