Kununurra Show Day

Saturday 11th July 2009
Today was the one of the biggest days on the Kununurra Calendar - the main show day of the Agricultural Society. Since our Caravan Park is just across the road from the main gate we had to go and check it out for ourselves. Ron, Alexander and I had a good look at all the prize winning cattle which were mainly Brahman and Brahman cross breeds. There was also the big machinery and when I say (write) big, I mean big - we saw some serious tractors on display.
Poly pipe (for watering) is a very high turnover commodity item in the Kimberley. They sell 50mm (2 inch) pipe in 1.7km length - in VIC/NSW the same product can only be sold in 400mt length due to transport restrictions, but up here the big road trains carry 30 of these huge rolls at once. One particular station up here is currently laying this pipe at a rate of 18km per day!
Irrigation is certainly big up here but the Pastoral Cattle Industry is also very substantial with the average breeding herd size around 3000 head and some of the developed leases over 10,000 head.
We called at the Fisheries department stand to get the good oil on local fishing and enter a competition where we had to estimate the size of a crab shell.
The show also had the usual sideshow alley and a pavilion where the local cooking and vegetable entries were on display. The biggest pumpkin on show was 77kg - what a whopper!
Of course there were also the usual fatty food stalls but all we had was a couple of Fuji apples from a "Healthy Eating" stall.
While we were at the show the girls did a bit of shopping and we met back at the caravan for lunch. As today was a bit of a lazy day I had a little afternoon siesta before we departed for a little bit of fishing at Lake Kununurra where we were hoping to catch some Silver Cobbler or Catfish. Down near the pump house at the back of the golf course was our spot. We were a little bit cautious as a big saltwater croc has been sighted in the Lake and the department has traps set to try and catch him. We cast out and then stand 4 or 5 mt back from the waters edge so we can run if the salty decides to show himself. Crocs are rather slow on land but unbeatable in water.
Two days ago our Bungle Bungle tour guide Jimmy told us about his friend who was camping with his girlfriend a good distance away from the waters edge to be safe but during the night a croc came out and tried to drag them into the water with tent and all. Luckily they both escaped through the other end of the tent so all the croc got was an empty tent and they both lived to tell the tale!
Ron caught two catfish and Alexander caught one whilst I was very busy re-rigging rods to keep up with Alexanders tangles and snags. The fish were too small to eat but they made an interesting grunting noise when out of the water. The catfish seemed to bite on beef just as well as they did on squid.
Back to the caravan on sunset and our new neighbour told us all about his Barra fishing trip and showed us the photographs - we drooled over pictures of the 76cm Barra he caught.
After tea we were treated to another fireworks display from the show and the band kept playing music until late into the night, long after we had gone to bed.