Tuesday, August 24, 2010


I took this one of Paul and myself. It wasn't difficult as there isnt much spare room in the Jabiru. Coming back to Derby was very turbulent, so Paul flew to 5 1/2 thousand feet to make the trip a bit more comfortable. That did the trick - glad to be back on the ground though!

One of the beautiful sights as I fly over this area. This is a pearling farm, with its nets and cleaning boats in the water.

This photo of me with the plane was taken by an 80 year old fellow called Brian Carter, who has lived a One Arm Point for 38 years. He lived in a shack on the beach before they started to construct houses here. He, and his wife Violet and his 6 kids used to run a little "school" until an official one was built.

I do the coastal run to One Arm Point with Paul. This is the aerial shot of us coming into the One Arm Point community (consisting of around 500 locals). They have an amazing spot here - its 2 1/2 hours drive on a corrugated road to Broome. Lots of pearling farms around this area and we can see all the pearling nets as we fly over here.

This is Paul White, Kingdom Aviation pilot, and Derby Baptist Church pastor, with his 2 seater Jabiru plane. Today we head to One Arm Point, an Aboriginal community near Cape Le Veque.

The kids are here in a tree over the Fitzroy River. From this great vantage point we can see the crocs swimming in the river!!! We believe these ones are salties! We sit on the banks for ages trying to spot them, the banks being quite high from the river itself.

Tim takes this great aerial shot of the Derby Jetty as he flys with Yong back home after a day flying into 3 different communities (whose names I cant pronounce!). They fly over the Fitzroy River and past the mountains.

This is Yong Kim, a Kingdom Aviation pilot/missionary. Tim took a flight out for the day to 3 different "desert" communities to do kids programmes with Yong.

Derby High School celebrate Science week with an astronomy night where the whole community was invited. Broome Astronomy was hired for the occasion with his many massive and powerful telescopes. We saw the moons surface, Venus, Saturn and Mars. As well as a lesson on the stars, the school put on some displays and a free sausage sizzle. We had a great night.

The Derby swimming pool has become our favourite place lately as the weather warms up. Apparently it is mostly tourists who are using the pool at this time of year cause its not hot enough yet for the locals!!

The Derby Jetty at low tide - such a high tidal change. At high tide the water is covering the poles you can see here.
Eating chips on the Derby Jetty watching the sunsetting. A Friday night tradition here with the Derby Baptist Church folk.

Friday, August 13, 2010


We had a few creek crossings on the Gibb River Road. Amy would sit in the back going "GO FASTER DAD, GO FAST!"Lots of fun..
Tim cooks "the perfect damper" in this camp oven that we borrowed from Jamie and Kimberley. It was so tasty, one side had sultanas (for the adults) and the other plain (for kids). We shared some with another family from Victoria who had a drifta kitchen made by our friend's Luke and Kiyomi.

A very rare moment of sibling love. Amazing that Jake would sit still long enough for a hug!! Lovely....

Tim and I enjoy sitting watching the view. Very pretty down here in Bell Gorge.

Bell Gorge Water fall. Tim and Jake are in, Amy is contemplating on the edge here. You have to slide in on your bum to get in. If you dont your gonna slide in anyways after you slip over on the slippery rocks and fall on your behind!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010


This is Bell Gorge. This was our last day exploring the Gibb River area.

Amy has discoverd water-lillies and the little frogs in this pond. The beautiful coloured purple flower has caught her eye.

We stop and have a swim here at Galvins Gorge, just a short walk from the car park to this pretty spot.
Best to try to take a photo without the "Jake" look, but here they all have a go - very attractive!

Me and the Gibb (and the dirt!).

We load up the ute with firewood for our up and coming damper we will be cooking at Silent Grove. Thanks to the road works going on on the Gibb River Road there was plenty of wood to get.

Tim and Amy take the plunge!

Manning Falls makes the kids happy, plenty of swimming and jumping off the rocks, and swimming and more swimming.
Stunning Manning Falls water hole. We had a lovely time swimming here for a few hours.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Tim, Jake and Lauren swim the Manning River to go on our walk to the Falls, fully clothed so they are nice and cool for the walk in.

Manning Gorge. Our next 2 nights on the Gibb River Road were spent here at beautiful Manning Gorge. This river crossing leads to an hours hike to a lovely water hole and falls (not really falling when we were here though). You can either swim across or get a little boat ride across.
A rock called Queen Victoria's head.



Amy with her torch at the other end of Tunnel Creek.
Lauren and I here in tunnel creek. The water got up to our waist in different parts.
The entrance to Tunnel Creek where you walk through the water in this tunnel. You need shoes on and torches so you can see in the dark! Great fun
Beautiful scenery here in Winjana Gorge. We have seen a huge colony of black bats, crocs and so many birds. Lovely
Here in Winjana Gorge the friendly "freshies" don't seem to mind us getting up close. There are so many crocs sunning themselves on the sandy banks of this river.

Gibb River Road WA

We've hit Croc country here in the Kimberley. Our first freshie, who didn't move a muscle as we got up real close. Must have been full already.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Tim and his "sidekick" Amy. Tim is putting up these sheets of fibro in a store room at the Baptist church, with another guy called Robert.

Amy helps her Dad do the tiling at the Baptist Church here in Derby. She was really very helpful, glueing up the tile and handing it to her Dad. She earned her pocket money this week!
Here is the "gorgeous" Mr Jacob as he "poses" on the Derby Jetty. Ahhh very ....hmm goofy?

The beautiful Miss Lauren, posing on the Derby Jetty. Ah lovely.

The Derby Jetty. You can drive around in a loop on this jetty over the water. Here the tides can go out 11 or 12 metres. We are here at High Tide.
Here in Derby, we are standing in front of this very long cattle trough (120m), built in 1917. The trough could handle 500 head of cattle at a time.
Another style of the cool Boab Tree - I just love them. They are all different. Some look like people. They have their own "personalities!!!
Amy fits inside the prison Boab tree!!
Here we are at the Derby Boab Prison tree. Behind Tim is the hole in the tree that the prisoners were put in.

Sunday, August 1, 2010


Loving it!
James Price Point. An interesting coast line. They want to put a gas mine here and develop it into a town. The locals are dead against it and want the Kimberley region to remain free of mining. It would be a shame to loose this wonderful, free camping area.

Cooking hamburgers on the gas burner here at James Price Point. Using the drifta as our on the road kitchen. Beautiful views to the ocean, and more whales to spot.
We head out of Broome for the day to Quondong. We spot whales breeching and spraying here. You could sit for hours watching them, but we drive up the coast a bit further. More dirt roads with excellent corrugations
Tim buys Lauren some pearl earings from Broome. She searched in many, many pearl shops (and believe me there are many, many, many pearl shops in Broome!), before she found a lovely pair she liked. They look lovely on.
Jakes getting good at his photography and takes this one of me at Gantheume Point at sunset when we go searching for dinosaur footprints.
Amy posing on the rocks at Gantheume Point. Adventure Girl