Off to See the Wizard - Kununurra - Wyndham Day Trip

Yesterday morning Mick asked me if there are any markets in town, being a Saturday.  A little Google search revealed that there is, every week during the dry season, so of course we had to go along.  They were really good, with a nice variety of little stalls.

We enjoyed a coffee and bought a few bits and bobs.  

It was nice to see a fresh vege stall with reasonably priced goods.  The local bakery had a nice selection of breads and we bought a tasty iced bun.  Another stall was selling nice little tarts, so we have a couple of those to eat as well. There were a couple of buskers and the local school had a stand requesting donations to assist in sending their Year 5 students on camp to Broome next term.  They had the words “Year 5 Camp” drawn out quite large and were trying to have it filled with money.  Of course we had to make a little contribution.

Our favourite stall was the kids from the Purnululu School.  Their school is located about two hours south of Kununurra, near the Bungle Bungles, so extremely remote.  They had got up at 4 o’clock in the morning to get to the markets.  They were great sales people, explaining their products and were such a happy bunch. I had a Google and they are a small Aboriginal Independent School teaching language and culture as well as equipping them for the modern world.  Have a look at the little video here.

They were selling painted boab nuts, clap stick, bush tea and bush medicine vapour rub.  We had to make a purchase.  I’m looking forward to trying them both out.

After the markets, we left on our little day trip to Wyndham, 100kms up the road.  Wyndham is the most northern town and port in Western Australia.  It is also one of the hottest towns in Australia.

I finally got a decent photo of the sign in relation to road trains.  They can be longer than an Olympic swimming pool.

From what I can gather, the town of Wyndham was proclaimed in 1886 in response to the gold rush at Halls Creek and shortly afterwards a jetty was built.  

The big game changer for the town and the entire Kimberly area was the opening of the meat works in 1919.  It was the largest in the Southern Hemisphere at the time.  We read at the Durack Homestead that their cattle production had not been profitable before then, as it was too difficult to get their stock to market.  Having the meatworks closer made all the difference for them.  There was a freezer works and cannery, with most of their products being exported, mainly to Britain. It closed for three years during WWII and then continued production until it finally closed in 1985 and was subsequently demolished.  Just over 2 million beasts were processed during its operation.

Until the late 1970s these little trains were used to deliver goods to and from the jetty.

The jetty now exports mainly iron ore, and some live cattle.

We visited the museum, which was really interesting.  It used to be the old police station.  

Mick “walked the line” to see if he was sober, and he passed.

As usual, I’m drawn to the more domestic side of things.  There was a sampling of items that would have been found in a general store.  The “Airflow Debbies” “made from famous Airflow open mesh cotton fabric” would have been essential in the stifling hot weather.

There was a section on the meatworks.  The only women to work there were in administration, the canteen and the “Baggy Haggies”, who sewed the bags for the export meat.

What about this baby’s cot, called a meat safe cot.  They were completely enclosed with fly screen “to keep out the smallest insects and the largest pythons”.  Oh my!

There were two main general stores in town, both run by Chinese families - The Gee Hong Yet Store, which sadly burnt down in the 1970s.

And “Lee Tong Tailor and Outfitter”, whose building still stands today.

They had some boab nuts in the museum.  Apparently the fleshy bit is really high in vitamin C and tastes like lemon flavoured polystyrene.  The tree can be grown from the seeds in the middle after soaking in water before planting.

They also have some on display that have been carved.

We had lunch at the little local bakery.  

We shared a barramundi and lemongrass pie and a beef and mushroom.  They were both delicious and baked on the premises. They also make crocodile pie, but didn’t have any yesterday.

Each table had a little FAQ sign, which was a bit of fun.

A feature of the town is the Five Rivers Lookout.  You can see so far.  Apparently you can see five rivers, funnily enough.  However, we couldn’t work out where they all were.  The tides here are huge, up to 8 metres.  They say it is considered to be one of the five best lookouts in the world.

You can’t actually see out to sea.  The port is on the Cambridge  Gulf and is quite a way inland when you look at a map.

Up on the lookout hill, called “The Bastion”, there is the closest thing we have seen to a lighthouse.  It isn’t a lighthouse but according to the sign is something to do with the Bureau of Meteorology, but I’ve no idea what.

What surprised us in Wyndham is that most buildings do not have a gutter.  I suppose they would just overflow in the heavy summer downpours.

In the caravan park there is a really large boab tree, which is estimated to be over 2,000 years old.

Another tourist attraction is the big 20 metre long crocodile.  I’m glad he is just concrete.

On our way back to town we called in at the start of the Gibb River Road.  This is a dirt road across to near Derby and is 4WD only.  Not something we will do with our van.  However, we can now say we have been on it………for about 100 metres………

You can still encounter those road trains, no matter how rough it is.  Make sure you have plenty of fuel.

We noticed one big boab tree on the side of the road.  A Landcruiser was stopped there, which gives you a good idea of the size of it.  Do you think I am a bit obsessed with boabs?

Just to the west of Kununurra the highway passes over the dam wall of Diversion Dam, which is the dam wall which creates Lake Kununurra, the one our caravan park sits beside.  We stopped at a lookout to have a bo peep.  It is interesting.

There is an overhead crane over the road, which is used for maintenance on the dam wall. They actually remove sections of the road surface.  You can see the lifting lugs set into it.  Also the crane is on tracks so that it can move around the dam wall.

In a park nearby there is the old crane that was only removed in 2019.  It’s pretty big when you see our ute parked under it.

Also in the park is a digger that was used in the creation of the Ord irrigation area.  Apparently it is still in good working order and is regularly started up.

Once we returned to the caravan park we took our chairs down to “Sunset Strip” and watched another lovely sunset.  A nice way to end the day.

The highlight for the day for Mick was the museum and for me the smiling faces of the kids from Purnululu School at the markets.