Pearl Coast Zoological Gardens, also known as Pearl Coast Zoo, or simply Broome Zoo, was a zoo founded by Lord McAlpine of West Green in the Cable Beach suburb of Broome, Western Australia.
First opened in 1984 as the Pearl Coast Wildlife Park, by 1988 the zoo had more than doubled in size. It was one of a number of developments of McAlpine's in the town credited with transforming Broome from a "derelict" place into "an international tourist destination". The zoo ran into financial difficulties in the early 1990s, ostensibly due to falling visitor numbers, and rebranded itself as the Wonderful World of Birds for a period. McAlpine's attorney, however, revealed in late 1992 that the zoo had been running at a loss ever since it had opened. The zoo closed at some point after December 1992, by which point most of the animals had already been sold. At its peak, the zoo consisted of 75 acres, of which 35 acres were built upon.
In 2012, The West Australian described the former zoo as "a lush, tropical oasis ... filled with weird and wonderful exotic animals and a cacophony of bright, colourful birds".
Background McAlpine, a "quixotic" and "eccentric" wealthy British businessman, first visited Perth in 1960 on the maiden voyage of the SS Oriana. He became involved in property development in the city, including the construction of the Parmelia Hotel. McAlpine visited Broome for the first time in 1974, on the advice of his Perth lawyer, John Adams, who suggested they fly there together in McAlpine's private plane, as part of McAlpine's search for antique farm machinery to collect.
McAlpine was taken by the town, although he described it as derelict. According to a 2018 interview with Sue Thom (guest relations manager at McAlpine's Cable Beach Club Resort since its opening in 1988), upon arriving in Broome, McAlpine went to look at sea shells and later rendezvoused with the rest of his party at the Roebuck Bay Hotel for lunch. Midway through the meal, he announced that he had already bought his first property in the town, reputedly having signed the deal on a beer coaster at the Roey pub.
Broome development After that initial visit, McAlpine enthusiastically began purchasing large landholdings in the area, at one point owning more than 20 properties. He undertook several development projects, drawing in his experience with property development since his time in Perth.
In 1982, McAlpine purchased McAlpine House, which became his residence in Broome for more than a decade, where he planted an extensive tropical garden, with aviaries housing exotic birds, including his prized eclectus parrots. By 1984, the house was described by Broome News as "one of (Broome's) showcase residential homes" with grounds "...packed with exotic plants and wildlife from all over the world". It was in that context that McAlpine's idea for a wildlife attraction in Broome originated, resulting in the opening of the Pearl Coast Wildlife Park in 1984, later renamed the Pearl Coast Zoological Gardens.
At the time of the zoo's construction, Broome was still a very isolated outpost with "hardly any shipping, the last piece of road between Halls Creek and Broome was still dirt track, (and) freezer trucks had just started to come through", according to Thom. In this unlikely location, McAlpine chose to build "a zoo filled with endangered and exotic animals", confident that it would attract tourists.
Conscious that potential visitors to Broome would have limited accommodation options, McAlpine also purchased land at Cable Beach, where he oversaw the establishment of the town's first luxury accommodation, the 600-bed Cable Beach Club Resort, a joint venture between the Western Australian Development Corporation (WADC) and McAlpine's own company Australian City Properties (ACP). The club was opened in 1988 to coincide with the celebration of Australia's bicentenary.
What is now the Cable Beach Club Resort & Spa was at that point "just a caravan park and paddock" on the headland, according to Thom. McAlpine spent AUD $55 million (at 1987 prices) developing the resort, hoping to develop Broome as a tourist destination for visitors from Australia as well as overseas. McAlpine's low-rise, largely timber resort was the antithesis to what other developers such as Christopher Skase were building on the east coast in places such as Port Douglas, Cairns and the Gold Coast. According to Lyn Page, a former employee of McAlpine's, his motives for developing the Club on the site were not entirely commercial however: Alistair's office was on the top floor of where Willie Creek Pearls are now. He overlooked the Bali Hai caravan park which was an eyesore, and every time Alistair drove past it he saw it as a personal affront. He loathed it. He figured that the only way to do something about it was to buy it which he did, and proceeded to develop the Cable Beach Club...
The journalist Hugh Edwards, writing in the 2000s, noted that not everybody in Broome was happy with what McAlpine was doing in the mid to late-1980s: There was a group in town strongly opposed to any changes to Broome. They were suspicious and perhaps envious at what they saw as too much money in one person's hands. They had an egalitarian dislike of anyone with the title of Lord. They called themselves 'Conservationists' but in reality they were conservatives to whom any change was anathema. They opposed his every move with protests to Council and Government. While they made life difficult, McAlpine recognised that it was part of living in a democracy, and he persevered as he was entitled to, in his own right.
Authors Anne Coombs and Susan Varga, writing in 2001, noted that attitudes towards McAlpine in Broome at the time were still sharply divided, with many resenting him for the "rapid growth of the town and the influx of visitors who overtook Broome".
According to the Australian Financial Review, many of Broome's present heritage buildings "owe their current existence and reinvention (as cafes, restaurants, art galleries) to McAlpine's wallet and passions" at this time. Some buildings, such as the microbrewery and restaurant Matso's Broome Brewery, "were physically transported from their original locations when it would have been far cheaper to build replicas". McAlpine also helped to preserve the Sun Picture Gardens. According to Ron 'Sos' Johnston, a town councillor in the year 2000, "We owe Alistair a hell of a lot for the preservation of the architecture of Broome. His presence kept the other developers out."
In an official guidebook for the Pearl Coast Zoo published in 1988, the appeal of Broome to the prospective visitor was described thus: "Although pearling is still an important activity, Broome has evolved from these origins to become a popular tourist destination. The special appeal of the town is due to many factors including: its splendid, sub-tropical climate; the distinctive character of its architecture; the magnificent wide, sandy beaches with vivid aqua-blue ocean and relaxed lifestyle of its people".
Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park In the 2000 book Why Broome?, Malcolm Douglas recounted how he had flown from Perth to Broome in 1978 to purchase a "very cheap block on land for sale on Lullfitz Drive." Douglas was aware that "if Broome was to become a tourist location, there needed to be tourist attractions like a croc park", and initially wanted ten acres on the corner of Cable Beach Road and Lullfitz Drive on which to develop this venture. After much discussion with Broome Council, he was eventually granted a lease (starting in 1978) for just two and a half acres on the site. By 1983, Douglas noted that "pressure was put on me to either develop the block in Broome or let it go", adding: In 1984, I collected 11 crocs from Kalumburu and brought them back to a couple of pens I had built on the block. Lord McAlpine was building the zoo at the same time. I finally gave him the reptile licence I had and, in return, he undertook not to have crocs in the zoo. The zoo unfortunately closed in the early 1990s, but we are still expanding."
As of , the Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park still exists in Broome, although it has moved to a different location than its initial siting in Cable Beach.
Pearl Coast Wildlife Park
McAlpine's Pearl Coast Wildlife Park, the initial name for what would eventually become the Pearl Coast Zoo, was officially opened on Sunday 12 August 1984. The September 1984 edition of Broome News (at that point the town's only newspaper) reported on the opening thus: "The new Pearl Coast Wildlife Park... is a $350,000 donation to the Broome community and the tourist industry of the north, according to Mr. Dowding. Mr. Dowding opened the park on behalf of the Premier (of Western Australia), and said that Lord McAlpine, who financed the venture, had made a unique philanthropic gesture to the people of Broome. "Lord McAlpine has already spent a fortune developing the project and by the time it is finished the investment will be over $1m." Mr. Dowding said. "I cannot remember anyone previously making a financial commitment like this in Broome with no thought of profit or return on their investment"
McAlpine, then 42 years old, was at that point reputed to have been amongst the top six wealthiest people in the United Kingdom. By the time of the opening of the park, McAlpine also was in possession of his own private zoo in London, but unlike his Broome venture was not open to the public. Speaking to Peter W. Lewis of Broome News in 1984, McAlpine explained the reasons for his opening of the park: "My motivation for establishing the Pearl Coast Wildlife Park was that I love animals, and many of the animals you have in the Kimberlies (sic) just could not survive in the United Kingdom... We have not finished (the park) yet. All the profits from the Park will be poured back into it. I hope to obtain crocodiles and other reptiles, so that it will become an education centre for both children and adults".
The park initially housed only kangaroos, camels and wallabies and covered a total of 25 acres (10 hectares). It is known that the park also occasionally took donations of animals, as by 1988 it was published that a grey kangaroo named "Sheeba" was actually a pet who had been donated. Full-page advertisements for the Wildlife Park were published in the Broome News at first, offering the visitor the chance to see kangaroos, wallabies, emus, water buffalo, camels, antelopes, swans, colourful parrots and "many other native birds", with a publicity photo of "singer Dianne Hammond" feeding one of the parks fallow deer. The "latest arrivals" were advertised as being "Banteng wild cattle from the feral population of the Cobourg Peninsula" (in the Northern Territory), "now classed as rare and endangered in the wild". The opening hours were listed as 09:00 to 16:00, Mon-Sun with an entrance fee of $3 for adults, and $1.50 for children (aged 4–14 years). The address was listed as "Lullfitz Drive, off the Cable Beach Road near Cable Beach".
McAlpine's development of the wildlife park reflected his passion for gardens and animals, and in his mind acted as a sanctuary for the rare species he brought there which would otherwise have been at harm from industrial development, hunting or civil war. The similarity of the Broome landscape to parts of Africa from which many of the animals were taken was also a major factor in the choosing of Broome as the site for his park. It was still, however, a challenge to adapt the dry bushland to the needs of a wide variety of animals, and according to a 1988 guidebook took "several years of hard work together with an imaginative and positive approach" to produce what would eventually become the Pearl Coast Zoological Gardens.