Extraordinary taxi ride to Broome

TOURISM campaign pays out a $20,000 taxi fare for travellers to take a 13,000km magical mystery tour to remember.  

Taxi driver Doug Slater takes in the sights on the incredible journey

SOMEONE had to say it. Even a blind man could see that Western Australia is no ordinary State.

Joe Senior, a UK tourist, didn’t exactly see the horizontal waterfalls, the rich red earth or brilliant blue skies of the Kimberley coast.

But against a chorus of red-winged parrots and rainbow lorikeets he heard them all described vividly by his brother James.

He smelt eucalyptus in remote paradise - the Aboriginal-owned wilderness camp at Cape Leveque.

He tasted lemongrass at One Arm Point under the guidance of his newfound Indigenous friend, Neville Poelina, who also gave him mental pictures of the spectacular views out to the Buccaneer Archipelago.

Joe and James were the final passengers in Doug Slater’s taxi which burst through a welcome banner and coasted to a halt above Broome’s Cable Beach. The setting could not have been more appropriate for Tourism Western Australia’s brave, bold and - some would say foolhardy - $5.9 million campaign with the catchy title of the Extraordinary Taxi Ride.

$20,000 taxi ride
The taxi embarked on a journey to take 22 passengers on different legs of a nine-and-half week whistlestop tour of the vast State of WA.

It’s an academic point but paying customers would have forked out $20,000 for such a ride. But Joe won his leg of the journey in an online competition stating he wanted his brother to explain the sights for him.

The historic ride ended on Cable Beach, where 1000 colourful characters from the old pearling town came out to watch. The taxi’s odometer displayed over 13,000km.

“It was a fantastic journey,” Doug, the taxi driver, said. “I’m going to come straight back to Broome to have a holiday with my longsuffering wife. This time I’ll be towing a caravan.”
Tagging along with Doug were 160,000 cyber passengers who logged on for the wild ride.

“It has achieved record media exposure worth $2.6 million, reaching a potential global audience of more than 60 million people so far,” Tourism Western Australia chairman, Kate Lamont, said.

Kiwi seal of approval
Doug’s Kiwi passengers – Reg Clothier and Jim McIntosh – also gave the trip the thumbs up after jostling along the Gibb River Road in a 4WD which was swapped for the taxi for leg 10.

Kiwis, as anyone who has travelled with one would know, are a hard lot to impress. Everything the Land of the Long White Cloud has to offer is greener, higher, cleaner and more thrilling than anything overseas - especially Australia.

So when Reg and Jim described the red rugged ranges, mystical boab trees, and cascading waterfalls – as “sumply awesome” that was the ultimate seal of approval.

“I was surprised at how different WA is to the rest of Australia,” Reg said.

“Tourists can’t say they have been to Australia unless they have been to WA.

“It has a personality all of its own and the sights are completely different, so much more rugged than the east coast.”

But, it was Joe Senior - the 57-year old man from Liverpool who lost his sight in an accident at the age of six - who provided the lasting memory.

Hugging his Aboriginal guide Neville Poelina in an emotional farewell, he proved that love is not blind.

“I can visualise it all,” he said.

“I can feel the enormity of it. I can hear the birds singing their melodies. I can hear the sound of the waves lapping against the shore.

“The great thing I picked up from it was the knowledge from the Indigenous people. I learnt so much from them.”