Broome Guide: Stephen Pigram

For many people, the music of Stephen Pigram is the sound of Broome — songs such as Saltwater Cowboys, from the Pigram Brothers’ Saltwater Country album, and Feel Like Going Back Home, from the musical Bran Nue Dae.

But for the man himself, it’s a song written by his cousin Mick Manolis that really captures the spirit of his home town.

Titled Fishing, the song was originally recorded by Kuckles — the pair’s band with Jimmy Chi and others in the early 80s — and describes fishing to feed your family.

“It feels of that time when basically that’s all you did — you could actually survive off fishing, crabbing, hunting, instead of going to the supermarket,” Stephen says.

“I reckon that’s the song that sums up Broome.”

Fittingly, fishing is a favourite pastime for the musician, who got his start as a teenager performing in local pubs such as the Roebuck Bay Hotel.

These days, he spends part of the year playing music away from home and missing the casual Kimberley life — “being able to walk around in shorts and thongs, or barefoot”.

So when he gets home, he always looks forward to heading out to catch seafood such as fish, mud crabs and shellfish.

“That’s the first thing you think of — you have a look at the tide and think ‘Is it worth fishing or worth crabbing?’

“In winter, in the dry season, we’ll concentrate on the bay — the salmon run, and you get crab there too. And in the wet season, we usually fish on the coastal side on the reefs.”

Stephen says Broome is no longer the “lazy old town” it was when he was growing up in the 1960s.

However, he still likes to take visitors to Chinatown to get a feel for the history.

“It’s really good to show people that’s where it all started,” he says.

“It still is the hub, I guess. Even when I perform there you feel a sense of history — you feel like the spirits are still listening in on the songs you’re singing.”