The Mighty Ord River

Friday 10th July 2009
Domestic work filled in part of our morning before Alexander, Andrea, Ron and myself drove to the Ivanhoe crossing (Picture 1) which is a permanently submerged stretch of road across the Ord River. Alexander got a ride across the water in Ron's car whilst I remained on shore to take pictures as they went through the water. In Picture 2 on the right, just to the left of the car is a rock a bit further into the river, if you look closely you will see a crocodile resting on that rock only a few meters away from the car.
After the first excitement for the morning was over we went back to the caravan and packed our bags for an 11:30am tour pickup. The tour bus took us to the Durack Homestead now located just outside Argyle Village. The Durack family were the first to establish a cattle station and build a Homestead in 1884 after a 2 year journey from Queensland with wagons and 2000 head of cattle. They established Argyle Station which was submerged when Lake Argyle was filled. The Homestead was relocated and is now available for viewing. However, most of the station buildings and equipment is still submerged as the Lake filled within two years instead of the forecast 10 years and caught everyone by surprise.
Lake Argyle has risen by 1mt during a single day last February and evaporates about 3.5mt every year - evaporation is by far the biggest user of Argyle Water. Only 10% of the water flowing out of Lake Argyle is used for irrigation, the remaining 90% flows straight out to sea. The amount of water inflow during the wet season is unbelievably high and this Lake has the capacity to supply the whole of Australia with fresh water and still have plenty left over.
The Duracks didn't have all of this when they settled in the Kimberley but they battled on and established a live export market for their cattle shipping them from Wyndham direct to Asia. If only they knew that the real value of their land was in the Diamonds and not the pastures!
Our bus driver had lots of information to impart and we had a very interesting trip to Argyle Village and then onto the Argyle Dam wall (Picture 3) which is a tiny wall, only 300mt across the top, for such a huge expanse of water. It is the most efficient dam in the world as far as effort required for the amount of water gained.
The bus took us to the bottom of the wall where we boarded a cruise boat for the 55km journey along the Ord River back to Kununurra. The boat was very impressive with two 350HP outboards and a planing hull it achieves a speed of 35kt.
The guide was fantastic and knew just about everything about the flora and fauna in this area. On our cruise we saw many fresh water crocs and various birds including a Jabiru.
The landscape starts with near vertical rock walls either side of the sometimes narrow river and ends in the flat, wide waters of lake Kununurra. The colours range from the iron ore reds which are so typical for the Kimberley, right through to the lush green of the vegetation on the banks which sometimes looks like jungle. I can not find the words to describe this unbelievable landscape but I have included photo 4 on the right hand side to illustrate what I mean.
We headed up a little creek to see for ourselves what happens when the floods are really big and creeks rise by 10mt or more - the width of the creek simply doubles and everything is washed away.
Along the way we pulled into a bush camp stop next to the only permanent waterfall on the upper Ord River. This little hideout has a toilet and water plus shaded tables and chairs where we had our afternoon tea with scones, carrot cake and fresh local fruit.
The colours on this landscape are very well defined during daytime but as the sun gets into the last hour of the day the tones soften and the lanscape is bathed in a gold and pink blend which makes for a totally surreal scene. Picture 5, the one with the reflection was taken at Maxwell's Creek just before sunset and shows the soft golden pink tones.
We had to depart this idyllic creek in hurry to ensure we didn't miss the sunset over Lake Kununurra as shown in Picture 6.
An indicator of how fascinating this landscape looks is the number of photos I take - today 218, yesterday 276. When I get back home you better not ask me to see the holiday pics unless you have a week to spare!
We arrived back at the caravan park around 6pm and found the 37th Annual Agricultural Show already in full swing on the showgrounds opposite the caravan park. There was plenty of activity with bands playing, rides and all sorts of stalls. As a special surprise we were treated to fireworks just after 8pm - I can still hear some noise now but things are definitley quitening down ready for the big show day tomorrow.