Off to See the Wizard - Kununurra

Wow!  What a day we had o Friday!  Where does one start?

I suppose you start at half past four in the morning, as we were being collected at 5.15am to going on an early morning flight over Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungles.

Our plane was a 13 seater Cessna Grand Caravan.

Our pilot was Brent.  He looked the part with a moustache and aviator sunnies.

We started off flying over Lake Kununurra and the irrigation land of the Ord River Irrigation Area.  Kimberly Durack, from one of the pioneering families in the area, came up with the idea in the early 1940s. It didn’t look all that big from the air, but looks are deceiving.  The main crop is Indian Sandalwood.  Mangoes are another major crop, as well as quite a few melons and veges.  Some corps have been tried and failed, one being cotton.  They have been trialling a new variety over the last couple of years and things are looking very promising.

You fly over the Carr Boyd ranges and then start to see Lake Argyle.

Lake Argyle was created in 1971 to dam the Ord River to create an agricultural area via irrigation.  It is the largest man-made lake in the Southern Hemisphere.  It has a surface area of about 1,000 square kilometres, with a capacity about 19 times that of Sydney Harbour.  It is about 45kms wide at its widest part and about 72 kms long.  That’s huge.

There’s the dam wall with the Lake Argyle Resort in the background.  The wall is about 100 metres deep and 300 metres long.  The bas is about 300 metres wide.  It is all earth and rock.  There is a small spillway into a creek which regulates the height.  That little spillway was increased by 6 metres in 1996, which doubled the capacity of the dam and allowed a hydro electric plant to be built.

Before long we left Lake Argyle behind and flew over cattle station areas.

Eventually, we started to see the Bungle Bungles with their many gorges and striped domes.  Such an unusual landscape.

It was wonderful to see it from the air.

The next area we were shown was the site of the Argyle Diamond Mine.  This was only closed a couple of years ago and is currently being decommissioned and rehabilitated.  Of course, they are most famous for their pink diamonds, but most that were mined were of industrial grade.

Returning home, we flew over Lake Argyle once again.  Notice the island in the shape of a crocodile.  It is one of about 70 islands in the lake.

Coming back into Kununurra, we could see more of the irrigation area, stretching to the north and west of the town.  Now it looked like there was lots.  Apparently, they are looking to expand much further.

There’s our caravan park.

Safely back on the ground after a wonderful two hours in the air.

We returned to the van for morning tea and to make a couple of phone calls. You see, the previous day Mick received his regular motorcycle club newsletter by email and I mentioned there was a BMW motorcycle for sale. I didn’t think much more if it, but Mick was a bit keen, as he has been half heartedly looking for something similar.  Anyway, it turns out that I know the lady who was selling it.  It hadn’t been sold yet, so Mick arranged for his brother to go and have a look when he had time and we would just wait and see what happened.  It happens to be the same model as his brother rides.

Phone calls made, we hopped in the ute and drove to Lake Argyle - a trip of 70kms.  It took a bit longer to reach than in the air.

Our first stop when we arrived was the Argyle Homestead Museum.

The story behind it is this is the homestead of “Argyle Downs”, which was flooded when the dam was built.  It was the property of the pioneering Durack family.  Their story was made famous in the book “Kings in Grass Castles” written by Mary Durack.

Patrick “Patsy” Durack decided that the area would be good for cattle, and after investigating the area, starting in 1883 drove their cattle and horses from western Queensland to here, a distance of nearly 5,000kms. They thought it would take six months, but took two and a half years.  Of their 7,500 cattle and 200 horses, they lost nearly half the cattle and several horses, as well as a few men. The journey cost them 70,000 pounds.  They ended up owning lots of property in the area, but it was all sold by the 1950s.

The homestead was built from local stone by Patsy in the 1890s.  When the area was to be flooded, it was dismantled, put into storage and finally rebuilt on this site.

There is a little cemetery area. Just the headstones were removed to here from a nearby station, so that they would be preserved.  More recently, some Durack family members have had their ashes placed here.

Just outside the fence a Great Bowerbird has created his bower.

I was even able to get a photo of him this time.

After the homestead we drove over the dam wall, which looked so small from the air.

You can drive down below it and see the hydro electric power station.

By then it was time for lunch.  While having lunch, Mick’s brother called to say the bike looks good.  More phone calls made and the deal is done. Mick is now the proud owner of a 1985 BMW K110RS, sight unseen.  The things you do when you are on the other side of the country.  The next thing will be to arrange a friend to pick it up for us.

It was then time for the next part of our day, a sunset cruise on the lake.

Mitch was our host for the tour.  He did a great job and was good fun.

You don’t realise how big the lake is until you are on it.  It looked big from the air, but it is REALLY BIG.  At some spots you can see the other side in the very far distance.  It’s almost like seeing Scotland from the Isle of Man, actually it is probably further on Lake Argyle.

Mitch took us to an area where he expected we would see freshwater crocodiles.  Yep, we did.  He was very surprised when this one let us get really close.  Usually they swim away, as they are quite timid.  They reckon there are about 30,000 freshwater crocodiles in the lake.

There was lots of water weed in the area and the water was so clear that you could see it going way down deep.  Yes, there were a couple of fish swimming around.

Next he took us to another area, turned off the boat and gave us all a bit of bread.  We were to hold the bread over the side of the boat, but not let go.  Then, all these fish came to the surface. Seven Spotted Archers we were told.  Soon some of them started spitting water at us.  They apparently use this method to shoot down insects.  We then let go of our bread and they, together with black bream had a feeding frenzy. We could also see catfish deeper down.  It was a bit of fun.

Initially, the water had been very calm, but as we went along it got a bit rougher, partly because we were in more open water and also because a little breeze had picked up.  We even saw a couple of pelicans.  We haven’t seen many at all this trip.  We also commented that we haven’t seen any sea gulls around here.

He took us to a more protected cove and parked the boat.  This was where the fun began.  I hadn’t read it in the info, but you have a sunset swim.  Well, I didn’t as we had not swimmers with us, but Mick went swimming in his shorts.  You jump off the boat with a noodle supplied by them.  

The fun bit is they throw cans of beer to you.  The cans float.  Glasses of bubbles were also available, but you had to be handed those from the boat.

Next, bikkies and dip were put on a plate and the plated floated out on an esky lid.  

We stayed there for about an hour.  It was lovely.

After the sun had set we just motored back to the starting point.  It was lovely seeing the colours change as we went along.

What a fabulous trip.

We then had the 70km drive back to Kununurra ahead of us.

When we arrived at the van we went straight to bed.  We didn’t even worry about any tea.  We were bushed.

It was a full day, but what a wonderful day.

The highlight of the day for Mick was drinking beer while swimming and for me, well I can’t pick a highlight.  The whole day was a highlight.