Osborne Islands

It was a cruisy morning at our anchorage, Ted and Tina were on the beach having a walk and we were getting organised to go for a quick dinghy explore and a fish. Our next destination was Middle Osborne Island, about 25nm away and we were waiting for the turn of the tide and also hoping for the wind to kick in and push us along.

As it sometimes happens we had been somewhat lucky with our anchorage at Barracuda Bay as we had dropped right on dusk and had a great spot but the next morning the daylight revealed that we were pretty close to some fairly shallow reef that stretched right across this area. We had studied a few different sources on the way in – and had got it right but it was a reminder of how you can easily get it wrong especially if you are trying to get close to the shore to seek shelter. Luck was on our side this time!

We set off in the dinghy and had a good look around and soon found ourselves about 3 nm down the coast where there was a small sheltered beach. Two large boab trees had caught our eye but on the way in we were just having a quick fish when low and behold a squid swam straight up to the boat. This was hilarious as we haven’t seen a squid the whole trip so it was action stations to get a squid jig on…… crickets… nothing!!

We poked into the small beach and went out checked out the two big boabs. They are such imposing figures on the coastline and often a place that drew in visiting fisherman and locals and so we like to have a poke around to see if there are any engravings or artifacts in the general vicinity. We didn’t find anything here but it was a cool explore around the beach, but we needed to get back to Singularity to catch the tide.

After securing Bob and getting organised we departed the bay and soon had the screecher flying with a nice 12knot breeze on our back quarter. Not long out of the anchorage we passed Kimberley Quest going in the opposite direction and we were getting along nicely.

In the distance we could see the imposing figure of Steep Head Island, which sits just to the south of the Osborne Islands and north of the Mitchell River. Mitchell Plateau rises from the coast here and provides a dramatic backdrop.

We had been looking at the charts closely as well as reading up in the guides as the Osborne Islands are the site of several large pearl farms, operated by Paspaley and we needed to avoid navigating into those farm areas.

Our plan was to enter the islands just to the north of South West Osborne Island and run down a narrow channel to the west of Middle Island and Kidney Island, before turning east and navigating the passage between Middle Osborne and Carlia Island.  Like most of the Kimberley this srea is all unsurveyed so we didn’t really know what to expect but upon arrival we had plenty of water and spectacular views as we cut between the wooded islands.

The pearl leases are generally marked on the charts but it is a case of locating the yellow marker beacons that designate the outer edges and steering a course accordingly.  These can be hard to spot and once you find the first one you need to work out where it sits in relation to the farm, usually identified by the strings of black buoys. As was the case here in the Osborne Islands the pearl lease takes up a large part of the channel and you are left trying to pick a clear course close to the shoreline, out of the farm but clear of the rocks and reef!

We were doing exactly that as we rounded the southern most tip of Middle Osborne Island, just a few miles from the anchorage when we spied a BIG croc sunning himself on the beach. He was a big boy and another reminder of whose territory we were in!

Paspaley have quite a bit of infrastructure in this area, including a large houseboat and a fuel barge etc but from what we could work out there was no current farming going on and the place was deserted.  We nudged our way into the anchorage which was a great spot, sheltered on three sides, nice and calm and surrounded by the elevated and wooded island.

We had planned to spend at least 3 or 4 days here… there was plenty of exploring to do with a few art sites as well as the usual fishing and beaching of course.

There were two well know art sites we wanted to check out in this location. The first was a small site that had a snake that stretched for about 4 metres across the roof of an overhang and the second was the aptly named ‘The Apartments’.

After a cruisy evening and a nice, relaxed morning we got the dinghies ready to head off and explore. First stop was to cruise past the big houseboat to see if anybody was about – which they weren’t – and then navigate across to a small beach from where we could access the art sites.

For this sort of exercise we use Navionics on the mobile phone as a lot of the coast and beaches look the same, so to get exactly where you need to be to find a specific art location is important. We learnt early on that the walking here is hard going and so you need to put yourself as close as possible to avoid hours of hard walking just to cover a few miles.

After securing the dinghies we set about finding the art site with the big snake. We knew the sort of rock formations to look for and before long we had found a large overhang with some artwork, including a very impressive and long painting of a snake that stretched right across the overhang.

From here we scrambled and climbed our way across rocks, spinifex, trees and hopped up towards our destination – ‘The Apartments’. We soon located the spot and were treated to a catacomb like cave system that consisted of a series of walkways that opened up into rooms, many of them with piles of middens, evidence of the early inhabitants. It was a real maze and a really interesting spot, many of the walls and roof areas were covered in the type of artwork we had come to expect. Like many of these meeting points, it provided shade and shelter but also had commanding views out over the neighbouring creek system and across to the bay.

We had an interesting few hours exploring before we returned to the boats and then set about exploring some of the surrounding beaches and creeks. We found a small protected beach. Sheltered by some interesting rock formations where we were able to cool off, with one of us sitting atop the rocks keeping an eye out for crocs.

The next few days were rinse and repeat with some fishing, including Ted and Tina snagging a couple of nice barra, more walking and exploration around the various rock formations and a big mission to go and find one of the biggest boab trees in the Kimberley. It was a big dinghy trip around to the other side of the island, followed by a tricky anchor and then a short walk to the tree. After some hugs and a few pics we headed back to the boats for some well earned rest. After a bit of research, we came to the conclusion that the boab was about 1000 years old, based on its size. Amazing really!!    

We loved our time at the Osborne Islands, a nice protected anchorage, more great coastline to explore and good company!

Footnote: Whilst we were in Darwin we were reunited with our cruising friends Nic and Julia @ Blue Yonder. They told us a story about how they got stalked by the big croc at the Osborne Islands, including when he jumped up in the middle of the night and tore a towel down from their side railing! To put that in context the rail is two metres above water level…. Scary!!