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Published: July 26th 2012
Red Dust
Kimberley red dust covered everythingKununurra
Kununurra is in far northern Western Australia located at the eastern extremity of the Kimberley Region only 37 kilometres from the border with the Northern Territory. Kununurra was developed to service the Ord River Irrigation scheme, and solely owes its existence to this scheme. It is the largest town in Western Australia north of Broome, with the closest town being Wyndham, 100 kilometres away, where much of the initial infrastructure for Kununurra was freighted into by ship. The town is situated among the scenic hills and ranges of the far north-east Kimberley Region and has an abundance of fresh water provided by the Ord River Diversion dam and Lake Argyle. Agricultural crops grown in the Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) have changed over the years but are still a major economic influence. Tourism and mining are also important to the local economy. From the moment we drove into Kununurra we felt ‘comfortable’, the town presents well and looked prosperous and busy.
The idea of agriculture on the Ord River dates from the 19th Century, the first pastoral lease map for the area, 1887, shows a section of the northern bank between Wyndham and Kununurra,
held as a "Concession for Sugar Cane Planting.’ The lease was never taken up and the land remained under pastoral lease until 1960. Kununurra was built on land resumed from Ivanhoe Station and established as the town for the Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) with survey work starting in 1959.
The scheme involved damming the Ord River by building the Ord River diversion dam so that the waters could be conserved and directed to irrigate about 750 square kilometres of land. By 1966, there were 31 farms on the Ord River plains. In 1968 the second stage of the scheme was started with the building of the Ord River Dam, which holds back the waters of Lake Argyle. The Ord River Dam flooded the land of Argyle Downs Station, the home station of the pioneering Durack family. Stone work from the original Argyle Downs homestead, was removed before Lake Argyle filled and has been re-erected near the dam site to become the Argyle Downs Homestead Museum.
Kununurra is considered the gateway to Western Australia, although for us it was the leaving point as we head into the Northern Territory from here. With a population of 6000 (thereabouts), we
Red Dust
It settled on every surface available! great colour though isn't it! found the town to be modern and well serviced. The striking feature besides the backdrop of Kelly’s Knob is the Lily Creek Lagoon. Located right in town and a haven for wildlife, the lagoon was filled after the completion of the diversion dam. The mass of water with waterlilies and birdlife is un-miss able in the midst of this East Kimberley landscape and town. Lakeside Caravan Park where we were staying was right on the banks of the lagoon overlooking the main town centre, very nice.
One of the first things we had to do was some cleaning, clothes, Trakkie and Troll ! Everything was filthy and covered in Kimberley red dust after nearly 1500klm on some of the regions ‘best’ roads over the past 6 weeks. It took us
three days to just ‘surface wash’ everything so that at least it looked clean on the outside, even if all the crevices and out of the way places still had to be done, – we will get to it all eventually.
Kelly’s Knob is another striking feature of the town and we spent an evening up at the lookout to witness yet another amazing Kimberley sunset and to
Red Dust
This stuff really tried out every seal in both the Troll and the Trakkie celebrate our new ‘cleanish status’. We also had fantastic views over the town from the lookout and would recommend this as one of the first things to do when arriving in Kununurra.
Waringarri Aboriginal Arts in Kununurra was another on our list of Community Indigenous art centres we wanted to visit. Owned and managed by the Waringarri artist group, the centre is another magnificent building to showcase the artwork from over 100 artists from the local Waringarri community. The ochre paintings produced by the group share their passion for the culture and their connection to their country, the Miriwoong country. We again saw some amazing work and spent close to $100k (in our dreams) on some beautiful work.
I was interested to have a drive through the ORIA and it helped that we would be able to see a Sandlewood Facility and be able to visit the Hoochery in the same trip. Currently the ORIA covers 14,000hectares and the second stage started this year (2012) will provide a further 8,000 hectares of irrigated land. The ORIA lies north and south of Kununurra with the dominant crops grown being melons, pumpkins, mangoes and seed crops. We also saw tomatoes
Lakeside Caravan Park
Our Trakkie is to the right and Graham & Liz's Trakkie is to the left...great neighbours to have! , cucumber and egg plants being grown. Sugar cane has been a major crop in the past and some is still grown. But by far and away the crop that seems to be creating the most interest is Sandlewood. The oil from Sandlewood trees forms the basis of most cosmetics. We visited the Mt Romance, Sandlewood Factory on Weaber Plains road and heard about the industry from ‘soil to oil’. This stuff is liquid gold and yes you may have to wait awhile for the crop to be harvested but what I saw gave crop farming a new meaning.
Our next stop in the ORIA was the ‘Hoochery Distillery’, the oldest legal “still” in Australia (this sounds more interesting than cosmetics!). if you are wondering about the name Hoochery - well the name was trademarked by Spike Dessert (owner) from the word Hooch which goes back to the Hutanuwu (later modified to Hoochinoo) Indian tribe of Alaska who made alcoholic liquor - this is until it became the more popular name for the illegal activity of bootlegging! (source: the Macquarie Dictionary) A family owned and operated distillery, the Hoochery produces Australia’s only 100% owned Rums, fantastic, where do we
start !!! Straight to the tasting room where I purchase a tasting paddle of 5 dark rums and I was not disappointed, they were all beautiful. I saved the tasting glass of Spike's Reserve, a dark rum aged for 10 years on oak, for last. A smoother, quality finish you would not find in any other rum I know of, and only 40% alcohol and $165.00 per bottle! Fantastic stuff !
Lake Argyle is Australia's largest artificial lake by volume and part of the ORIA located 71 Klm to the east of Kununurra. The construction of the Ord River Dam was completed in 1971 and was officially opened the following year. The earth-fill only dam is 335 metres long, and 98 metres high and is the most efficient dam in Australia in terms of the ratio of the size of the dam wall to the amount of water stored. The lake was named after the property it partly submerged, Argyle Downs owned by the Duracks. In 1996, the spillway wall was raised by 6 metres, which doubled the dams capacity. Lake Argyle normally has a surface area of about 1,000 square kilometres. The storage capacity, to the
The Hoochery
Trish lining them up... top of the spillway is 10,763,000 megalitres. Lake Argyle's usual storage volume is 5,797,000 megalitres, making it the largest reservoir in Australia. At maximum flood level, the lake would hold 35 million megalitres of water and cover a surface area of 2,072 square kilometres.
We did a sunset cruise on the lake which took us over 120klm into the far reaches of Lake Argyle. ‘Apparently’ there are no ‘salties’ in the lake but it is home to thousands of Fresh water crocs. The lake is huge, massive, we were told it was 7 or 8 times the size of Sydney harbour in terms of water capacity, it is big! On the way back in we stopped to watch the Kimberley sunset and watch the colours change on the surrounding Carr Boyd Ranges whilst enjoying some ‘refreshments’, just magical. Some brave souls actually went in for a dip despite the lateness of the day, just to say they have done it. This tour on Lake Argyle was a ripper, we enjoyed it a lot and were truly amazed at the vastness of the waterway, another ‘must do’ when in the region.
Other things we did whilst in Kununurra was
The Hoochery
Trish with our tasting paddles...cheers! visit the old Ivanhoe Crossing, an old concrete causeway constructed as part of the original road from Wyndham to Kununurra. The river looks so inviting here but unfortunately as with most top end rivers – definitely no swimming!
The Lovell Gallery was also worth a visit, where we saw the amazing 32 sq mtr mural ‘Beyond the Beehives’ by Nadeen Lovell as well as other artists work that depicts many facets of the rugged Kimberley landscape, some stunning stuff in here. Artlandish, another Indigenous art gallery had work on offer from artists of the Kimberleys, Central Australia and desert communities and was another great spot where we spent some time.
Needless to say we liked Kununurra, the town has everything you need and has a ‘good feel’ to it. Staying at the Lakeside Resort Caravan Park was convenient and handy to everything and although it was silly season with tourists and caravans everywhere, the town still seemed to be ’in control’ and functioning with ease. We met some great fellow tourers here including our neighbours, Graham and Liz who owned a fabulous Trakmaster Nullabor. Kununurra would make an ideal base for anyone wanting to experience a little of
ORIA
A Sandlewood plantation is to the left in the picture. the Kimberley, there is a great airport that has direct flights from a number of places in Australia and you can access places like ELQ and Home Valley easily from here as well as the Bungle Bungle Range, Wyndham and Lake Argyle. A great town and Wild Mango make a great smoothie!
Further reading:
www.hoochery.com.au/
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Brian
non-member comment
No swimming in Argyle then!!! Liked the tasting paddles, never heard of that before. A quaint Australian custom no doubt. I had my usual look round Kununurra, via street view on Google very nice place looks a bit too hot for us Brits. take Care Brian