Broome

Broome Galleries and Museums

Broome’s cultural life is woven through saltwater stories, Kimberley landscapes, family histories, Aboriginal art and the town’s distinctive screen heritage. Its galleries range from contemporary Aboriginal art and Yawuru women’s textile practice to regional paintings, while local collections preserve photographs, oral histories, newspapers and memories of a changing community. A nearby Dampier Peninsula arts hub extends that story into Bardi Jawi visual art, language and cultural knowledge.

Here is a varied selection of places to explore in Broome and one clearly identified nearby destination. Together they offer opportunities to look closely at artworks, investigate local records and encounter stories connected with Country, community and place.

🏛️ Local History, Archives & Heritage

Broome Historical Society and Museum

At Town Beach, this museum presents Broome history through collections, exhibitions and archives. Its online resources open further avenues of discovery, including thousands of photographs, oral histories, virtual museums about World War II and race relations, the Broome News Archive and a searchable local people index. The society also assists with family-history and archival research, and welcomes volunteers, making the collection useful both for curious visitors and for people tracing local connections.

Contact: 67 Robinson Street, Broome, WA 6725 · ☎ (08) 9192 2075 (museum general enquiries)

Broome Public Library Local History Collection

The Shire of Broome library provides a practical starting point for exploring local records. Its local-history collection includes photographs, documents and stories about Broome, while special collections cover oral history, Broome Local Studies, natural history and culture. Family-history resources and staff research assistance add a useful pathway for investigating people, places and events represented in the town’s written and recorded memory.

Contact: Cnr Weld and Haas Street, Broome, Western Australia, 6725 · ☎ 9191 3477 (library research and general enquiries)

🎨 Art Galleries & Exhibition Spaces

Short St Gallery

Established in Broome in 1998, Short St Gallery focuses on contemporary Aboriginal art sourced from remote Indigenous communities and art centres across the Kimberley, Tiwi Islands, APY and Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, Central Desert, Pilbara and other regional areas. The works demonstrate a broad material range, including acrylic on canvas and linen, pigment on bark and paintings on masonite, inviting close attention to different artists’ approaches and regional connections.

Contact: 9 Short St, Broome WA 6725, Australia · ☎ +61 8 9192 2658

Black Stump Gallery

In Old Broome, Black Stump Gallery brings together original art in varied media, locally inspired Australian-made art and gifts. Its continuing focus is artwork informed by the Kimberley, with artists offering individual responses to the region’s landscapes and natural environment. Changing exhibitions add a shifting layer to that regional emphasis, while the gallery’s broader selection provides an accessible way to encounter different visual interpretations of northern Western Australia.

Contact: 42 Carnarvon Street, Broome WA 6725 · ☎ 08 9193 5698 (Broome gallery)

Nagula Jarndu Designs

Nagula Jarndu means “saltwater woman” in the local Yawuru language. Founded by Yawuru women in 1987, this Aboriginal women’s art centre and textiles business shares handcrafted textiles, screen prints, clothing, homewares and art by Indigenous women artists. The work is described as a visual way of carrying stories handed down by older people, with links to Yawuru language, tradition, land and sea. Its shopfront connects creative practice with living cultural knowledge.

Contact: 1/12 Gregory St, Broome WA 6725, Australia · ☎ 0499 330 708 (shopfront)

Broome Gallery

Broome Gallery presents original artworks and prints centred on the Kimberley, Broome, storms, animals and other regional subjects. Listed artists include James Down, Ayesha, Claudia Biliau and Ian MacConnell. Alongside the artworks, the gallery offers gifts and custom merchandise carrying artwork imagery, creating a compact Chinatown stop for seeing how local and regional subjects are translated into paintings, prints and other visual formats.

Contact: 1 / 23 Carnarvon Street, Broome, Western Australia · ☎ 08 9193 5003 (gallery general enquiries)

📜 Historic Site & Screen Heritage

Sun Pictures

Sun Pictures is an operating open-air cinema in Broome’s Chinatown where film screenings sit alongside a heritage story. Visitors can explore historic audio tours and cinema memorabilia, while the picture garden’s recorded opening in 1916 places it within Broome’s long screen culture. The venue offers an unusual meeting point between an active cinema experience and interpretation of a surviving purpose-built picture garden.

Contact: Carnarvon Street, Broome, WA 6725 · ☎ 9192 1077 (cinema general enquiries)

🧭 Nearby Cultural & Interpretive Centre

Ingarlgalandij Arts & Culture Hub

At Ardyaloon (One Arm Point) on the Dampier Peninsula, about 220 kilometres north of Broome, Ingarlgalandij is a Bardi Jawi-led arts and culture hub. Its offering includes an art gallery, creative studios and projects, cultural programmes and cultural experiences. The hub supports local artists, language-keepers and knowledge-holders while sharing Bardi Jawi visual art, storytelling and culture. It is a nearby destination rather than a Broome-town venue.

Contact: Lot 16-17 One Arm Point Road, Dampier Peninsula WA 6725

These places offer many ways to spend time with Broome’s stories, from archival photographs and oral histories to contemporary works shaped by Country, language and community. Galleries, museums, historical societies and cultural organisations with a Broome or Dampier Peninsula connection are warmly invited to add or update their listing in this directory, helping readers find the collections and creative spaces that continue to share the region’s rich cultural life.

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