Nine hundred and seventy seven kilometres north-east of Broome and 3,300 kilometres from Perth via the North West Coastal and the Great Northern Highways, lies the town of Kununurra.
The town is located on the main jet route between Darwin and Perth. Kununurra's central position in Kimberley affairs makes it an ideal base for exploring the Kimberley, and several hotels, motels and caravan parks have arisen to service that need.
From here you can take a conventional plane, float plane, or helicopter to fly over the sensational scenery of the Diamond Coast, this includes the magnificient King George Falls which is close to the exclusive wilderness retreat at Faraway Bay or take a 4WD trip down to the Bungle Bungle Range and visit Lake Argyle.
Take a look from the top of Kelly's Knob, the highest point in Kununurra and view the town, Lake Kununurra, The Ord Valley and some truly extraordinary sunsets. Visit Bandicoot Beach, Hidden Valley National Park, picnic at Ivanhoe Crossing, visit the City of Ruins, Lake Argyle, the Argyle Diamond Mine, Mt Elisabeth Station, Chamberlain Gorge, Mitchell's Falls, Prince Frederick Harbour, Kalumburu and the strange and beautiful Bungle Bungles.
The Argyle Diamond Mine produces over one third of the world's diamonds and includes the rare and beautiful Argyle pink diamonds, tours are available but booking is essential.
Kununurra is located 825km from Darwin, 365km from Halls Creek and 100km from Wyndham.
The Backpackers Guide to WA says:-
This modern East Kimberley town has a population of some 5,000 people with the youngest average age of any town in Australia, and is the support centre for the Ord River Irrigation Scheme created by the completion of Lake Argyle in 1972.
The choice of eateries is excellent with a wide selection of eat-in or take-away meals available plus the usual counter meals at the pub and tavern. Don’t miss having one meal of barramundi, the local game fish, it is delicious!
Kununurra is a tourist’s paradise with well established aerial, water and land-based tours along with fishing safaris and crocodile sighting tour available to cater for everyone’s taste.
There are three 4WD tour operators and four air charter companies specialising in trips to the amazing
Bungle Bungles Ranges.
Amongst the more popular tours on offer are the river cruises from Lake Kununurra to Lake Argyle and the daily cruise on Lake Argyle itself.
Either tour will allow the tourist to not only appreciate the beauty of the Kimberleys but the enormity of the job of the construction of the dam and the irrigation system.
Just off the bitumen road is the picturesque Ivanhoe Crossing, one of the features of the Ord River and a very popular fishing spot. Returning to town, travellers will pass the “City of Ruins”, sandstone formations that resemble an ancient city.
The East Kimberley landscape is amongst the most magnificent in the world with unbelievable sunrises and sunsets that cast most unusual hues on the ranges and to see the golden web of the Kimberley spiders strung between trees and shrubs at these times is something that the tourist will remember for a lifetime.
Originally settled as cattle country, the Kununurra area of the East Kimberley is now predominantly under irrigation and growers have had great success with crops of maize, forge sorghum, grain sorghum, chick peas, sugar cane, rockmelons, watermelons, bananas, sunflower and miscellaneous vegetables.
Seventy-five thousand hectares of land was made available for irrigation with the construction of Australia’s largest inland man-made dam, covering an area of 740 square kilometres at normal fully supply level and 2072 at maximum flood level, or nine times the size of Sydney Harbour.
There is a great selection of accommodation in Kununurra including five caravan parks, a hotel, motel, guest house and two backpackers accommodation establishments.
Within easy walking distance of town and well worth a visit is Hidden Valley National Park, which comprises a series of scenic gorges containing some fascinating rock formations formed millions of years ago. There is also an abundance of bird life in the area.
Just a short distance away is “Kelly’s Knob”, from where there are excellent views over the town, Diversion Dam and the irrigation farmlands.
When the dam was being constructed it was realised the area would soon lose one of its most historical buildings – the Argyle Downs Homestead – made famous as the home of the pioneering Durack family.
The building was dismantled and reconstructed close to the dam wall and today serves as a museum for all to see. It’s original site is part of the dam’s floor, deep below water.
With the abundance of water close to town it is no surprise that water sports are a popular past-time. Good conditions exist for swimming in Lake Kununurra where yachting, kayaking and canoeing are also popular. There is also a public swimming pool in town.
A note of warning – this is crocodile country, you should only swim where it is known to be safe to do so.
