ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON DAY 23: BROOME TO HORIZONTAL FALLS, DERBY, THE KIMBERLEY

The Kimberley was one of the earliest settled parts of Australia, with the first humans living here about 65,000 years ago, when northern Australia was connected by land to Papua New Guinea. They created a complex culture that developed over tens of thousands of years. Yam agriculture was developed, and this was where some of the earliest boomerangs were invented. The worship of Wandjina deities was most common in this region, still visible in rock art, and the transmigration of souls was part of the local people's philosophy.

King Sound is a large gulf in the Kimberley from the mouth of the Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest rivers, and opens to the Indian Ocean. King Sound is about 120 kilometres long, and averages 50 kilometres in width.

The port town of Derby lies near the mouth of the Fitzroy River on the eastern shore of King Sound. King Sound has the highest tides in Australia, and amongst the highest in the world, reaching a maximum tidal range of 11.8 metres at Derby. 

The Kimberley is vast. There’s way too much to see and do, but one compulsory experience is Horizontal Falls, which you can travel to by seaplane taking off from Derby Airport and landing on the lakes near Horizontal Falls. The Falls are horizontal because the tides are so great, and the volumes of water are massive. The lakes are full of sharks, so don’t fall in, but the barramundi is the best in the world – great on the BBQ.

King Sound is bordered by the island clusters of the Buccaneer Archipelago to the East and Cape Leveque to the West.  The traditional owners and inhabitants of the area are Indigenous Australians who have lived here for about 65,000 years, the Nimanburu, Njulnjul, and Warwa peoples.

During the last ice age (30,000 to 18,000 years ago), the coast was hundreds of kilometers out in the Indian Ocean from the present west Kimberley coast, and the Gulf of Carpentaria was a tropical freshwater Lake Carpentaria. You could walk from here directly to Papua.The offshore islands contain archaeological material and many rockshelter sites, like High Cliffy Shelter, tens of thousands of years old. Many of the rockshelters are on present-day islands which were connected by land to the mainland during the last two ice ages.  

The two Widgingarri shelters are more easily accessible and on the mainland. Two of the sites, Koolan Shelter 2 and Widgingarri Shelter 1, have sequences dating from before the start of the last ice age 30,000 years ago.

The first European to explore King Sound was William Dampier who visited the region aboard Cygnet in 1688, about 65,000 years after the First Australians started living here.

↑ Day 22 ↓ Day 24