The First-Hand Western Australian Experience

Inward from the coast of Western Australia is a land virtually undamaged by modernity. The one and only hotel of Derby, Western Australia Service can be found from no one, neither in the dining room nor in the office.

Your consolation is the sound of sweet opera floating toward you. You poke your head into the bar and a couple of characters are chatting over a glass of light, cool beer. Then you are distracted by the sound of a game of pool and look over to find a one-man game being played by a tall jackaroo with side burns, bush hat, tight jeans, and high heeled stock boots.

The metropolis of Derby services the airport, and its one block square, with few houses, fewer single-story offices, and school, line the road to the airport. Derby, with its small population of 1,000, is nearest to Indonesia, with 96 million 900 miles away, and Perth, 1,350 miles away.

Despite appearances, Derby inhabitants are not stereotypical, subtropical, small town types. That is, with the exception of the man at the bar named Lucky, the pot-bellied Scandinavian known for playing two up games, betting five-pound minimums, which were a lot at the time, in the gold town of Kalgoorlie.

The pilot who brought you to Cockatoo and Koolan Island, where iron ore is excavated by the ton, used to fly for an English airline. Here he can salt away more in a month than he could in a year at home. In addition, he is basically untouched by the heat, as his home is air-conditioned. But it is the rugged Kimberleys, the sub-tropical mountain cattle country that you have come to see.

Tales grow long and exaggerated in Perth bars, making the mountains even taller, the valleys steeper, the bush more impenetrable, and the men more imperturbable. Lucky for you, a reliable cattle rancher makes himself available that evening. Steak, eggs, and coffee are served before 6AM, leaving you time to digest before going to the Kimberley Downs.

Tarmac makes way for a bumpy ride over a dirt road. You can only see fat bob trees and bush, blurred by a thick cloud of red dust. The landmark gate is found an hour and a half into the trip, where four black cowboys ride up to meet the tourists. They are aborigine stockmen.

Then you're over a rise and Kimberley Downs is spread below. It consists of the main homestead, stockyards, and horse corrals, all protected by two flat hills. A large fissure in the middle of the hills allows one's eyes to follow a tree-spotted, grassy plain to the Blue Mountains yonder. Adjoining the Kimberleys are the Napier Downs, and together they are run and equal two million acres.

Inhabitants include a dozen white people, 150 aborigines, and animals, specifically about 700 horses and 40,000 cattle. It is a majestic estate with brown gardens from the December weather. The arid weather is due to the fact that no rain has fallen for six months, and dust storms are easily kicked up.

By : Tiphani_Lani