On This Road

<p></p><p>Most days, the Fitzroy River doesn’t look like much.</p><p>Wide. Quiet. Slow moving.</p><p>But this river drains a vast part of the Kimberley — and when the wet season comes, everything feeds into...

<p></p><p>The Ord River looks simple at first.</p><p>But it isn’t.</p><p>What begins as a seasonal river becomes something very different — shaped, held, and redirected along the way.</p><p>This is not just one river...

<p>At King Sound, the tide doesn’t just rise and fall — it moves.Out from Derby, the water can be a long way out at low tide, then return with force as it’s funnelled back in.</p><p>One of the largest tidal ranges in...

<p>When the pearling luggers returned to Broome, the whole town shifted.Crews moved through the Roebuck, the Continental, the Mangrove, and Chinatown in between — a few days onshore before heading out again.</p><p>Work...

<p>Matso’s takes its name from the Matsumoto family, part of Broome’s Japanese pearling community in the late 1800s.The building itself predates the brewery, with a history tied to the town’s working past.</p><p>Today...

<p>When Lord McAlpine arrived in Broome, many of the old pearling buildings were in decline.He restored and rebuilt, shaping how parts of the town look today.</p><p></p><p>Explore all episodes on the map —...

<p>Building the stations was only the beginning.Floods, distance, and the realities of the Kimberley tested what had been created along the Ord.</p><p>Over time, the river and the land would change — and so would the...

<p></p><p>Before the dams, before the irrigation scheme, this was cattle country on a vast scale.In the late 1800s, the Durack family drove thousands of cattle into the East Kimberley, establishing one of the largest...

<p>In 1879, explorer Alexander Forrest named the region during his expedition across the north, honouring John Wodehouse, the Earl of Kimberley.</p><p></p><p>Explore all episodes on the map —...

<p>The Kimberley coast has been seen and described for a long time.</p><p>Long before it was settled, ships worked their way along this shoreline — charting, observing, and trying to understand what was there.</p><p>One...

<p>Out in the east Kimberley, the country opens out into long, flat stretches of red earth.</p><p>And then, without much warning, it changes.</p><p>A near-perfect circle set into the ground.Wide. Quiet...

<p>Johnny Chi was one of the early figures in Broome’s pearling days — a man who arrived from overseas and became part of a harsh, complex industry on the edge of the continent.</p><p>His story sits within a time of...

<p>Camels have been part of northern Australia for a long time.</p><p>In places like Broome, they’re still visible today — sometimes in ways that feel familiar.</p><p>But the role they once played was...

<p>Gantheaume Point sits just south of Broome, where the red cliffs meet the Indian Ocean.</p><p>At low tide, the reef reveals something unexpected — marks in the rock that reach back more than 100 million years, from a...

<p>Joseph Lyons never looked like power — but in the hardest years Australia had known, he led with steadiness and care. This story traces his journey from a poor Tasmanian childhood to Prime Minister during the Great...