After spending nearly five months on a cattle station close to Fitzroy Crossing I was excited to return to civilization and indulge in some decent tucker. I was fortunate to be in the proximity to Fitzroy Crossing’s two restaurants (yes a choice of two!) including my favourite, the Fitzroy River Lodge. However, during my time at Brooking Springs Station I rarely made it off the homestead which meant that by the end of my stint as a Jillaroo, I was craving a meal out.
To mark the end of my time on the station, I headed to the Broome Cup with some of the girls from the local hospital and my colleague El. I had a cracking time at the races despite not actually seeing a horse, I couldn’t have asked for a better send off. The following day I had arranged to go on a fishing charter with the crew from GoGo, the neighbouring station.
Rising at 6am after a day at the races wasn’t the best feeling for a Sunday morning but I was stoked to be spending a day on the water. Forward wind a few hours and it was a different story. You know how there’s always that one person on every boat trip who’s as white as a ghost and spewing up over the side? Yep, that was me! I can honestly say, I had never felt so crook in years and spent the whole day asleep on the floor. I didn’t even get a chance to sample some of the delicious grub laid out, let alone try my hand at fishing!
Once back on dry land and feeling moderately better, I joined the GoGo lot for dinner at Matso’s Brewery which is one of Broome’s most popular and well-known restaurants. Matso’s are known for their speciality brews, especially their Ginger Beer. Heading for the tap list after my previous 24 hours probably wasn’t the best idea but it certainly made me feel better. I tried their very tasty Lychee Beer followed by their Mango Beer, which I wasn’t too keen on.
It was a tough choice with what to eat for my first meal out in ages and my first bit of grub in over 24 hours. A toss up between the scallops and pork belly, I went for the pork which again, may not have been the wisest of moves for sea-sick stomach. However, it went down well and the pork belly was well cooked and a decent size.
I wasn’t overly keen on the paw paw, watermelon and rockmelon that accompanied it, thinking this would be a fresh salad but really it was soggy and a little warm. The Asian-style sauce and cashew nuts, which first caught my eye on the menu, were sparse and if I’m honest, I do wish I had gone for those scallops.
All in all though, the food was good and I would certainly return to Matso’s. I tried some of my friends prawn linguine which was nice and again, a decent sized portion. As always, El and I couldn’t end a meal without something sweet so we shared a scoop of Snicker’s ice cream, our favourite. The ice cream was nice but did lack a distinct Snickers flavour and tasted more like vanilla ice cream with a couple of peanuts thrown in and a dash of chocolate sauce. It still hit the spot mind.
I had a lovely meal at Matso’s with friends, a great way to end my time on the cattle station. I would certainly return to Matso’s but I wouldn’t write home about it. It’s certainly worth trying some of their beers, especially in a region with much less of a choice as opposed to somewhere like Melbourne.
It’s been nice to finally have the opportunity to write a long awaited restaurant review from The Kimberley’s and I was due to give you more but I’ve decided to return to the outback. I’m continuing work as a Jillaroo, this time at Springvale Station, some 75km from the nearest town, Halls Creek. Look out for an update of what I am doing, coming soon…..
Living life, loving civilisation!
H x
Follow Helen on Instagram for lovely photo’s on and around the cattle station.
[…] After 37 hours on a road train from Broome to Perth with trucker Garry, Helen arrived at her friend Mel’s where she could finally relax […]