KUNUNURRA AND THE KIMBERLEY REGION, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

The Kimberley is situated in the far north of Western Australia and its immense and ancient landform encompasses rugged ranges and spectacular gorges, cascading waterfalls, mighty rivers and complex cave systems. It covers an expanse of nearly 423,000 square kilometers (three times the size of England) with a population of only 32,000 people. Views from the air are spectacular and there aren’t many roads, so air access is imperative in this remote place.

Kununurra is the tropical town where Slingair Heliwork WA has its base. Kununurra is the access point for the famous World Heritage listed Purnululu National Park with its ancient 350 million year old Bungle Bungle massif. The Mitchell Plateau and Kimberley Coast, edging the Timor Sea, are also most easily accessed from Kununurra.

Kununurra is a picturesque and modern town, established in 1960 as the centre for the Ord River Irrigation project. Situated on the edge of Lake Kununurra, the views are spectacular. Kununurra — an Aboriginal word meaning “big waters” — has a population of about 6000 and is roughly halfway between Broome and Darwin, in Western Australia’s northwest. It is the service centre for the east Kimberley region’s economic drivers: agriculture, mining and tourism.

It is only 50 years old, a modern town in an ancient land. It sits in the shadows of 350million-year-old rocks where, for the past 40million years or so, Aborigines have daubed their distinctive, alien-like figures on cave walls and roofs.

The below editorial was written in the “Australian” newspaper by Mark Day | August 18, 2007

The scale of the Kimberley defeats description: vastness formed from a palette of reds, purples, mauves, lavenders and golds dotted with saltbush grey-green. It portrays a worldwide perception of Australia as the earth’s last, vast frontier. It is also the Australia of our modern dreamtime, as remote from the everyday realities of our city lives as it is geographically.

IF we allow ourselves to use the vernacular of its landscape — big, wide and sweeping — we can arrive at the proposition that Kununurra defines Australia.

Location scenes for the epic outback adventure Australia were filmed near Kununurra. The region was chosen by director Baz Luhrmann because it has the quintessential Australian look.

A little more than a century ago its isolation was invaded by the first of the cattle barons, Irish-born Patrick Durack, who in 1882 drove 7250 cattle 4800km from Queensland. It was the longest droving trek in history, taking almost 2 1/2 years. Half the cattle were lost on the way, but by 1886 Durack had established Argyle station on the lush grassy plains of the Ord River Basin.

Today the Argyle homestead has been drowned under Lake Argyle, one of the world’s biggest man-made freshwater lakes. If the Kimberley region is the essence of Australia, Lake Argyle is the essence of Kununurra

It provides the water and the hydro-electric power that underpins the east Kimberley. The water is used on the rich, black-earth laser-levelled flats that fill the river valleys of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme, a food bowl that annually produces tens of millions of dollars worth of agricultural produce for Asian and local markets.

The locals brag that everything grows here, from asparagus to zucchini. Chia is the new staple, high in Omega 3 oils, and, increasingly, vast sandalwood plantations.

Each year Kununurra stages its Ord Valley Muster and Kimberley Moon Experience, twin tourism promotions attracting thousands of visitors to three weeks of activities. There are four-wheel-drive adventures on the Gibb River road, swimming races across Lake Argyle, mountain biking amid the gorges and ravines, a film festival, art gallery displays and karaoke contests at the local pub. There are special tours arranged for the muster, as well as those available throughout the dry season. It all culminates in a night under the full moon beside the Ord where, Jimmy Barnes, Wendy Mathews, James Blundell, Richard Clapton, Marcia Hines have performed.