QUANDONG POINT (& Beagle Bay), Western Australia

North of Broome is the Dampier Peninsula with the beautiful Cape Levique right on the top pointy bit! The free camps are a bit rough and the roads are rougher still. We were relieved we had a pimped up 4wd to manage the ruts and corrugations as we headed to Quandong Point for a couple of days!

Quandong Point, about 50 km from Broome, overlooks the Indian Ocean. It is very picturesque and most of the camp sites are positioned to take in the scenic outlook across water. The sites are just clearings in the scrub and are generally 50-100 metres apart so there’s no chance of feeling boxed in like you do at most of the caravan parks. We knew it was a popular spot, and despite its remoteness, can frequently be at capacity so we were happy to find an unoccupied site just back from the ridge with ocean views.

It was loads of fun to wander along the pristine beach at low tide, watching the mysterious underwater world revealing itself minute by minute as the water peeled away from the sea bed. The ocean floor was akin to a lunar landscape and provided plenty of rock pools to fossick in and collect interesting shells. The dogs were kept busy chasing crabs of all different sizes, hopping over and between the rocks with amazing agility. There was fishing to be done and new friends to play with.

We’d planned to spend a few days lazing about after our exhaustive schedule in Broome! (well…at least it seemed that way to a pair of gypsies who’ve been deliriously happy without the 2 hour commutes every day, employment contracts to fulfill, school lunches to make, sports to taxi the kids to and the other usual manic daily activities of Melbourne life!!). It didn’t quite pan out that way but we didn’t mind. We headed back into Broome a couple of times, including one trip to the vet for Bodhi and another root canal treatment for me. We also headed up to Beagle Bay for a day trip on a promise to stop in at the famous Beagle Bay shell church and say g’day to the priest. Our generous friends from Perth, Dot and Martin, had restored the church some years ago and had developed a lasting friendship with the resident priest.

Since the 1880’s various missionaries have made their way to the Beagle Bay area including English Catholics, French Trappist Monks, Irish Catholics and German Pallottines in the hope of converting the Aborigines. It was the Germans who, whilst under house arrest during WWI, began building the church with local indigenous people as a show of their commitment to the Beagle Bay communities. It took two years to complete the structure and used 60,000 hand-made and hand-fired clay bricks. A further 30,000 clay bricks were needed for the bell tower. With no cement available, lime was made by burning shell and used for mortar and plaster. It took another year to decorate the church. Dozens of carts of shell were collected from local beaches and hauled by oxen to the site. Local Nyul Nyul women used mother of pearl, cowries, volutes and olive shells to create the magnificent mosaics around the church and at the alter. Their influence and interpretation of their own traditions combined with Christian symbolism has created a very unique place of worship. Although it is a popular tourist attraction, the church remains an important part of local life, especially for the members of the Stolen Generation who were cared for by the nuns and bothers at the church as well as new generations of the Nyul Nyul people who originally adopted the Catholic faith.

We’d planned to head to the tip of Cape Levique after Quandong Point but decided against it after being advised the only dog friendly accommodation wasn’t very good. With the adventure of the Gibb River Road beckoning, we instead opted to pack up and head to Derby where we could make final preparations for our Kimberley trek.