At certain times of year Broome’s Roebuck Bay is a global hotspot for birdlife; for migratory waders it is a key “fuel stop”.
It may be less “instagrammable” than Cable Beach, but Roebuck Bay is much the richer place, biologically speaking.
Its crustaceans provide a deal of the waders’ fuel.
A key factor in all this: Roebuck Bay’s oft-massive, fast-moving tides.
On some days of each month, at low tide the exposed mudflats cover more than 150 square kilometres, and they extend far beyond a shore-based observer’s horizon.
I took the featured photo at 4.45 pm on 29 February 2016, just a couple of footsteps onto Streeters Jetty.
Here, Dampier Creek (the best-known of Roebuck Bay’s mangrove-lined tidal creeks) meets the “waterfront” of Broome’s Chinatown; in the “pearling days” this was a busy place, with many luggers coming and going.
Every time the tide goes out, Roebuck Bay is a place of enormous opportunity for predators; for their prey it is a time, equally, of opportunity and mortal danger.
Click here for an overview of Roebuck Bay, and this for a richer experience.
Streeters Jetty (recently re-opened after its fifth demolition/rebuild since it was first erected, circa 1897) has a fascinating history; if you wish to know some of it, click this, and be sure to download the relevant pdf.