Kununurra and Thereabouts

Keep River National Park situated on the border was our last stop in the NT. This delightful park is a taster for the attractions of Pernululu (the Bungle Bungles) and the Kimberley’s gorge country of the north west. The landscape is striking with rugged outcrops against a plain formed from a great inland seabed. The landforms provide sanctuary for various species and lots of time was spent looking for rock wallabies with no success.

We did however see our first crocodiles – a small shy freshwater one in a small waterhole of an ephemeral stream at Keep River NP and a very large saltwater crocodile frolicking next to a spillway at for the Ord River diversion dam. We watched the latter for awhile from an observation area. The crocodile was swimming against the rapid flow of the water from the spillway upstream powered by the sideways movements of his tail and then floating downstream again after going under for a while. He was perhaps catching fish coming over the spillway. His visible strength swimming upstream was phenomenal and sobering.

Lake Argyle was a delightful stop with its single tourist caravan park which offered a wide range of tourist facilities to its happily captive audience. Offerings ranged from a musician performing in the late afternoons with the views of Lake Argyle behind, the beautiful infinity pool for brave Instagrammers (and Steve), lots of carefully watered areas of grass for the campers and caravanners, excellent bathroom facilities (with unisex cubicle all-in-one shower toilets) , helicopter tours, boat cruises, a wide range of cooked pub fare at any time of the day, and a shady beer garden with nightly musical entertainment. On our night’s stay, the musician even played half a dozen extra songs or so because folks started dancing for his last official song. He didn’t like to empty a newly peopled dance floor. They work hard to keep the visitor’s happy. I note there wasn’t much actual food available in the shop which, no doubt, helped the hotel kitchen’s throughput. They even offered haircuts in the beer garden and yoga classes. A very impressive place.

The Ord Dam was of course, a highlight. It’s a grand scale and I remember seeing movies about it at Coorparoo state school for our weekly reel offerings under the main school building. It was such a major ‘nation building’ project of its time and billed as Australia’s Aswan Dam or something. I think the 70’s was the time of the dam builders before people worked out there was an ecological cost for these projects.

There is an irrigated area of cultivation from the Ord River scheme, but it hasn’t been a success. Looking into this a bit further a 2013 Wilderness Society report said $1.45 billion had been spent on the Ord Irrigation Scheme for a return of 17 cents for every dollar spent, creating only 260 jobs. While a 2016 report from the Auditor General for Western Australia said the sustained social and economic benefits underpinning the $529 million investment have not been realised – it hasn’t gone well in anyone’s calculations. Its’ current crops are mangoes, sandlewood, sugar and other specialist activities. There was one tale of rice growing and huge increases in the magpie geese population which wasn’t the intended result. The Ord River apparently had the biggest flows of any waterway in Australia.

Kununurra is a purpose built town established to support the Ord River project. It stands on the shores of Lake Kununurra, the first diversion dam before the subsequent dam was constructed to form Lake Argyle. Its lakeside setting is picturesque with adjacent parkland and lots of waterbirds and attractive views over the water.

Being a planned town, it has lots of curvy Canberra-esque streets. It has concentric main streets and several cross streets and the main streets had separate service roads. The effect was really quite confusing. It has many useful services though and we resolved efficiently the purchase of a new pair of hiking boots, 2 additional tyre pressures gauges and a watch repair.

The town also has a national park on one boundary Mirima National Park which is a beautiful mini version of the striking red sandstone formations of the north-west. The facilities included a trail to a high lookout over the town accessed by some steep stairways and an interesting native plants trail.