Derby is famous for its huge tidal range – 11.8 metres – apparently 2nd only in the world to Nova Scotia. Situated in the delta of King Sound, Derby is surrounded by extensive mud flats which only flood on the king tides so are great for driving across. A jetty is 1,800 feet (550 metres) long and was built to partially overcome difficulties presented by the huge tidal range to facilitate the sea transport of frozen sheep and beef meat. This ended in 1980 when the abattoir closed but the jetty was reopened as an export facility for zinc and lead ores in the 1990s. Nowadays it seems only to be used for shipping goods and materials to offshore mining facilities and coastal/island communities.
The jetty is a favorite place for locals to fish and tourists to watch the amazing sunsets. We spent quite a few evenings driving out along the mudflats (shortcut to the Jetty) to watch sunset with a cold drink in hand. It was interesting to see locals fishing from the jetty in the muddy turbulent water on the incoming tide but I really can’t imagine how fish caught here would taste! We went during the day to see the low tide and there was all manner of hardware, bicycles, chains, iron railings etc which became visible. I guess nobody wanted to claim any of these things because of the crocodiles lurking in the mangroves and muddy water!
While here we took the opportunity to tick off another bucket list item – the horizontal falls. We flew from Derby aerodrome in a float plane over miles of mud flats and ancient landscapes to land on Talbot Bay. It was straight to the jet stream boat for our adrenalin rush racing the first gorge (24m wide) at 30 kts in to a very placid bay, then through the 7.5m gap in the 2nd gorge – the huge land-locked inland sea. Because the tide was going out and all the water is pinched through such a small gap the water level from one area to the next had about a 1 metre difference which meant we had to go uphill going in and downhill going out. The boats are so powerful that this really wasn’t a problem but the driver ‘hammed’ it up. He said he was going to ‘drive it like I stole it’ – pretty funny really and he obviously enjoys his work.
Once back at the pontoon we had a quick swim in the shark-proof cage and then lunch after which there was time for one more pass through the gaps then back on to the float plane for the trip home. Our pilot was a Kiwi girl from Nelson and she let John sit in the co-pilot seat, which made it more interesting for him. The aerial view of this NW Kimberley is quite unreal and we even flew over a barramundi farm and a pearl farm.
Mark Norval Gallery
Kimberley artist husband and wife team Mark and Mary Norval established the gallery in the 1990s to showcases their own work as well as the artwork of many indigenous artists from the amazing Kimberley region of Western Australia. Most mornings the artists are set up in the shade outside the gallery and are happy to talk about their unique artwork and are willing to share their painting techniques and ideas whilst being watched. Mark donated some amazing metal sculptures to the town which sit out on the mudflats about 5-6 metres high and are best viewed with the sun setting behind them – very impressive!
