Travelling the Kimberley
If you are planning your dream Australian vacation, then be
sure to include the Kimberley region in your holiday itinerary. The Kimberley
covers an immense area in the north west of Australia and encompasses a huge
variety of different habitats and scenery. The Kimberley is an ancient landscape,
and it is thought that the first Aboriginal peoples walked this land as long as
40,000 years ago, leaving behind them in their unique rock art, haunting and
evocative images of our long-ago past. The thing that you will notice first
when travelling into the Kimberley is how empty it is; it is still a region
where you can easily escape any signs of other people and modern living. Then
there are the stunning red-hued hills, dramatic gorges, pristine pools of
crystal clear water fringed with lush green vegetation, the endless silver sand
beaches and the amazing variety of wildlife. The sunrises and sunsets in the Kimberley
are sensational, and it is one of life’s real privileges to watch the fruit
bats fly out across the darkening sky to start their night’s foraging for food
and then watch the stars come out and light up the night sky. I have never seen
a night sky as big as it is in the Kimberley, or stars that are so bright. The best time to visit the Kimberley is
during the Australian winter months from April to October, as this is the dry
season. During the rest of the year the Kimberley experiences the wet season,
with violent rainstorms, high temperatures and humidity and with roads being
frequently flooded. However, there is
one part of the Kimberley that even in the middle of the baking hot dry season
has plentiful supplies of water, plenty of greenery and productive farmland.
This is the area around the town of Kununurra that has been created by the Ord
River Irrigation Scheme or ORIS.
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| Lake Argyle |
Ord River Irrigation System
The vast majority of the Kimberley is uncultivated, open
savannah, covered by low scrub and dotted with the iconic boab trees. Much of
the region is divided into vast cattle stations, but in 1963 the Ord River Irrigation Scheme was
started, and now much of this area is now fertile, productive farmland where
over sixty types of crop including, perhaps surprisingly, a great deal of sugar
cane. Initially, most of the farms grew cotton, but there were big problems
with a pest caterpillar called Helicoverpa armigera. The farmers started to use
a lot of chemical pesticides, but the caterpillars became resistant to them
which caused the cotton yields to fall. This combined with a dramatic drop in
world cotton prices, led to cotton farming being abandoned in the region. The
Ord River Irrigation Scheme was formed by utilising the waters of the Ord
River, which flows for 320 miles through the Kimberley, starting beneath Mount
Wells and then skirting the Purnululu National Park, home of the famous Bungle
Bungles, through Lake Argyle and past Kununurra before emptying into the Indian
Ocean on the Cambridge Gulf. The creation of ORIS also led to the building of
the privately owned Ord River Dam Hydro scheme, which provides some of the
electricity needed in the eastern Kimberley.
Lake Argyle
Lake Argyle was also formed by the creation of the Ord River
Irrigation System, and it is the second largest artificial lake in Australia.
Lake Argyle covers an area of around 1000 square kilometres, and an important
wetland area called the Lakes Argyle and Kununurra Ramsar site was also created
under the Ramsar Convention. Lake Argyle
has rapidly become a haven for wildlife, and now contains thousands of
freshwater crocodiles and many different fish species such as barramundi, bony
bream, archer fish and sleepy cod. The huge saltwater crocodile is also
occasionally found in Lake Argyle, although as experts disagree on how many are
present it would be wise to be cautious. A less welcome addition to the native
fauna is the cane toad, a destructive invasive species of amphibian that
arrived in 2008, having spread from faraway Queensland. Lake Argyle and the Ord River are also a
birdwatcher’s heaven, as there are so many different species of birds that can
be spotted, such as White Quilled Rock Pigeons, Gouldian Finches, Purple
Crowned Fairy Wrens, and Yellow Chats.
You can also witness the amazing site of pelicans nesting in trees, as
they have to protect their nests from the voracious freshwater crocodiles.
.JPG) |
| The Ord River |
Things to Do On Lake Argyle and the Ord River
This amazing part of the Kimberley has a huge amount to
offer the tourist. If you like messing
around on boats, you can book great cruises on either the lake or to travel
down the river. Taking a cruise on Lake
Argyle is one of the best ways of drinking in the beauty of the lake, the clear
blue skies and the rugged landscape. There is a wide range of different Lake
Argyle Cruises to choose from, ranging from early evening lake cruises to watch
the sun setting over the magnificent Kimberley scenery, daytime cruises lasting
a couple of hours and fishing charters can also be arranged. On all of the Lake
Argyle cruises the skipper gives an informative commentary about what you are
seeing and how the lake and the Ord River Irrigation Scheme came about, and
delicious refreshments are provided. If you prefer to go cruising down the Ord
River, you can jump on a cruise that takes you down the river giving you the
opportunity to spot freshwater crocodiles, birds and enjoy the beautiful
scenery, returning to Kununurra as the sun drops down over the horizon, bathing
the land in deep red and orange light.
If you prefer to take to the air, why not splash out and take a scenic
flight to enjoy the panorama of seeing Lake Argyle from high in the sky. You
can also take longer scenic flights that fly over the huge Argyle Diamond Mine,
the truly unique Bungle Bungle range, and the stunning Carr Boyd Ranges. This
part of the Kimberley has so much spectacular scenery to offer, that you are
bound to fall in love with it and return time and time again.
The Durack Homestead
As Lake Argyle is an artificial lake, when it was created it
flooded a large area of land, covering any sign of the scanty human habitation
in the area. However, there was one historic homestead in the region due to be
flooded that in 1971 it was decided to preserve. This is the amazing Durack
Homestead that was originally built on Argyle Downs Station by the Durack
family in 1895. The Durack family were one of the original pioneering families
who opened up the Kimberley for cattle ranching back in the late 19th
century and if you want to know what life was like back in those times then
Mary Durack’s famous book ‘Kings in Grass Castles’ is the book to read. The
Durack homestead, a beautiful building constructed of limestone blocks, was
dismantled and moved to its new position above the flood waters, and all of the
original contents of the house have been placed back into the rebuilt house. Even
the family graves have been saved and put into a quiet corner of the pretty
garden surrounding the restored homestead.
The Durack Homestead is now open as a museum, to show how these early
pioneering families lived, and a visit is included in several of the tours to
Lake Argyle.
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| The Durack Homestead |
How To Get To Lake Argyle and the Ord River
Lake Argyle and the Ord River are situated in a very remote
part of Western Australia. Many people
visit when they are taking a year or so to travel around Australia in a camper
and there are also many tours that include these destinations, ranging from
simple backpacker camping tours through to luxurious escorted tours. The main
town in the region is Kununurra, which can be reached by sealed roads, although
you need to be prepared to drive a 1000 km from Broome or 500 km from Katherine
in the Northern Territory. If you are travelling from the Northern Territory,
please remember that there strict quarantine laws when entering Western
Australia, so fruit, vegetables and other agricultural items cannot be brought
over the state border. Kununurra also has a small airport, and you can get
flight from Broome, Darwin, Argyle and Perth through Airnorth and Skywest
Airlines.
Accommodation Around Lake Argyle and in Kununurra
If you want to stay right beside the lake, you will need to
stay at the Lake Argyle Village. This great tourist facility has everything you
need for your stay, including a general store, fuel, a licensed restaurant and
a visitor centre. There is an area set
aside for camping and caravans or you can hire one of the comfortable Lake View
cabins. And just to make it even more special there is a new infinity pool set
on the hillside, where you can swim and enjoy the spectacular scenery of Lake
Argyle. If you prefer to stay in Kununurra itself, then you can choose from a
great selection of great accommodation, ranging from plush hotel resorts, to
self-catering apartments, camping and caravan parks and basic, friendly
backpackers resorts. Kununurra is a small town, but it offers you a choice of
places to eat, a great coffee shop, and several art galleries featuring the
work of local Aboriginal artists.
.JPG) |
| Sunset on the Ord River |
So what is not to love about the magnificent landscape that
is the east Kimberley? Lake Argyle and the Ord River offer you everything that
a tourist could possibly want, whether it is beautiful views, swimming, fishing,
boat cruises, scenic flights, hot sunshine, great food and stunning wildlife.
Add Lake Argyle and the Ord River to your Australian travel itinerary and I
promise that you will not regret it.
All images my own
