Thread: Broome - MMmmm - Should I?

Originally Posted by CraigE

Karatha is as expensive if not more so than Broome. Have a look at real estate prices, if you can get something, first. Lots of nice kini's in Broome

And nonkini's too!! I like nonkini's, just not on the Germans!!!!

I answered a similar question with a long post a while ago. Basically, since we live in the same area and get to Broome for flights or shopping or visiting friends, we always think it's a bit overrated. It's nice, but it's small and there's a funny Broome mentality that seems to think that because it's Broome, and oh-so-special, then standards don't have to be quite as high as they would elsewhere. People can live in Broome for years and think they know the Kimberley, but they don't - they just know Broome. It's quite a little goldfish bowl like that.

All the same, the climate can be great, the town has a unique social and cultural mix of old and new people, and rich and poor, it has a long and interesting history. It's a good place to live if you want to travel around the western Kimberley a lot. I think it would be a good place for kids of all ages since the range of people they would get to know would be very broad compared to the usual suburban life of a southern city, and, come to think of it, that's true for grown-ups as well.

We actually want to move over there, but the one-and-only condition is the housing. It's ridiculous. There's just no other word for it. It is, after all, a small, isolated town and the rents and house prices are enormous given where it is. There has been a huge housing and land shortage for years. In fact, someone at a state government department told me that Landcorp has been holding land releases back to keep prices up.

Virtually everyone in Broome, (and this goes for the whole Kimberley as well), can afford to live there because they got in years ago and bought property, or make lots of money, or get a house or a rental allowancewith their job, or live in a caravan park, or have a Homewest house because they don't have much money . . . though the last I heard there was a five-year waiting list for that!

I'd say to go, for sure, because it's a great opportunity to live somewhere different and you'd learn an awful lot, but only with housing assistance as part of your contract.