KUNUNURRA

Catching up!!

Although the date above is 23 October, I'm behind in the Blog and trying to catch up.

Friday, 4 September - Friday, 14 September

This place is so hot. We're in a lovely caravan park - Ivanhoe Caravan Park and Resort - and we have an ensuite site. There is a lovely pool which we use each morning and afternoon .... it's the only relief we can get from the heat. It has been 39 degrees each day and it doesn't get much cooler at night. Thank goodness for the airconditioning in the caravan!

Kununurra is in the Kimberley region and based on the cattle industry when early pioneers drove cattle across the top of Australia to settle in the north west. The pastoral industry was dominated by the Durack's and the book, Kings in Grass Castles, was written by Mary Durack and based on this area.

Kununurra is on the Ord River which was dammed in 1971 to make a storage reservoir to supply water to the Ord River Scheme, which is one of Australia's largest irrigation schemes. Argyle Downs was a one million acre cattle station which was flooded to create Australia's largest man-made lake.

Kununurra wouldn't exist without the agriculture established in the 70's. Prospecting and mining have been important to it's development and diamonds were discovered near Lake Argyle in 1979, hence the Argyle Diamond Mine. We couldn't visit the mine unless we went in by helicopter, and at over a thousand dollars each for the trip, we decided we'd give it a miss!