Locations
Buccaneer Archipelago
Named by Captain Phillip Parker King to commemorate English buccaneer and privateer, William Dampier who charted the area in 1688. The stunning Buccaneer Archipelago on the Southern Kimberley coast is a drowned coastline, consisting of some 1000 islands, formed approximately 19,000 years ago as a result of the rising sea levels.
Spanning more than 50 square kilometres, this remote and pristine area offers some of the most spectacular Kimberley scenery featuring secluded white sandy beaches, extensive mangrove estuaries, patches of rain forest, ancient rock art and an abundance of wildlife.
Cockatoo Island
This remote Kimberley island located in the Buccaneer Archipelago has long been known for its high quality iron ore. Pearl luggers in the 1880s used it as ballast on their voyages and for many years it was home to one of the most profitable iron ore mines operated by BHP.
Alan and Eileen Bond purchased the island in the 1980's and developed it into the infamous Cockatoo Island resort that became a symbol of the 80's excess. Eileen famously painted all of the houses pink to reflect the colour of the Kimberley sunsets she so adored. After the bank reclaimed the resort in the early 1990's it sat virtually untouched until 2017 when a group of keen investors purchased the lease with the dream of breathing life back into this once bustling island paradise.
Horizontal Falls
Located in Talbot Bay in the Buccaneer Archipelago is this incredible natural phenomenon once described by David Attenborough as "one of the greatest wonders of the natural world".
Formed by the massive Kimberley tides, seawater banks up on one side of twin gaps in the McLarty Ranges. As the water rises it then squeezes through the coastal gorges creating the incredible waterfall effect known as the Horizontal Falls. The waterfall effect is repeated again on the turning tide.