20-July
Today we started our drive back to Broome, we will make a few stops along the way but no more hikes of importance. We will be covering roughly 400 km, but all over decent roads.
Our first quick stop was in Halls Creek, not much of a village but it seems to be famous for Ivan Fredericks (1864–1904), known as Russian Jack, was a gold miner of the Western Australian gold rush in the 1880s. In 1885, while working in the Halls Creek goldmines, he pushed his sick friend in a wheelbarrow 300 km through the Great Sandy Desert to Wyndham, the nearest town with a medical centre. A statue was erected to him in Halls Creek.
After this we moved on to Fitzroy River where we will stay for the night.
Crossing the Fitzroy River before the bridge was built was no small undertaking – particularly during the wet season when the river level rises. The original Fitzroy Crossing town site sprung up around the river’s narrowest point in this area and soon became a hub for travellers. The Crossing Inn, still in operation today, was opened on 5th July 1897 by Joseph Blythe as a store and inn to serve drovers, pastoralists and prospectors in the area. The original causeway was built in 1935, and the Old Fitzroy Crossing Post Office and Police Station Group buildings followed in the 1940’s.
With the construction of the new bridge in the 1970’s, the town’s focus shifted south to its current location, but we made the short journey towards the Crossing Inn to see the town’s early beginnings and its pioneer cemetery, as well as the old concrete crossing, which kept the Kimberley accessible in the dry seasons from 1935 until the new high clearance bridge was built in 1974. The old post office building and the memorial to for the Australia Inland Mission Hospital also tells the story of the town’s early days.
Flooding generated by Ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie in December 2022 and January 2023 caused significant damage to the sections of Great Northern Highway at Willare Crossing and Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley.
At Fitzroy Crossing, the Fitzroy River Bridge, just east of the townsite was significantly damaged, along with 500 metres of road, cutting access to Aboriginal communities east of the Fitzroy River as well as the East Kimberley and Northern Territory. It is now all fixed and they have build the bridge is such a way that it should sustain any flooding in the future.
We made an unplanned stop as Jimmy spotted a snake on the road. We all jumped out while Jimmy gently managed to get hold of the black headed python. They are not dangerous and their skin is very smooth.
We also concluded our river-crossing competition. Warren won by correctly guessing the exact total of 111 crossings. Some were little more than small creeks, while others were wide rivers filled with hidden rocks. A few of those rocks even became wedged between the truck’s dual rear tyres. When that happened, Jimmy and Kaz used a clever trick they had learnt from other guides. They wrapped one end of a strap around a front wheel and the other around the boulder, then drove forward to pull it free from between the tyres. All part of their day to day job 😁
