Kununurra - 14.08.2012 to 16.08.2012

Kununurra is of course home to the Argyle diamond mine which produces the rare pink diamond, only found in this region. If I won lotto I would invest in these precious little gems as the mine will be due to close in 2019 and no more diamonds will be mined, making them even more rare then they are now. 

Kununurra is also home to the mighty Ord River and is one of Western Australia’s most scenic and significant waterways.

There are two man-made barriers which regulate the flow of water. The Diversion Dam, which is a short drive from Kununurra, allows water to be diverted to farms.Below the dam the river flows to the Cambridge Gulf and apparently this is one of the best places to go barramundi fishing – but you wouldn't find me fishing here with crocodiles! Though we only saw a freshwater croc apparently there are salties in there. Getting a little hot we decided to go out to a natural spring for a dip called Molly's Spring.

what appeared to be a rock out in the river

Molly's Spring

taking a dip

We didn't spend a lot of time in Kununurra, choosing instead to treat it as a stock up, wash the van and car, see a few sights and off again on the road. Kununurra had quite a strange feel about it with every shop around having bars, bordered up and roller door type closings on all of the windows. Coles apparently has a broken window just about every day.

Crowey went to fill up at the service station just after 6pm and couldn't work out why the petrol wasn't pumping any fuel. A service attendant came out to advise that between 6pm and 6am you had to pre-pay your fuel. That day they had already had three drive throughs who had filled up and done a runner without paying. Apparently this is a regular occurance.

During our stay we went for a drive up to Kelly's lookout and saw below a view of Kununurra and right below a part of town where it appears the local aboriginals occupied. Crowey wanted to have a closer look and what we found was a little sad. Rubbish, clothes scattered all over the front yards, bottles smashed on the road, lost looking dogs, smashed windows on cars with a couple of missing tyres here and there and what appeared to be a rather large neighborhood party in the middle of the day on a Wednesday.  I can only describe this as a sorry state of affairs, it appears Kununurra has some cleaning up to do in their town and I wasn't expecting this at all in a place like Kununurra. As we were on the way back to camp we noticed that the lookout we had been on ,about one hour previous, was actually on fire. The local fire department seemed a bit ho-hum in getting to the fire, which makes me think that it occurs quite regulary and according to the locals they are fighting a losing battle against arsenists in the area. Quite an unusual town wouldn't you say?  Needless to say we looked forward to moving onto Lake Argyle.