11 Jan 08 Broome. Saturday night.....der de der de der Saturday night........... (are you singing yet)..... and we're off to the the Sun Pictures "The World's Oldest Operating Picture Gardens" in old Chinatown at Broome. We went to see Death at a Funeral and laughed out loud all night long, it was great. The best part was watching the sunset colours in the dusk sky behind the screen, and to boot, the silvery slither of a moon sank slowly into the west as we watched the movie, oh how beautiful that was. Bats flew in front of the screen and the frangipanni perfumed the whisp of a breeze wafting past us. The movie can often be interrupted by the thunder of a Qantas 747 directly overhead out of the Broome International Airport, and the old canvas deck chairs are far from comfortable but who cares. Our new friends Tracey and John (ex PD folk) live here and tell me the lightening flashing in the background during the movies is a stunning sight. The little little lady Margo found is Maggie, she was born in Broome, is part Chinese, part Asian, and used to sneak into the pictures under the door when she was very young and through the legs of the white people to watch the movies. Originally there were two entrances into the outdoor theatre, one door for the Indigenous people, the other door for everyone else. Nowadays of course we all come in through the same door. You can see the same projection room as has been used since The Sun Pictures was built in 1816. The Sun Pictures is probably the only cinema subject to tidal flooding, they say on a high tide when the water is under the screen, the flickering lights of the movie upsets the fish and they splash around jumping and flicking the water around.
12 Jan 08 Broome. The stunning Cable Beach - 22 km long and named such because of the cable that ran to Java - with pristine white sands and clear warm azure waters, and, surf! David, Tilda and I had the best time, we drove along the beach for miles to get to our own part of the beach and frollicked and played. What a beautiful place, no wonder it is world famous.
