Kununurra and the Kimberleys

After Kakadu we headed back through Katherine briefly to pick up supplies, then turned onto the Victoria Highway heading west. Again, many long miles of flat scrub for hour after hour. Then we went through an area called Gregory National Park, and found we had hit the Kimberleys well before we hit the border, as geographical regions will not be defined by an imaginary line on a map.

The main feature of the Kimberleys, as became more and more evident over the next few days, was rock formations. This whole area is not hilly or mountainous as such, (it is mainly fairly flat,) but has several series of rocky outcroppings every now and then. These come up as ridges, or walls, rather than hills, and can run for many kilometers. They look almost like crater walls. In fact there are areas that do resemble moonscapes, but with the crater edges softened by some growth of scanty vegetation. Apparently this was all formed many thousands of millions of years ago from movement of tectonic plates, (though all has been quite stable for some time,) and then the effect of time and weathering. It is really quite spectacular and majestic. Probably the biggest and most striking of these is the Bungle Bungles, but more on them in the next entry.

Our first port of call in Western Australia, and the Kimberleys proper, was Kununurra. But before we could get there we had to get over the border - which proved harder than it sounds. They have very strict rules of quarantine on fruit and vegies coming in to WA, and as I have said, we had just stocked up in Katherine. So we pulled over just before the border and stuffed our faces with as many mandarins and tomatoes as we could guzzle down. But, alas, it was nowhere near enough, and we had to admit defeat and hand over all the remainder to the quarantine lady. She actually turned out to be very helpful when she saw how disappointed we were. She noticed we had tomatoes and onions, so she suggested we pull over and cook them. Cooked, they would not be a quarantine issue at all. So we did, returning the peels to her as evidence. And we ended up with a nice tomato base that we cooked around for the next few days. We did lose several mandarins though.

Kununurra is a great little town that has been transformed by the visionary forward thinking of a few people about 40 years ago. It lies on the Ord River, and like all regions in this part of the world, has a dry season, when the river almost disappears, and a wet season, when it usually floods. Some bright spark engineers studied the area, and suggested building a dam in one strategic spot. This would collect the water in the wet, and allow the river to continue to flow in the dry, as well as being able to irrigate many thousands of hectares around the area. The dam was built of rock and clay, with no concrete, and mainly by strategic use of explosives on nearby rocks. It runs a hydroelectric power plant which supplies clean energy to the whole region.

And the resulting lake that has formed behind the dam, Lake Argyle, contains water volumes over twenty times the water in the Sydney Harbour. This is after enough is released to keep the Ord flowing at its usual rate, as well as all that is taken for irrigation. It is the biggest man-made fresh water lake in Australia. And the number of fish has flourished, as well as bird life around the lake, not to mention the fresh-water crocodiles. We took a cruise on a beautiful yacht on the lake, and though we were on the water for more than five hours, we didn't cover even a third of it. Also had a swim - as one of the others on the boat said, "I have slept between satin sheets before, but I have never swum in them, until now."

The whole area around Kununurra has been transformed into a green oasis because of the irrigation, and they are growing mangoes, grain crops, even sunflowers. The latest venture is sandalwood, which is very lucrative in the Asian market. It just seems to be such a win-win situation in every way, and I cannot understand why so many people are against dams at the moment. This sort of project would never get off the ground now.

The other rocks this region is famous for are a bit smaller than the Bungle Bungles. They are, of course, the diamonds from the Argyle Diamond Mine. The Argyle Mine is famous for its pink diamonds, and it has over 90% of all the pink diamonds in the world. We didn't go to see the mine, as a tour cost several hundred dollars, and security is very tight. You can see why when you see the diamonds on display at the shops in town, a tiny diamond comes in at at least $50,000.

Altogether loved this town and this whole area. Onto the Bungle Bungles tomorrow.

GeorgeY's bit

In this entry we take a BBQ lunch cruise, a full day cruise, then visit a short wave radio station.

As you hit the Kimberleys nature itself changes, it takes on a magical feel, almost fairy tale book style. First the boab trees appear - funny looking things, almost comical, but with a lot to offer. They look like a cariacature of a tree, drawn by a wacky cartoon artist. While the boab fruit looks as if it is a nut, it isn't. The centre is a white powdery mush that can be mixed with water and sugar to taste, turning it into a bread like material. The boab trunk is bloated, not just to look funny, but if you know what you are doing you can tap into it and get water to drink, or even have a shower if you are really good. Other uses of boab trees include living in them, sheltering from cyclones, incarcerating drunk and disorderly natives, and the list goes on.

Secondly the rock formations become amazing and varied, (more than Devils Marbles) in size and colour. So do the termite mounds.

Kununurra has a nice feel to it. Not too big, but has everything reasonably classy. Lake Argyle has lots of islands, one of them is called Pumpkin Island in honour of an aboriginal man nicknamed Pumpkin. He lived with the Durack family, which was unusual even back then. As the first aboriginal to leave his clan. he was part of the family, and Mr Durack gave him his gold watch as a sign of appreciation. When he felt he was near the end of his life he went walkabout ,as per aboriginal traditions, and years later his body was found in the river with the gold watch in his hand. This little story highlighted the importance of integration and good will in society.

Good will has given Kununurra a lot of wealth and created ethical industries, and a very nice flourishing environment. The lake supplies a lot of oxygen from algae, while hosting tons of birds and fish, as well as fresh water crocs.

Everyone in Argyle tells the story of catfish having an unmarketable name to it. As soon as it was changed to "Silver Cobbler" everyone loved eating it and sometimes they call it "Silver". Beautiful fish with a rebadged name.

On Saturday there was a market, and one coffee stall was run by the local Anglican church. Very friendly lot, invited us to the Sunday service, and we tried discretely to find out if it had music and singing - a form of worship we prefer over traditional prayer book. Sunday after the service we tried to hurry out for a last top up of supplies as we were heading into more outback parts, so we put an invitation to take a tour of the Short Wave radio broadcasting in the region on the back burner. But the Lord had other plans. Every possible activity was either closed or not available, so we went to the tour and that was a story on its own. The stories we were told about this construction is a miracle in itself, later on I will put a link to the website for more details.

Mining Zebra rocks and turning them into artwork was another stop over, as well as the distillery with the rum tasting. I now realize there is no need to waste time on beer if I can make rum. The plans are developing in my mind now as we speak.