The Administrative centre of the southern Kimberley region, Derby has for many years served the beef cattle industry of the hinterland. It is today the mainland port for the Koolan Island and Cockatoo Island iron ore mines when they are operational. Historically, Derby has also played a major role in the Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service for the Kimberley Region.
Derby is located on the tidal mud flats on the edge of the King Sound. Along with Broome and Kununurra, it is one of only three towns in the Kimberley region to have a population over 2,000. Located on King Sound, Derby has the highest tidal range of any port in Australia (12 metres) and one of the highest tides of any port in the world. The highest is at the Bay of Fundy in Novia Scotia, Canada (15 metres).
Boab Week, which is named after the boab tree, is a week long festival that includes traditional events such as mud football, the Mardi Gras and other festivities.
William Dampier memorial, Derby
The Derby region was first explored in 1688 by William Dampier. This statement, now widely accepted, is, in part, one of those strange cases of the rewriting of history. Dampier was one of the crew of the Cygnet which sailed around the King Sound area for three months in 1688. The Cygnet was actually under the command of Captain Read but it was Dampier who, upon his return to England, published A New Voyage Round the World and thus was incorrectly credited as leading the expedition which anchored in Cygnet Bay and sailed around King Sound.
It was in A New Voyage Round the World that Dampier made his observations about the Aborigines of Western Australia and the poor quality of Western Australia. These observations ensured that no one in Britain took any great interest in Australia for the next century. Near the jetty is a bicentennial monument to William Dampier who arrived near the present site of Derby in 1688. He reached the head of King Sound on 5 January 1688.
It wasn't until 1879 that any European settlement of the area occurred. Isolation and harsh conditions had combined to ensure that only the most tenacious of pastoralists and workers came to the area.
In 1879 Alexander Forrest travelled through the area and sent back reports which were clearly exaggerated. He described the area around Derby as being 'well watered land suitable for pastoral purposes, besides a large area suitable for the culture of sugar, rice or coffee'. Such a glowing report attracted pastoralists to the area but they soon found that tropical diseases, unreliable seasons, horrendous transportation problems and very antagonistic local Aborigines made life in the area almost unbearable.
The first jetty was built in 1885. The timing was impeccable. That same year Charlie Hall discovered gold at Halls Creek and miners and prospectors poured into the port on their way to the goldfields.The jetty ran out across the mudflats beyond the town and the ships that brought the miners in were only to eager to depart with cargoes of gold (1886), pearl shells and wool. The goldrush was shortlived and by the 1890s the port was used almost exclusively for the export of live cattle and sheep.
MV Koomala at Derby Jetty
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