I think it is fair comment to say that apart from its utterly spectacular tides, the town of Derby itself is relatively unremarkable. Like many small country towns in outback WA it sprawls over a considerable area. In this mere potpourri of Derby sights I have not ventured into the outlying industrial areas which surround the main part of the township.
Let me begin with one last look at the jetty precinct where a quaint little cafe overlooks the mangroves and waters of the high tide. This is the home of very good local fish and chips and other goodies. We did not indulge, but if the constant stream of customers, many of whom were obviously locals, was anything to go by, its reputation is deserved.
As I have mentioned previously, Derby is built on a strip of high ground which spears its way north-west into the surrounding tidal flats.
No where is this more evident than on the drive back to the town from the wharf, where to both the left
and right of the bitumen strip on which we were travelling, the flats extended off in the distance.
These are rarely inundated, but the water does creep in along the edges on the high tide as can be seen in this close up taken off the left of the roadway.
Jetty Road, as we have seen before, joins the northern end of Loch Street, Derby's main thoroughfare, a street in which a line of boab trees rises out of a central, grassy median strip. I was beginning to become really taken by the boab, this symbol of the Kimberly....the varying shapes and sizes of these odd trees is fascinating as I hope to demonstrate later.
At this end of Loch Street one of the town's original buildings houses the Derby museum which I only saw from the outside....our time here was limited.
Derby actually comes to a point at this end of town which becomes obvious when looking left or right from this intersection....it is but one block to the tidal flats on either side of the main street (and there's another fat boab tree!)
This end of town houses the local administration buildings,
and the tourist information centre.
Just around the corner is a critical part of the Derby infrastructure.....the town swimming pool
where I could but look on with considerable envy....my foot had not yet healed sufficiently to allow me to get it wet.
Opposite the pool is one of Derby's more modern buildings, the rather imaginatively designed Spinifex Motel, with its grey cladding and oddly shaped towers....a definite standout in the otherwise modest architecture of the town.
The relatively small main Derby shopping precinct lies one street back from Loch Street. The retail buildings of Derby are scattered in group throughout the town. This is one of three of them.
Beyond the large IGA the very colourful facade of the Derby Shire offices demands the attention of those passing by.
It was in this area I noted a couple of things which spoke to the local social situation in Derby. Parked in front of the Shire offices was this small vehicle, unremarkable but for one thing. The sign on the door identified this as the local truancy patrol vehicle. I had seen it doing the rounds previously in my wanderings. Obviously Derby has the problem of many of the outback towns of this country.....getting indigenous kids to go to, and stay at, school.
I found further evidence of this in the notices very prominently displayed on the entrance door to the IGA store, where apart from the more than reasonable request that patrons are actually dressed before entering (another social comment?)
it is made very clear that unaccompanied school children who do not have a special pass will not be served during school hours. I suppose this does make a change from the notices which adorn many of the shop fronts in the more popular tourist towns up the coast which rail against theft (foreign backpackers are not a common sight in Derby!!).
Any stroll around the streets of Derby leaves little doubt that this is indeed a town heavily populated by our indigenous cousins, but I have to report that in several close encounters I was not humbugged nor bothered in any way, unlike our later experiences in Kununurra.
Mind you, for the uninitiated or those of limited self confidence, the sight of the entire front of the IGA store graced with at least twenty dusky locals sprawled across the footpath could be seen as somewhat intimidating. (common courtesy precluded a photo, or was that merely self-preservation?...the former, dear reader, the former!)
All the tourist blurb chirps on about the range of Derby's shopping facilities, and more importantly, the reasonable prices on offer. At the other end of the town the IGA now has competition in the form a relatively new Woolies where Liz did restock without complaint about the docket.
At this end of the town we also find another of Derby's tourist accommodation complexes, the King Sound Resort (?) Hotel. The drab and dry front surrounds are testament to both the location and the lack of recent rain.
A little further along Loch Street, the sprawling buildings of the Boab Inn lie behind much more inviting trees and gardens. I was keen to investigate the interior of this establishment, but the constrains of time and The Treasurer's firm hold on the purse strings put paid to that temporary flight of fancy.
The design of the nearby Derby Police Station demonstrates that this is one of Derby's more recent constructions
in a town where the normal suburban streets are wide, dusty and dry.
Liz in particular was keen to check out the local hospital. As I have mentioned before, an earlier offer of nursing employment nearly saw us here in Derby for three months, and whilst the hospital building itself is one of Derby's more impressive, the thought of having been posted here for three months (now we had seen the town) did not smother us with regret in that it had not come to pass.
I must, in all fairness, qualify that comment. Although Derby is small, is understandably dessicated and is home to sand flies which could be ferocious (despite all my precautions I left the Kimberly Entrance caravan park with some nasty reminders of their activity.....not surprising really...they are always far more active during the period of a full moon) there is more to the town than initially meets the eye.
Sporting activities of all kinds are catered for. Apart from the town pool, there is a large and very well maintained footy oval on Loch Street,
and out in the industrial area we found a fine grassed golf course with its associated country club buildings, a bowls rink, a rodeo ground and race track and, of course, there is always recreational fishing and crabbing on offer from the jetty precinct (during the lulls in the tide!)
But we were definitely here as short term tourists, so a visit to what is probably Derby's greatest attraction other than the tidal flows, was a must before we left.
On the outskirts of town is the Kimberley's most well known boab tree, the infamous 'Prison Tree'. With its enormous girth of 14.7 metres, this extraordinary tree, which is estimated to be upwards of 1,500 years old, represents one of the most sad and shameful periods in Australia's colonial history.
In the late 1800's white slavers, know colloquially as 'Backbirders', were engaged in capturing aboriginal men from the West Kimberly to be used to work the pearl shell boats and for other manual labour. Many of the early pastoralists assisted in this grim task in the misguided belief that by removing the younger blacks from their holdings the older men left behind would remain passive and malleable.
Groups of these unfortunates, chained together, would be marched long daily distances from as far away as Fitzroy Crossing. On reaching the Derby area, many were held inside the massive trunk of this boab tree before being taken into Derby and loaded onto waiting boats.
In this same area are two other reminders of a more recent past. Could this be the first Australian lap pool? Not quite. It is, in fact, a supersized watering trough (circa 1910), fed by the nearby Mayall's bore and long enough to allow 500 bullocks to quench their thirst in one sitting (or should that be 'standing'?) Just imagine the fertiliser available for local gardens at the end of one of these sessions!
Not too far away, in the same dry, red earth paddock, is another cement sided water receptacle. This one had an entirely different purpose, one that says much about the spirit and resourcefulness of the Aussie Digger.
During the latter stages of WW2, many Allied troops were stationed near Derby. As you can imagine (and we were experiencing) this is far from the coolest place in the country. The troops were sweltering with no respite. Enter the enterprising chaps from 3 Platoon, 125 General Transport Company, and, in particular, one Cpl Charles Frost. "A bit hot, sir? No worries...leave that to us." A few diverted bags of cement, a group of troops to dig the hole and set up the formwork, and bingo, the local bathing pool was the result. 'Frostys Pool' was named appropriately after its instigator and was, understandably, a very popular spot.
And that brings our Derby adventure to a close. It had been a busy two days. Apart from the sightseeing, we took the opportunity to completely re-stock the larder and the cellar and to prepare a number of meals for the freezer.....we were about to venture out into one of the more remote parts of the country.
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