DERBY

5^th August, 2012

It’s only a morning’s drive to Derby from Broome and we make good time.  We are seeing more and more boab trees as we drive along and we are beginning to quite like these oddly shaped trees that don’t seem to fit into the landscape at all.

Boab Tree near Derby

Just to the south of Derby we stop to look at the Boab Prison Tree.

Boab Prison Tree near Derby

Back in 1893 the tree was used as a temporary prison for aboriginals that had been caught after trying to escape the station owners who were using them as forced labour.

Wok at the entrance to the Boab Prison Tree

The tree definitely would have made a good prison as it is quite hollow inside and would have accommodated quite a few prisoners.  One person on guard at the entrance would have been enough to stop anyone from attempting to escape.  While we were having a look around the tree a buzzing sound caught our attention and we found some industrious bees had made a home in the trunk of the boab.

Can you see the beehive in the side of the tree?

Here's a close-up of some very busy bees at work

They had quite a nest underway and as they weren’t native bees we gave them a wide berth.  Not far from the Prison Tree was a long concrete trough built in the early 1900’s to water cattle from the nearby bore.

A really long trough!

At 120 metres long this trough could water 500 cattle at a time.  We arrived at Derby in time for lunch and after checking out the information centre drove through the boab lined streets, across the mudflats to the wharf area.  Derby has some of the highest tides in the southern hemisphere at approximately 12 metres and it looks like we have timed our visit at low tide.

Derby Jetty

The first clue was the height of the jetty above the water

That's an awfully long way to the water for these people fishing from the jetty

and the miles of mud flats that stretched out across the estuary.

Wok checks out the mudflats

We made up a nice salad lunch and sat back and watched the water rise as we ate.  We couldn’t believe how fast the tide was coming in.  We spent about an hour in the wharf car park and by the time we left the water was already way up the muddy banks

The tide is coming in at a fast rate

and climbing quickly up the jetty pylons.

The jetty is getting closer to the water ...

Derby is on a point of land encircled by mudflats and mangroves.  The mighty Fitzroy River empties into King Sound here but its entrance is cunningly disguised with sandbars, mudflats and mangroves.  And snuggled away in all those mangroves are saltwater crocs - definitely not the place to take a dip.  It’s said that late at night the boab trees uproot themselves and with flailing limbs beat back the army of saltwater crocs emerging from the mudflats intent on invading the town.  It’s a good story isn’t it – but we aren’t hanging around to find out.  We have things to see and places to go.  But just so you don’t forget what a boab tree looks like – here’s another one to jog your memory! 

Two for the price of one ....