Kununurra - pass through or stay awhile?

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January 17th 2010

Published: January 17th 2010

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Grady and Em

Boab at HCJB

Pretty ugly boab, but it was big. This is the closest we will get to the "Big Boab" I guess.

Grady flew to Kununurra from Geelong exhausted, so we waited until after Christmas before we ventured through any more sights of Kununurra - and there are many.
I have said before that it confuses me when people say they are staying overnight in Kununurra on a trip around Australia. For us, there are so many experiences to have in this small town.
Kununurra is surrounded by mountainous red rock and through it runs the majestic Ord River. From the time the early pioneers arrived, it was thought that the Ord River had the potential to service the whole area, much like the Nile in Egypt. With this in mind, the Ord was dammed, creating the largest manmade lake in Australia - Lake Argyle. The town of Kununurra was established in the early 1960s to service the irrigation area. It is a transient town - in the wet season many people leave town, moving south to escape the heat and the wet.

Our first port of call was to cross the WA/NT border into Keep River National Park. This park is in the Northern Territory, but its closest town is Kununurra in WA, which makes for a fun day trip.
Keep

Dudes at Kelly's Knob

Looking cool in the heat. At the top of Kelly's Knob.

River is known for the sandstone structures similar to the more famous Bungle Bungle Ranges. We first visited Cockatoo Lagoon, which was more like a puddle as the true wet season had not yet begun. The best time to view would be late March or April, when the lagoon would be full and teeming with bird life. Fortunately the walk was tiny; in 42 degree heat (around 107F) we were glad of that!
We drove on to the campground from which there is a loop walk to view the surrounding area. Grady and I were feeling tired and really couldn’t be bothered in the heat with a walk, but Chloe announced to the world that she is a true “bush girl” and we needed to do the walk! Allowing just over an hour for the less-than 2km walk was wise, as the scenery was beautiful. With the bluest of blue skies, the red rock rising up into it and the green of the trees after some substantial rain, the colour palette was stunning. Half an hour into our walk, Chloe was over it and with good reason - the heat absorbed by the rock magnifies the heat of the day.

Kelly's Knob

Stone's throw from the township is Kelly's Knob - a lookout over the whole area. It was a nice spot.

Even in the township, when the temperature is stated at 42C the red rock surrounding the town increases the temperature by significantly more. We were told to expect the temperature to be closer to 50 degrees. As long as we were well equipped with lots of icy cold water however, the kids were fine. It was certainly nothing to compare to the 10km around King’s Canyon (NT)! The 4WD tracks to other places were closed for the oncoming wet, but it was so hot we didn’t want to do the 9km walk anyway. Traveling in the off-season has both disadvantages and benefits - the main benefit being that in the dry season, there are people everywhere. We appreciate that at this time, we can park our van with no crowds and be on our own in tourist spots.

LAKE ARGYLE
On the way home from Keep River, we traveled to Lake Argyle (70km from Kununurra) - a truly magnificent sight from the vantage point. Lake Argyle is Australia’s largest manmade lake and for navigational purposes is classified as an inland sea, with a surface area of around 1000 square kilometers. It was amazing to stand and view such a

Kelly's Knob

Beau is our photographer... peaceful shot.

large expanse of water, but obviously only a portion can be seen. I have been told that the only way to experience Lake Argyle is with a boat ride across but as funds wouldn’t allow, it is something to leave for the future.

WYNDHAM
On a roll with sightseeing, we decided a daytrip to Wyndham was in order. Wyndham is only an hour’s drive from Kununurra and is Australia’s most northerly town. On arrival in the town, we took photos of the Big Crocodile - a 20 metre model scale version of the saltwater crocodile. It was created by the Kimberley Tafe students 20 years ago using computer mathematics and is something the residents are proud of.
Our reason for travel to Wyndham was to view the 5 rivers lookout. This lookout is one of the most spectacular we have seen: the gulf flowing in from the sea and from it 5 rivers branching out: the Durack, King, Pentecost, Forrest and Ord. The lookout area has so many car parks it is obviously a popular spot in the dry season. This day however, we saw one other car for a 5 minute stop and were treated to a midday

Sunset on the Lake

This is the view from our caravan - just a few steps to the lake.

lunch with a million dollar view all to ourselves. Note to other travelers: the barbecue facilities there were free, clean and working well - great place for a snag in bread.

Continuing home from Wyndham we stopped at the Grotto: 140 steps lead down into a warm water pool perfect for swimming (crocodile free). The steps were quite obviously made before any OH&S regulations - I was slightly nervous piggybacking Cody down the steps (especially when he would kick out at the rock wall)! At the bottom we were rewarded with a private pool and glorious swimming. This area would be even more beautiful in early February, as the wet season rains would allow the waterfall to flow.

ZEBRA ROCKS
This area of the Kimberley is the only place in the world where Zebra rocks can be found. They are found in an area close to Lake Argyle and are harvested for 6 weeks of the year only. It is easy to see how they are named: their remarkable striping is just like a zebra. We visited the Zebra Rock art gallery on Packsaddle Road and really enjoyed the outing. There is a small playground for toddlers under

Lake Kununurra

Another view of the lake from our van, showing Elephant Rock.

shade, peacocks, fish feeding of the local catfish and a café complete with ice coffee and mango smoothies. It was a lovely morning. The Zebra Rock gallery also has an enviable view of “Elephant Rock” - so named because it closely resembles an elephant (also named “The Sleeping Buddha”). Yet again, we were treated to the greens of the grass and trees - such a contrast to where we have traveled from: in Victoria the water restrictions are extremely high, whereas in the Top End and the Kimberley we have even seen sprinklers used after rain! We left with some rocks and fresh limes and grapefruits given to us by the owner - free food is always a treat for travelers; the kids loved the grapefruit for breakfast (laden with sugar, of course).

DISCOVERY CVAN PARK
We have been staying at Discovery Caravan Park, on the shores of Lake Kununurra. It seems to be the best park in the area, and the owners are friendly. It’s been fun for the kids to get up in the morning and walk over to the lake for a fish. We have been eating a few catfish of late - this is the

Keep River

A really nice park - you can tell this is at the start of the walk...

most exported fish from the area. Interestingly, sales were low until the name: “Silver Cobbler” was registered for the breed; since then, sales have been much higher.
Fishing is something Grady and I have always enjoyed, and Grades was thrilled when Paul (the owner of the house we looked after) invited him to go “helifishing” one morning. They traveled by helicopter to a remote fishing place inaccessible by car and caught a few barramundi. As always, there was one that got away, with Grady losing an estimated 800mm barra just at the shore. In all, he had a fantastic day - probably the highlight of the whole trip so far.
The boys have been taken out fishing a few times on a boat by a man who lives permanently in the caravan park. He is a retired sergeant from the Canberra police and a real character. I think it’s been a real highlight for them. It’s an amazing thing when one stays at a caravan park for more than just a few days, because you get to meet the community who lives there. Everyone has a story, and it’s been great to meet so many people, even those who just

Beau looking out at Keep river NP

parked next to us for a night. The people in the park have been very kind to us: taking the kids fishing, dropping over treats for them; we even had a man make us 4 litres of mango smoothie!

CANE TOADS
The horrible cane toads (introduced to Queensland in the 1930s in a failed bid to control the sugar cane beetle) are only 20kms away from Kununurra. The Kimberley Cane Toad Busters are fighting a battle (albeit a losing one) to stop them entering the Kimberley and killing the wildlife. Every night these volunteers go out to collect cane toads, juveniles and their eggs to be destroyed. The cane toads are poisonous from egg to adult - who knows the devastation they will bring. It is estimated that the Busters are delaying their arrival by 10 years or so - hopefully the Government will find another way to control them by this stage.
With this in mind, the time to visit the Kimberley area is now, before it is touched by the toad. Litchfield National Park in the Northern Territory was a beautiful sight, but the Cane Toad has devastated life there. I commented to Grady it will be

Keep River NP

Catching some shade in what was probably 48 degrees.

interesting to see what the area looks like in 15 or 20 years.

FLIGHT OVER BUNGLES
We have watched many travel programs featuring the Kimberley area in the past 10 years and each time had said to ourselves that we couldn’t wait to see the Bungle Bungles. The Bungle Bungles are large beehive shaped sandstone domes, with banded stripes across. Known to the Aborigines for many years, it was a documentary crew who stumbled across them in the 1980s. Australia was amazed by the beauty of the area, whose area was named Purnululu National Park and fenced to protect damage from introduced animals and given World Heritage listing in 2006. Unfortunately the four wheel drive to the Bungles (180kms south of Kununurra) was closed and the only way to view them was by air. We booked ourselves in, even though funds were getting extremely low, because we had come so far and didn’t want to miss out at this time.
It is worth noting that even though the Bungles are 180kms from Kununurra, don’t expect a 2 hour drive to them. The 50km 4wd track takes between 2 and 3 hours to drive, so we were told that one

Keep River

Seth and Cody in a picture frame...

should allow 5 hours for the trip. We shall have to return to test that theory!
We were picked up from the caravan park at 5:30am and returned at 8:15am. A friend had kindly offered to watch the kids for us; even so, I left details of next of kin and the address and phone number of the Wilson family from Kununurra Baptist, who by now were good friends. Nothing like being prepared for the worst, hey!
The flight was fantastic and something I would highly recommend. We flew the entire length of Lake Argyle (an amazing sight), over the Packsaddle Ranges, Texas Downs Station (over 163,000 hectares for 10,000 cattle in the shape of the US state of Texas) and the Osmond Ranges which appear as waves about to break on the reef before arriving for our flight through the Bungles. We flew around the Bungles for 15 minutes and I was amazed how many domes there are - not just a few but many, many domes throughout the area. It was certainly unlike any sight I had seen before. We flew over Piccaninny Gorge: the deepest gorge in Purnululu NP, only seen after an extensive hike. The early

Grady with the ranges in the background

morning sunshine lit up the water in the area like diamonds - fantastic. With some rains, the areas had greened up considerably and it was another example of the wet season bringing life and beauty to the area.
Leaving the ranges we turned back to Kununurra past the Argyle Diamond mine. The story of the mine is fascinating: a mining company called Afro-West held the rights to the area and was looking for uranium, when another company called CRA joined an exploration group and found diamonds. They kept this a secret until 2 months before Afro-West’s lease was due to expire. CRA created a dummy camp at nearby El Questro, hiring all aircraft and 4WD vehicle in Kununurra and began work there. Other miners assmed that CRA had found diamonds there and flocked to the area as well. When Afro-West’s lease expired, they didn’t renew it as they had not found uranium (or the diamonds which were right under their noses) and so the next morning, CRA were waiting at the courthouse ready to snatch up the lease, announcing soon after that they had found the world’s largest diamond deposit. The open cut pit began in 1985 (now operated by

Not Happy!

It was your idea, girl!

Rio Tinto) and is the world’s largest diamond mine, producing between ¼ and 1/5 of the world’s diamonds. Their signature stone is the Argyle Pink Diamond and the whole mine was an amazing sight from the air, in which we were able to appreciate the sheer vastness of the project. We didn’t look at any diamonds in Kununurra though - I will stick with my zircon from Gemtree.
There is another diamond mine at nearby Bow River, which we flew over. There are still diamonds there waiting to be unearthed, but the mining company couldn’t reach an agreement with the Aboriginal tribe who controlled the land and so the mine is closed permanently.
After the mine, we flew over the Carr Boyd Ranges before another aerial view of Kununurra and a reasonably soft landing. It was great to appreciate the beauty of the area from the air, although I am looking forward to a second visit one day, when we can drive into the Bungles and see them up close. That said, we are loving the quietness of the wet season - we don’t like caravanning with crowds and the solitude suits us.

We were due to leave Kununurra

After a drink

Amazing what a bit of water can do to a thirsty body!

but decided to hang around for an extra week (making it nearly 7 weeks all up), not knowing why but feeling we should stay and see a few other sights. We didn’t see much else (not even the Hidden Valley National Park, a stone’s throw from the town and supposed to be beautiful), but a few days after received a phone call from home saying that my Grandma had taken ill and needed a section of her bowel removed. Unfortunately she had a stroke after her operation and deteriorated progressively. Dad told me she was going to die and it was heartbreaking to be literally on the other side of Australia to my family who were suffering. It was also hurting me greatly that I could not talk to her in the hospital and give her a hug or a kiss and was so grateful when Dad called and let me say goodbye to her over the phone. What a difficult thing that was - saying goodbye to someone, knowing it was the last time. What other words are there to say but: “I love you”?
Dad called on Sunday morning to tell me that Grandma had died. It was

Section of Lake Argyle

You can just make out the road at the bottom - we drove on this soon after. Gives an idea of how big it all is (can't see the rest of it).

our last day in Kununurra and I knew that we were there so that I could be surrounded by people who had become my friends and to go to a church where I felt like I belonged. How amazing it was that on the day that my Grandma had passed on that a lovely lady I had befriended gave me a card to say how much she had enjoyed my company and enclosed some money for me to buy some clothes or get my hair done. She had no idea of my week and I can only explain it by saying it must have been a special gift from God. Not since our time at Halls Creek had we felt so renewed. Kununurra will always remain special in our hearts for the people we met there: they are the true gems of the Kimberley.

We left the following morning for Broome. At the turnoff out of Kununurra to Halls Creek I took a snapshot of the moment in my mind. At this point we were all together; we were healthy, we were in love. Who knows what tomorrow brings, but for today we were a family and I wanted