Photos of around Kununurra, gateway to the East Kimberley, Australia

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Around Kununurra, gateway to the East Kimberley

Kununurra, 100 kilometres from Wyndham, was established in 1963 as a service centre for the Ord River Development Scheme. It is over 3,000 kilometres from Perth via the Great Northern Highway and has a population of around 4,500. Just to the north of the town is Mirima National Park, also known as Hidden Valley; with its permanent water, it used to be an important meeting place for the local Miriwoong Aboriginal people. There are excellent walking trails in the sandstone gorges.

Kununurra Airport
 
View of Kununurra
 
Shop in Kununurra
 
Shopping centre, Kununurra
 
View over Kununurra
 
Kununurra from Kelly's Knob
 
Didbagirring Trail, Hidden Valley
 
View of the Didbagirring Trail
 
Petroglyphs, Mirima NP
 
Hidden Valley, Mirima National Park
 
Hidden Valley, Mirima National Park
 
Hidden Valley, Mirima National Park
 
Mirima National Park
 
Hill to the south of Kununurra
 
Landscape to the south of Kununurra
 
Kununurra Diversion Dam
 
Kununurra Diversion Dam
 
View from Kununurra Dam Wall
 
Sunflower plantations
 
Ivanhoe Crossing
 
View with Lake Argyle Dam
 
Ord River behind Lake Argyle Dam
 
Lake Argyle
 
Lake Argyle
 
Lake Argyle from the Dam Wall
 
Ord River behind Lake Argyle Dam
 
Overflow, Lake Argyle Dam Wall
 
View to Chinyin Island
 
Spillway of Lake Argyle
 
Trees at the spillway
 
Boab or Baobab tree
 
Boab or Baobab tree
 
Great Northern Highway
 
Boab trees
 
Boab or Baobab tree
 
Entrance to Warmun
 

The remote northeastern corner of the State of Western Australia boasts Lake Argyle, an artificial lake created for the Ord Development River Scheme. This agricultural project seems to have paid off. The farmers who use the waters of Lake Argyle grow maise, peanuts, sorghum and sunflowers. Cotton was tried but was not successful. Fruit is also produced, especially melons that are exported to Southeast Asia.

Along the Great Northern Highway leading south from Kununurra, the strangely shaped boab or baobab trees can be seen, typical of northern Western Australia; its grotesque bottle shape and spindly branches give the impression it is stuck upside-down in the ground, which is, in fact, a legend in Aboriginal tradition. These trees store water in their trunk; Aboriginal people sometimes carve the hard fruits. From Kununurra it is 200 kilometres south of Warmun Community (Turkey Creek), 162 kilometres north of Halls Creek and just north of Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) National Park.