This isolated, old pearling town’s languorous pace, cosmopolitan atmosphere and easy-going tropical charm have made it a popular travellers’ centre and a favoured spot for alternative lifestylers and urban burnouts. Broome has a distinctly Asian feel, partly because of its history as a pearling centre and partly because Perth, the state capital, is twice as far away as Indonesia. Nearby Cable Beach is now one of the most famous beaches in Australia, and the upmarket tourism promoted here has saved the town from the crasser Australiana flotsam that swamps most WA tourist towns. The other major attractions in Broome are the small Chinatown, the 80-year-old open-air Sun Pictures Cinema, the Japanese cemetery, and the dinosaur footprints at Gantheaume Point. Broome is also popular with bird-watchers, with the Broome Bird Observatory on Roebuck Bay rating as one of Australia’s top nonbreeding grounds for migrant Arctic waders. Swimmers should beware of stinging jellyfish in the water between November and March.