Cable from Cable Beach

You know the feeling. Bored by your rotation between the condo pool and air-conditioned shopping malls, the desire to be barefoot, carefree, in fresh air beckons. Bali? Vietnam? Thailand? Then, mid-doom scroll, the ad appears.

- BY IMOGEN BOURKE

Broome. Return flights for under two hundred dollars? Broome. 2,046km from the closest Australian city (Perth), but somehow just four hours from Singapore?

My friend Lily, who abandoned Western Australia for a chic Parisian existence complete with Côte d'Azur summers, still touts Broome as the most magical place on earth. Frozen mango smoothies, blazing sunsets, endless horizon along Cable Beach...and the wet T-shirt competition at “The Roey” on a Thursday night. This is the top end of Australia, after all.

Crucially, we book in dry season, as wet season unleashes every Aussie nightmare – poisonous jellyfish, active crocodiles, hungry great whites and swarms of flies that only a cork hat can combat, with no government-sanctioned spraying to save you.