Prison Boab Derby, Western Australia, Australia
By
Shifter Brains on 18-Jul-10. Waypoint GA2463
Cache Details
| Difficulty: | |
| Terrain: | |
| Type: | Virtual |
| Container: | Virtual |
| Coordinates: | S17° 21.045' E123° 40.193' (WGS 84) |
| 51K 571171E 8081518N (UTM) | |
| Elevation: | 10 m |
| Local Government Area: | Derby-West Kimberley |
/123.669883,-17.35075,14/400x200?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoiY2F1Z2h0YXR3b3JrIiwiYSI6ImNqa2l4ZzNzMDE5bjgzdm1sZGpuODF1Mm0ifQ.q8YMzVyzDJJlJHHV8EMjwQ)
Description
Derby's Prison Boab Tree
The massive ancient Boab Prison Tree is believed to be around 1,500 years old and sits on the outskirts of the remote northern town of Derby in Western Australia's rugged Kimberley region.
The tree is an incredible 14 metres in diameter. With its hollow centre and door cut into its side, the Boab Prison Tree was once used by early police patrols as a staging point for prisoners being walked into Derby.
Take a photo of yourself and your GPS with the prison boab tree and post it with your log.
Logs
Going through some old photos and came across this one. Hope it will suffice to claim the find
Rated: for Overall Experience
I flew from Broome to Perth for a work trip which will also take me to Derby. I arrived around lunch time and eventually when my luggage arrived i headed over to grab a hire car. I then headed off to the resort and got settled in here. I decided to do some sightseeing and some caching for GA and GC caches. The closest one was a trig about 200 metres away so around the corner and parked up and trekked up the sandy hill and soon had the trig at my foot. What an outstanding view over Broome and surrounds. I trekked back down the hill and headed over to Cable Beach after stopping for a train - Camel train that is. Grabbed a few caches here then headed off out to Ganthaeume Point for some sightseeing and grabbed the Lighthouse here as well. Eventually i made it back into town all be it getting dark and grabbed the last remaining caches both GA and GC.
Drove to Curtin RAAF Base for work today and got into town just on dark but managed to get a photo of the tree before dark. Thanks for the cache and bringing me here Shifter Brains.
Drove to Curtin RAAF Base for work today and got into town just on dark but managed to get a photo of the tree before dark. Thanks for the cache and bringing me here Shifter Brains.
Rated: for Overall Experience
Stopped here on our Adventure Wild Kimberley adventure. Bet this tree could tell a few stories.
Rated: for Overall Experience
The Big Western Australia trip in 2018. Day 18. After not being able to go on a Horizontal falls trip I cached around Derby taking in highlights like the Prison tree and the Wharf.
It is amazing how big these trees can get to.
Thanks
Albida
It is amazing how big these trees can get to.
Thanks
Albida
Have been here twice before but all pre geocaching.
First time you could drive right near the tree and even go inside it.
Second,time it had a fence around it and no entry but could drive raround it.
Today have to park a little away and walk in, As we drove n we thought it was gone but then noticed it up the path.
The bees love it here
Tftc
Always a place we call into when in the area
First time you could drive right near the tree and even go inside it.
Second,time it had a fence around it and no entry but could drive raround it.
Today have to park a little away and walk in, As we drove n we thought it was gone but then noticed it up the path.
The bees love it here
Tftc
Always a place we call into when in the area
Found today in company with TWO after driving up from Broome. Shortly afterwards we managed to book into the a Caravan Park so we very comfy for a couple of days. Thanks to Shifter Brains for the cache.
After travelling the Gibb River Rd we explored Derby and this was one of several caches we found. Interesting spot.
Rated: for Overall Experience
After travelling the Gibb River Rd we explored Derby and this was one of several caches we found. Interesting spot.
Rated: for Overall Experience
5 June 2013, Week 6 – Day 38 of our Trip Around Australia
(http://mrlocks.tumblr.com)
https://www.facebook.com/mark.seberry?ref=tn_tnmn
“1CADFAY”, (1 cache a day for a year).
Derby WA
A bit of a sleep in for the adults after a restless night, a child needing the toilet at 2am, rain showers coming through every now and then, very high humidity and a power outage during the night which woke me up as the resmed stopped working, I then lay awake not able to sleep properly without it and wondering how long before the power would come back on and if it was worth switching the fridge over to gas. So with interuptions, a sleep in would have been nice, if not for noisy children waking up early and banging around in the caravan making their own breakfast for the first time in their lives, lol.
We were moving on today and set about packing up, this seemed to take a lot longer than usual, even with some cooperation this time from children trying to be helpful, lol. The drizzly rain continued the whole time making things uncomfortable, but we got there in the end and were eventually on the road. We drove out of town and straight into some very dark rain clouds, I reduced our speed to about 50kph at times as the rain was so heavy I could barely see the road. When we got to Roebuck it was like a switch had been flicked, the road was dry and the way ahead was bright and clear. We stopped along the way to look for a cache “Without A Paddle, GC14D93”, well, this is very hard to stop at if you are towing a caravan, I had to park about 300m away. I was a bit dubious about this one as it had some cryptic NM notes and it hadn’t been found since OCT 2012, the description said something about quite heavy rocks to shift, OMG! The place was just end to end rocks, and I’m a cacher not a miner! So a DNG on this one despite spending way too much time moving smaller rocks.
We carried on, coming to a 24hr parking area, Nillibubbica. Great idea these places, due to the rain this one was a bit muddy, but well patronized, having a few caravans which seemed to be there for the long term and half a dozen others stopping for a lunch break. I jumped out to grab a photo so I could log it as a Waymark, by WanderingAus. Charlie tested all the toilets and off we went again.
The landscape along the way changed from fairly thick bush to open up into a more sparse type of bush with lots of smaller termite mounds and scattered around some boab trees, there were also lots of stray cattle, often close to the side of the road which required a precautionary dramatic slowing down to avoid the possible collision, often they would wander across the road and would need a bit of a hurry up with a blast of the horn.
We crossed a few one lane bridges which had me worried as we crossed as they were quite long, luckily we didn’t encounter any other vehicles coming the other way. At the last bridge we came to Willare Bridge Roadhouse, we stopped here and had some lunch and a bit of a look around the complex before continuing on towards Derby. We passed Curtain RAAF Airbase on the way, as we approached the town we saw the tourist sign for the Boab Prison Tree and stopped in here to have a look and get some pics, at the site near the tree were some interesting information boards detailing some local history and cultural information. There was a very long trough nearby, at 120m is thought to be the longest in the southern hemisphere. This must have inspired the cache here, “A Long Drink, GC413FA”. This was another DNF, but not a surprise as it already had 4 DNFs, I had a quick look but knew I was wasting my time and let it go.
We continued the rest of the way into town, found our way to the Derby caravan park, set up the van and after a cuppa went out to have a look at the town jetty. The tide was quite low and still on its way out when we arrived, we walked along the jetty watching some people fishing, a family of tourists were throwing in some crab pots and managed to catch a couple of smaller ones. We needed to get some food shopping and went off to Woolies, by the time we got out it was already dark so once back at the caravan it was once again time to have dinners and retire for the night.
After dinner we watched the State of Origin and were pleased to see NSW get a win in the first game.
(http://mrlocks.tumblr.com)
https://www.facebook.com/mark.seberry?ref=tn_tnmn
“1CADFAY”, (1 cache a day for a year).
Derby WA
A bit of a sleep in for the adults after a restless night, a child needing the toilet at 2am, rain showers coming through every now and then, very high humidity and a power outage during the night which woke me up as the resmed stopped working, I then lay awake not able to sleep properly without it and wondering how long before the power would come back on and if it was worth switching the fridge over to gas. So with interuptions, a sleep in would have been nice, if not for noisy children waking up early and banging around in the caravan making their own breakfast for the first time in their lives, lol.
We were moving on today and set about packing up, this seemed to take a lot longer than usual, even with some cooperation this time from children trying to be helpful, lol. The drizzly rain continued the whole time making things uncomfortable, but we got there in the end and were eventually on the road. We drove out of town and straight into some very dark rain clouds, I reduced our speed to about 50kph at times as the rain was so heavy I could barely see the road. When we got to Roebuck it was like a switch had been flicked, the road was dry and the way ahead was bright and clear. We stopped along the way to look for a cache “Without A Paddle, GC14D93”, well, this is very hard to stop at if you are towing a caravan, I had to park about 300m away. I was a bit dubious about this one as it had some cryptic NM notes and it hadn’t been found since OCT 2012, the description said something about quite heavy rocks to shift, OMG! The place was just end to end rocks, and I’m a cacher not a miner! So a DNG on this one despite spending way too much time moving smaller rocks.
We carried on, coming to a 24hr parking area, Nillibubbica. Great idea these places, due to the rain this one was a bit muddy, but well patronized, having a few caravans which seemed to be there for the long term and half a dozen others stopping for a lunch break. I jumped out to grab a photo so I could log it as a Waymark, by WanderingAus. Charlie tested all the toilets and off we went again.
The landscape along the way changed from fairly thick bush to open up into a more sparse type of bush with lots of smaller termite mounds and scattered around some boab trees, there were also lots of stray cattle, often close to the side of the road which required a precautionary dramatic slowing down to avoid the possible collision, often they would wander across the road and would need a bit of a hurry up with a blast of the horn.
We crossed a few one lane bridges which had me worried as we crossed as they were quite long, luckily we didn’t encounter any other vehicles coming the other way. At the last bridge we came to Willare Bridge Roadhouse, we stopped here and had some lunch and a bit of a look around the complex before continuing on towards Derby. We passed Curtain RAAF Airbase on the way, as we approached the town we saw the tourist sign for the Boab Prison Tree and stopped in here to have a look and get some pics, at the site near the tree were some interesting information boards detailing some local history and cultural information. There was a very long trough nearby, at 120m is thought to be the longest in the southern hemisphere. This must have inspired the cache here, “A Long Drink, GC413FA”. This was another DNF, but not a surprise as it already had 4 DNFs, I had a quick look but knew I was wasting my time and let it go.
We continued the rest of the way into town, found our way to the Derby caravan park, set up the van and after a cuppa went out to have a look at the town jetty. The tide was quite low and still on its way out when we arrived, we walked along the jetty watching some people fishing, a family of tourists were throwing in some crab pots and managed to catch a couple of smaller ones. We needed to get some food shopping and went off to Woolies, by the time we got out it was already dark so once back at the caravan it was once again time to have dinners and retire for the night.
After dinner we watched the State of Origin and were pleased to see NSW get a win in the first game.
Rated: for Overall Experience
A great spot, with some interesting information. It was a bit disturbing to see the photo of the kidnapped aborigines in chains though. I thought the negro slaves stolen from Africa was bad but apparently the early Australians weren't any better. A group of bees were swarming in the tree so we didn't hang around for too long. Thanks.
What a magnificent tree with a wonderful history. Certainly a very popular place this morning as one tourist bus after the other pulled in. TFTC
Been here a couple of times but kept forgetting about the cache. Very impressive tree and history.
Rated: for Overall Experience
What an awesome tree! Dropped in to see it on a "quick" drive up from Broome. Those Boabs really are impressive trees aren't they. *FTF*
Rated: for Overall Experience
