Research from the Kimberley.
Where we publish what we’re learning on the ground — the survey data, the driver economics, the things you can’t find in a Bureau of Statistics dataset. Written by the operators doing the work.
Setting up the 2027 re-run.
The 2026 Broome Chamber survey gave us a snapshot. To turn a snapshot into a longitudinal study, we have to run it again. Here's what's changing in the 2027 wave, what we're adding, and how you register your business to take part.
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The hidden cost of broken transport in Broome.
73% of Broome businesses said unreliable transport had disrupted their operations in the last 12 months. We've spent the last few weeks turning that number into a back-of-envelope estimate of what it actually costs the town. The honest answer: somewhere between $4M and $12M a year. Here's the maths.
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Tourism, mining, health — what each sector told us.
The Chamber survey's 77 respondents spanned roughly six sectors of the Broome economy. The aggregate headline finding (84% want rideshare) holds across all of them, but the underlying transport problem looks meaningfully different sector by sector. This post is the operating thesis — what each sector needs from Pearl Coast Rental, before the full sector cross-tab of the data publishes.
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What the 6% who said no had to say.
The Chamber survey reported overwhelming support for rideshare in Broome — 84% in favour, 86% would use it. That's the headline. The harder, more important number is the 6% who said no. This is what they told us, and why we take it seriously.
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The airport overcharging problem (and how we plan to fix it).
43% of Broome businesses reported customers had been overcharged by private drivers on airport-to-accommodation runs. The number is customer-reported, which means the real rate is higher. This is the post about what is actually happening, why the regulatory framework cannot stop it, and what Pearl Coast Rental is committing to instead.
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The 66% nobody talks about: getting home safely after dark.
Two thirds of Broome businesses surveyed reported staff or customers unable to get home safely after evening events. The number is unchanged from the no-show booking rate. They are the same problem. This is the post about why that matters more than the headline finding.
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Two verbatims, one story: what Broome businesses are quietly absorbing.
The Chamber survey ran two free-text fields alongside the quantitative questions. The numbers tell you what happened. The verbatims tell you what businesses are doing about it. This is the closer read.
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84% of Broome businesses want rideshare. Here’s what we’re building.
Of 77 Broome businesses we surveyed through the Chamber of Commerce, only 6% said no to introducing rideshare. 86% said they'd use it for staff or customers. This is the data we took to Uber when they asked us to launch the Northern Expansion.
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The taxi system in Broome is broken. Here’s the data.
73% of Broome businesses said long taxi wait times have disrupted operations or customer experience in the last 12 months. 66% had bookings simply not turn up. We turned the Chamber survey into a picture of what's actually breaking on the ground.
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What 77 Broome businesses told us about transport.
In early 2026 we ran a transport needs survey through the Broome Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 77 businesses responded — tourism operators, mining contractors, health and community services, retail, trades. This is what we asked, who replied, and what came back.
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