I have a special affinity for the Kimberley region of Western Australia. When my family returned to Australia in 1964, we came from a comfortable UK manor house in the north of England to Kununurra in the far north Kimberley.
Note I said 1964!
The Kimberley circa 1964
Back then, and up there, there was no TV, radio was the shortwave version of the ABC – if the weather was kind – travel was via plane from Perth, 2,200Km away and was something like a 10 hour flight with stops at every major town on the way. The alternative was via State ships which left Wyndham 120Km west and took over 10 days or so.
All food including milk etc had to be flown in, but generally we just used powered milk.But we did have a bakery.
This all occurred during the building of the massive Ord River dam complex, with Lake Argyle, the resulting lake, being 20 times the size of Sydney Harbour to give you a reference point. I can safely say as a kid, I have stood at the bottom of Lake Argyle – before it was flooded.
It is also fair to say I grew up and saw parts of the Kimberley and its culture that will never be available again, and I am thankful for it.
Derby and Broome
A few years later, we moved to Derby, and while living here for 4 years, I discovered Broome, the jewel of the Kimberley, and in my opinion, everyone should visit this town at least once in your life. Be aware though, you may not want to leave.
Why do I bring all this up?
I saw a report on the ABC website today that I find disturbing on a number of levels. And yes, it involves AI. Of course it does.
Apparently, some unscrupulous morons are using AI-generated videos posted to social media and claim they portray locations across Western Australia’s north including Broome and the Kimberley interior.
Misrepresentation
Tour operators say the videos misrepresent the Kimberley region and threaten the preservation of Indigenous culture.
There are videos of a so-called “cliffside retreat” (that doesn’t actually exist), and laughably, crocodiles “sunbathing” on top of 50 metre cliffs. Now I have a very healthy respect for crocodiles, especially the saltwater variety, as I was saved from being croc breakfast in the Fitzroy River near Derby by seconds when I was about to dive in to grab a snagged fishing lure.
My fishing companion and mentor, a veteran of the Kimberley grabbed my ankle and hauled me back into the boat as he spotted a fresh slide from a croc on the mud 20 metres away.
As cunning as crocs are though, they cannot climb cliffs.
Other imagery shows indigenous people, using an avatar, to describe pearling around Broome, and local authority Bart Pigram has said publicly the image is not authentic and “the shells in the video did not resemble the correct Pinctada maxima shell, and the video did not portray the gruelling conditions faced by Indigenous divers at the time”.
And that is just a sample of this nonsense being posted. I am NOT going to show any of the images here by the way. If you are for some reason interested, the link above to the ABC website shows a few of them.
Check Out The Real Thing
There are so many gifted photographers and videographers that have imagery displaying the wonders of the Kimberley that this AI slop is neither needed nor warranted. Tourism Western Australia has lots at this link for example.
Better still, go there yourself and take your own photos and video. You will not be disappointed I promise you. There are I believe direct flights from Sydney and Melbourne, and from Canberra, Brisbane and Adelaide via Perth.
Ganthaume Point, Broome, Western Australia, shot on a DJI AVATA 360 drone
Disclaimer: I am not in the pay of any airline or tourism organisation. Once you have lived in the Kimberley as they say, the red dust just gets into your blood.