Indoor Activities in Broome: What to Do When the Heat or the Wet Shuts Down the Beach

Sun Pictures on Carnarvon Street has been operating since 1916 and is recognised as the oldest operating outdoor cinema in the world — a garden of deckchairs, wooden benches and corrugated-iron heritage architecture under a tropical sky, screening a regular programme of current releases and classics. The experience bears almost no resemblance to a modern multiplex: the sound drifts in competition with the ambient town, planes from Broome airport occasionally pass overhead, and the whole event has the character of a community gathering rather than an entertainment product.

The atmosphere is what earns Sun Pictures its reputation. Even films that would be ordinary at home become something different here — the warm dry-season air, the stars appearing as the sky darkens, the mixture of tourists and locals on the deckchairs, and the decades of history embedded in the garden all contribute to an experience that visitors consistently describe as one of the most distinctive things they did in Broome. Film quality matters less than it does at a conventional cinema; the event is the point.

Check the current programme before you go — session options are limited compared to a multiplex, and not every night has the right film for your group. Arrive early for the best deckchair positions; the garden fills up in peak dry-season weeks. Get food from Chinatown before you arrive, as the cinema's own food options are modest. In the wet season, rain can interrupt a screening — this is an outdoor cinema, and the tropical weather occasionally wins.

Pearl Luggers on Dampier Terrace is the most substantive museum experience in Broome — a heritage attraction that preserves two restored pearling luggers (the working sailboats that carried the pearling trade from the 1880s through the mid-20th century), along with diving suits, equipment, artefacts and documentary material that give the full account of how the Kimberley pearling industry was built, who built it, and what it cost. The museum is the context that makes everything else in Broome — the Chinatown architecture, the Japanese Cemetery, the pearl showrooms — make sense in relation to each other.

Tours are guided and last approximately 90 minutes; they include the luggers themselves, the equipment used in deepsea diving (which was extraordinarily dangerous before modern standards), and the multicultural workforce story that shaped Broome's unusual character. The guide quality is consistently praised in visitor feedback, and the historical material is handled without sentimentality — the story of who made the money and who did the dying is told honestly.

This is the natural companion to a Japanese Cemetery visit and a pearl showroom browse: the cemetery shows the human cost, the Pearl Luggers show the equipment and the process, and the showrooms show the product. Combined, they give a rare degree of historical completeness to what is otherwise a commercial experience. Allow a half-day for the combination, with the museum as the anchor.

The Broome Museum on Saville Street is a community heritage museum covering the full span of Broome's human history — from the Yawuru people whose country this is, through the establishment of the pearling industry, the multicultural workforce that built the town, the Japanese bombing of Broome harbour in 1942 (a significant but little-known WWII event), and the twentieth-century development of the town into a regional centre. The scope is broader and less focused than Pearl Luggers, making it the right starting point if you want context before diving into the specifics.

The museum is housed in the old Customs House building near the port, which gives the location a historical relevance beyond just the exhibits. The collection includes photographs, documents, personal artefacts and oral history material that put specific names and faces to the broad history covered elsewhere in Broome's heritage trail. The WWII section covering the 1942 Japanese air attack — in which flying boats moored in the harbour were destroyed and a significant number of people were killed — is genuinely little-known outside WA and is among the more surprising and substantive parts of the collection.

The museum is run by volunteers and opening hours can be variable, particularly outside the dry season — check before you make it the centrepiece of a day plan. Entry is modestly priced. For visitors doing the full Broome heritage circuit (museum, Pearl Luggers, Japanese Cemetery, Chinatown) it is the logical first stop.

Short Street Gallery on Short Street is one of the most respected commercial art galleries in the Kimberley region, carrying Indigenous Australian art alongside contemporary WA artists in a proper gallery environment. The Indigenous work spans a range of traditions, communities and media — from Kimberley bark and ochre works to contemporary acrylic and textile pieces — and the curatorial standard is high enough to make it substantive rather than a souvenirs operation presented with gallery lighting.

Browsing is free and completely without pressure — the gallery operates on the understanding that serious collectors browse seriously and are not rushed, and visitors who are simply looking are welcome. For those with no prior knowledge of Indigenous Australian art, the gallery staff are knowledgeable and willing to explain the works, the artists and the communities they come from without treating curiosity as a commercial opportunity. A visit here alongside the Broome Museum gives the cultural history of the region a contemporary creative dimension.

The gallery is air-conditioned and a genuine refuge on a hot or wet day. It is open during regular business hours in the dry season; hours may be reduced in the wet. The works range from affordable entry-level prints to significant investment pieces, so the gallery suits all budgets from the perspective of browsing — purchasing is entirely optional and the no-pressure environment is genuine.

Matso's Broome Brewery on Hamersley Street is Broome's most famous hospitality establishment — a craft brewery housed in a heritage 1910s mango-orchard property that has been making tropical-inspired ales, ginger beers and fruited lagers since the 1990s. The mango beer in particular has become synonymous with Broome tourism to a degree that means you will be asked if you had one at Matso's for the rest of your trip. The covered courtyard setting is a significant practical asset: it provides shade and shelter from both the dry-season sun and the wet-season rain, making it a viable option in most weather conditions.

The food menu supports a proper meal rather than just a drink stop — the kitchen runs a full lunch and dinner service with a menu that leans toward tropical and seasonal WA produce. The setting is relaxed and unhurried, and the combination of the heritage buildings, the tropical garden courtyard and the genuinely interesting beer programme gives it more character than a standard brewery tap room. It is a good option for a long lunch on a hot day, a late-afternoon beer after the museums, or an early dinner before Sun Pictures.

Check current opening hours before visiting, as the dry-season and wet-season schedules differ and public holiday coverage varies. Bookings are advisable for dinner in the peak July–August period when Broome is at its fullest. The ginger beer is non-alcoholic and available for designated drivers and non-drinkers.

Broome's Chinatown contains multiple pearl showrooms carrying South Sea pearls harvested from the Broome region, and browsing them is free. The showrooms range from the well-known national retailers to smaller independent operations, and the variety within each is sufficient to understand the grading system — size, lustre, surface quality, shape and colour — that determines the extraordinary price range of South Sea pearls, from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars for a single piece.

This is genuinely educational rather than just retail exposure. South Sea pearls are Broome's defining product and a direct result of the pearling history covered in the museums — understanding what you are looking at requires the context of Pearl Luggers, the Japanese Cemetery and Chinatown, all of which are a few minutes' walk from each other. Staff in the better independent showrooms are knowledgeable and happy to explain grading and value without pressuring a visitor who is there to understand rather than buy.

Browsing the showrooms is also one of the most comfortable indoor activities available in Broome on a hot or wet day — all the showrooms are air-conditioned, and the combination of Carnarvon Street's café stops, the showroom circuit and a visit to the Short Street Gallery fills a comfortable morning in the Chinatown precinct without requiring a fixed itinerary. Set a clear budget expectation before entering if retail temptation is a concern — South Sea pearls at the quality Broome produces are genuinely beautiful, and the showrooms are designed to make them desirable.