[Bailey, John, 2001, The White Divers of Broome, Pan Macmillan, Sydney, page 88]
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Many correspondents passing through Broome in the years before World War I described the foreshore pubs during the lay-up in exotic terms - a sort of Asian wild west. They wrote of oil lamps swinging from the ceiling, casting dancing shadows along the walls, and moist, warm air laden with the smell of bodies and stale beer. They described barrooms inhabited by Japanese seamen playing cards. South Sea Islanders singing to the accompaniment of a guitar, Manilamen clad in striped waistcoats with glittering gold buttons passing a rum bottle between them, Koepangers drifting back from the fantan tables, and white men with bushy, black beards smoking pipes. They wrote of brawls - over gambling debts and women - that spilled out into the street, a crowd following to cheer the fighters on...
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