4 April 2013 - Hidden Valley Caravan Park, Kunanurra, Western Australia

Apart from the barking dogs and the backpackers noise until after I was asleep, the night passed without event. We woke to find that North Korea’s leader has given himself permission and clearance to start a nuclear war, that one hundred and fifty inhabitants of Bamyli (or of the Beswick Community) have had to be evacuated to  higher ground to evade the floods and rain was still falling in Kununurra.

It was only the latter that had any immediate impact on us; we did little during the morning but replenish our fresh fruit and vegetables and fill our near empty diesel tanks. Diesel is definitely our major expenses these days!

After lunch the rain had eased to almost nothing and we headed out to the lookout over the town; Kelly’s Knob. We climbed up and around the gates and barbed wire fence before reaching the track and then climbing the 191 metres to the top, from where we enjoyed spectacular views over the town, the irrigation areas and farmlands, the Diversion Dam, Kununurra Airport, the nearby ranges and the lake. I huffed and puffed all the way up making sure I did not look down too often until we were at the top. The steep path is poorly maintained, no doubt in an attempt to deter tourists. The pipe and chain aids are broken in several places however this does not discourage the man who hurried up behind us before descending once more. He told us he does this every day.

Views from Kelly's Knob

I mentioned yesterday that Kununurra was a modern town, and so it is, in the style of Jabiru or the more utilitarian areas of Darwin. Its whole purpose of existence is as a service centre to the irrigation scheme and resulting agriculture. The Ord Irrigation Scheme was begun in 1967 and completed five years later at the cost of $22 million. The reservoir, Lake Argyle, became one of the world’s largest man-made water bodies, 11.2 times the size of the Sydney Harbour. In 1996 the second stage was completed, increasing the capacity of the lake to 21 times that of Sydney Harbour and if there were extreme flooding, taking the water to the top of the dam, the capacity would increase to a massive 80.15 times the size of that harbour.

The Ord Irrigation Scheme has successfully turned the arid desert environment of the East Kimberley into a thriving centre of agriculture. There have been several less than successful experiments, cotton cultivation being one of them, however today the crops grown include melons, pumpkins, bananas, mangoes, sugar cane and hybrid seeds. Chris and I were however quite surprised, or rather disappointed, to learn that the cultivated area taking advantage of this massive and expensive irrigation scheme covers a mere 49,300 hectares. Currently there are projects underway in cahoots with the Chinese to extend this.

After descending the lookout we drove down into the centre of town and wandered about checking the shops and galleries out. We spent sometime in the Artlandish Aboriginal Art Gallery enjoying much of the work there for sale however emerged with no purchase, no doubt a disappointment to the proprietor.

We found a copy of today’s NT News in the IGA store, not the Newsagent; they don’t sell newspapers. Then it was back to camp and to check the bolognaise sauce simmering away in the crock pot since late morning.