Western Australia
Renting a room in Broome, and what catches people out
Nearly everything people assume about Broome before they get here is half right. The town is smaller than you think, busier than you think in the wrong months, and dearer to run than a place this size ought to be.
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Most people arrive in the wrong month
The assumption people bring is that Broome has a busy season and a quiet one, the way a beach town down south does. It is starker than that. From May to October it does not rain, the tour boats and the camel rides and the caravan parks are all running, and the town is full. The other half of the year is the wet: humid, stormy, and much quieter. They are close to two different towns.
That matters because the hiring happens before the season does. Most dry season staff land in March or April, which is when everyone is looking for somewhere to sleep at once. Arrive in June expecting to walk into a house and you have turned up after the music stopped. October runs the other way. The build-up starts, a good number of people head south, and what they leave behind is what comes free.
Underneath the tourism there is a working town that does not move with the seasons at all: the hospital, the Aboriginal health and land organisations, the shire, the schools and the port. Those jobs bring people who stay for years, and they are usually the ones with a spare room.
- March and April. Season staff land and the town is at its tightest.
- October and November. The build-up starts and people head south.
- Through the wet. Quieter on both sides, fewer rooms and fewer people after them.
Ten kilometres is further than it sounds here
On a map the townsite looks like nothing. Ten kilometres covers it end to end, on a peninsula with Roebuck Bay on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. Chinatown and Old Broome sit at the southern end, near the port, the pubs and Sun Pictures. Cable Beach is about seven kilometres north-west, over on the sunset side. Everything else fills the middle.
People see those numbers and decide they will ride everywhere. Plenty do. The land is flat and there are shared paths along most main roads. What they have not felt yet is ten in the morning in November, when seven kilometres is a decision rather than a ride. TransBroome route 890 runs between the town end and Cable Beach, and most houses still keep a car between them for the Broome Boulevard shops and for getting out of town.
The airport surprises people too. It sits in the middle of town, so flights come in low over the houses, and Perth is a two-and-a-half-hour flight instead of two days of driving. Whether that reads as noise or as convenience depends on the street. If you are unsure, ask which way the house faces and whether the flight path runs over that street.
A small town this far out is not a cheap one
The last one is the expensive assumption: that a small town a long way from anywhere must be cheap. Broome is not. Everything arrives by road or by sea, and a room is quoted higher than the size of the place would suggest. The line that catches people is power. Air conditioning runs hard from October through to March, so ask early whether electricity sits inside the weekly rent or turns up beside it, and ask what the house is like to cool. A newer, well-sealed place and an old one with a rattling unit are not the same rent at all.
Where people look in Broome
Chinatown and Old Broome
Broome, Old Broome
The oldest and lowest part of town. Broome's tides are big enough that a king tide can put seawater across the Town Beach foreshore.
Cable Beach
Cable Beach, Minyirr
Rent runs higher here than for the same room a few kilometres inland, because you are paying for the walk to the sand.
Djugun
Djugun
Broome Boulevard and most of the everyday services sit here, so it is the one part of town you can live in without a car.
Bilingurr and Broome North
Bilingurr, Waranyjarri Estate
The newest houses in town, usually the best sealed and air-conditioned, which counts for more than it sounds once the build-up starts.
Roebuck Estate and Sunset Park
Roebuck Estate, Sunset Park, Blue Haze
These pockets back onto the light industrial area, which is why rooms here are often the cheapest in the townsite and full of trades and shift workers.
What Kip Haus is
A free iPhone app that introduces somebody with a spare room to somebody who needs one. Drop a pin anywhere on the map, choose how far around it to look — 2 km out to 100 km — and go through the rooms one at a time.
Rent is shown per week. Browsing, listing and messaging are all free, and signing up is a six-digit code emailed to you: no password, no documents, any visa. It works from overseas, before you fly.
Kip Haus reads incoming messages for the pattern scammers use and warns you in the chat. The rule that does the most work is simpler than anything software can do, though: stand in the room, or have somebody you trust stand in it, before any money moves.
iPhone, iOS 16.4 or later. Nothing to pay, at any point.
Broome: questions people ask before they move
How bad are power bills in Broome?
They are the bill people underestimate. Air conditioning runs hard from October through to March, and a poorly sealed house with an old unit will drink power the whole way. Ask whether electricity is inside the weekly rent or billed separately, and ask how the house handles the build-up before you agree to anything.
Is Cable Beach worth paying more for?
It depends what you want from the year. Rooms near the beach cost more than the same room a few kilometres inland, and what you are buying is the walk to the sand at the end of the day. For the same money around Djugun you are closer to the Boulevard and the everyday shops.
Is the airport noise in Broome a problem?
The airport sits in the middle of the townsite, so aircraft come in low over houses in parts of town. Most people stop hearing it after a few weeks.
What is Broome like in the wet season?
Humid, stormy and much quieter. The tour operators wind down, the town empties of season staff, and the big king tides can push water across the Town Beach foreshore. Fewer rooms get advertised through the wet, but there are also fewer people chasing them.
Have a look at Broome.
Drop a pin, pick how far to search, and go through the rooms. Free to browse, free to list, free to message.
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