We hired a little car to get around Derby while we were organising to buy another car to tow the caravan. We took advantage of this by checking out the history of the town.

Like most old Australian towns, it has a dark past. Although we had visited ‘The Boab Prison Tree’ before, we were drawn back to have another look. According to myth, the trunk of this tree was used in the 1880s and 1890s as a temporary prison for Aboriginal prisoners. I don’t believe there is any actual evidence about this so I don’t know if it’s true. Certainly it refers to this in signs at the tree.

We also visited the old Derby Jail in the middle of town which was very depressing. This was where Aboriginal prisoners were held. No explanation needed.

John has never really understood my interest in cemeteries,  particularly pioneer cemeteries. I can spend hours reading the inscriptions on the gravestones, trying to imagine how tough their lives were. I dragged John along to the Derby Pioneer Cemetery but I returned on my own the next day when I didn’t have John jiggling the car keys. I browsed the old gravestones but I was particularly looking for one – that of William Richardson. I remembered hearing the story of Jandamarra (aka Pigeon) in Aboriginal Studies at university and again on our Kimberley Wild trip inside Tunnel Creek where he died.  Jandamarra was a young Aboriginal man who led uprisings against the Europeans. Before this though he worked alongside William Richardson as his tracker but turned against him, shooting him dead in 1894.