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Embracing every experience. Leggi altro🇦🇺Kensington
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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Ord River (cont’d)

    22 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    As a part of the cruise we had a short stop and had afternoon tea which consisted of scones jam and cream and some other tasty snacks.
    Great day and a beautiful ecosystem that has actually benefited from a dam being built as it controls the amount of water flowing into the river even though in the wet season the water levels still rise to an astonishing level.Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Ord River Cruise

    22 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    This was one of the highlights of the trip because of the tour guide and his sense of humour and the beautiful scenery in the area.
    Freshwater crocodiles, fruit bats 🦇, fish, lots of native birdlife and some amazing colours and rock formations.
    The Ord river is the centre of a massive irrigation project fed directly from Lake Argyle which has something like 65 times the water of Sydney harbour.

    The Ord River is a 651-kilometre long (405 mi) river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river's catchment covers 55,100 square kilometres (21,274 sq mi).

    The Ord River Irrigation Scheme was built in stages during the 20th century. Australia's largest artificial lake by volume, Lake Argyle, was completed in 1972. It has not been economically successful; $1.45 billion has been spent on the Ord Irrigation Scheme for a return of 17 cents on the dollar, and only 260 jobs created.

    The lower reaches of the river support an important wetland area known as the Ord River Floodplain, a protected area that contains numerous mangrove forests, lagoons, creeks, flats and extensive floodplains.

    The traditional owners are the Miriwoong and Gajerrong peoples who have inhabited the area for thousands of years and know the Ord River as Goonoonoorrang. In a letter to the Surveyor General, dated 12 October 1959, Louise Gardiner, Secretary of the Nomenclature Advisory Committee wrote: "'Cununurra'...means 'Black Soil'. It is the native name for Ord River. Perhaps it may be the native name for any big river, but according to Mary Durack it is definitely the name for the 'Ord'."    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Lake Argyle

    22 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Lake Argyle is Western Australia's largest and Australia's second largest freshwater man-made reservoir by volume. The reservoir is part of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme and is located near the East Kimberley town of Kununurra. The lake flooded large parts of the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley on the Kimberley Plateau about 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, close to the border with the Northern Territory.

    The primary inflow is the Ord River, while the Bow River and many other smaller creeks also flow into the dam. The lake is a DIWA-listed wetland. Lake Argyle and Lake Kununurra were listed in 1990 as Ramsar Convention protected wetlands.

    History and construction
    The construction of the Ord River Dam was completed in 1971 by Dravo Corporation. The dam was officially opened the following year. The dam wall is 335 metres (1,099 ft) long, and 98 metres (322 ft) high. The earth-fill only dam wall at Lake Argyle is the most efficient dam in Australia in terms of the ratio of the size of the dam wall to the amount of water stored. The lake was named after the property it partly submerged, Argyle Downs.

    Ord River Dam post office opened on 1 March 1969 and closed on 15 November 1971 demonstrating the approximate duration of the construction camp.

    In 1996, the spillway wall was raised by 6 metres (20 ft), which doubled the dam's capacity. Sediment flowing into the dam caused concerns in the mid-1990s that the dam's capacity could be dramatically reduced. By 2006 continual regeneration of the upper Ord catchment appeared to have reduced the amount of sediment inflow.    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Argyle Homestead

    22 giugno 2023, Australia

    We took a bus trip to the Argyle homestead which was one of the first homesteads built in the Kimberley.
    It has now been converted to a museum to show what it was like to live in this era in such an inhospitable place.
    Argyle Downs is a pastoral lease and cattle station located about 120 kilometres (75 mi) south east of Kununurra in the Kimberley region near the border of Western Australia and Northern Territory. It is operated by the Consolidated Pastoral Company.

    The station occupies an area of 1,000 square kilometres (386 sq mi) and is a mix of black soil plains and red basalt country with the Ord River and Lake Argyle situated on the western boundary. Currently the property annually turns off 7,500 head of cattle for live export to the south East Asia market. Stock horses are also bred and raised on the property for use on other stations.

    The traditional owners of the area are the Malngin people.

    The area was settled in 1882 by Patrick and his brother Michael Durack, who arrived in the area after trekking across the north of the continent from Thylungra Station, their property on Coopers Creek in Queensland, where they left from in 1879 along with 7250 breeding cattle and 200 horses. The 3000 mile journey of cattle to stock Argyle Downs and Ivanhoe Station is the longest of its type ever recorded.

    The Duracks exported the cattle from the station through the port of Wyndham to markets as far as South Africa and North America.

    The homestead was constructed in 1895 by the Durack family and was renowned as one of the main social gathering places in the east Kimberley. Built from limestone blocks and mortar made from crushed termite mounds, the homestead had to be dismantled to make way for Lake Argyle in the 1970s. The homestead was reopened in 1979 and now acts as a museum in its present location along the shore of the lake.    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Flight back to Kununurra

    21 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    I had the special privilege of sitting in the cockpit on the flight back with McKenzie who was a young female pilot who had grown up in rural Australia.
    She was a slightly built woman who had an air of confidence about her and it was fun to sit up front especially given that it was approaching dusk.
    Flying over the outback gives you an appreciation of just how massive our country is and how wild and untamed most of it still is.
    Interestingly we had a mild radio malfunction for a part of the trip and that made it even more interesting 🤨    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Kungkalanayi

    21 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Another beautiful walk with our own tour guide who was a lovely lady in search of love so we spoke about her trials and tribulations in the love stakes.
    The small clumps of spinifex grass really add to the beauty of the landscape as they are dotted all over the place and she also showed us a particular plant that looked completely dead and you add some water to its surface and magically before your eyes the plant comes to life.
    Quite extraordinary…    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Bloodwoods Walk

    21 giugno 2023, Australia

    We were fortunate enough to be able to travel with our own personal guide on this walk.

    The Kimberley tropical savanna is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in northwestern Australia, covering portions of Western Australia and the Northern Territory south of the Timor Sea.

    The ecoregion lies in Northwestern coastal Australia, including the Kimberley region of Western Australia and extending into the Northern Territory.

    It is bounded on the north by the Timor Sea. The Arnhem Land tropical savanna ecoregion lies to the northeast, the Carpentaria tropical savanna lies to the east, and the Victoria Plains tropical savanna ecoregion lies to the southeast and south. The Great Sandy-Tanami desert ecoregion lies to the southeast.

    Much of the ecoregion has rugged terrain of Proterozoic sandstone. The Northern Kimberley coast is generally steep with many offshore islets.

    Rivers in the ecoregion include the Fitzroy, May, Drysdale, Durack, Ord, Victoria, Katherine, Flora and Daly. Rivers and streams often follow sandstone fault blocks, eroding dramatic gorges.

    This walk featured the Corymbia ptychocarpa, commonly known as swamp bloodwood or spring bloodwood, is a species of tree that is endemic to northwestern Australia. It has rough bark on the trunk and branches, broadly lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, creamy yellow, pink or red flowers, and barrel-shaped, ribbed fruit.
    This tree was found throughout the gorges and lower lying swamp areas prone to flooding in the wet season.    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Bungle Bungle Savannah Lodge

    20 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    After flying in the helicopter and roughly circumnavigating the Bungles we were then transported to an eco lodge to stay the night and do further walks the next day into some very beautiful country.
    The lodge was very comfortable and the bar area was very pleasant as it was situated on a deck with a big open fire pit.
    We drank a couple of local cocktails using some indigenous ingredients…yum.    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Helicopter Flight

    20 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We took a helicopter flight over the Bungles with a lovely pilot who came from NZ and was flying with another group of pilots from the local airport.
    They had five helicopters 🚁 in the group and could take 3 passengers plus pilot.
    Heaps of fun because the helicopters had no doors so you could lean out of the door with your seat belt on.    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Bungles Tour (cont’d)

    20 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    The range is found on the plains fringing the eastern Kimberley region. The ranges consist of stacks of ancient seabeds with layers of dolomite contained throughout them. A 7-kilometre (4.3 mi) diameter circular topographic feature is clearly visible on satellite images of the Bungle Bungle Range. It is believed that this feature is the eroded remnant of a very ancient meteorite impact crater and is known as the Piccaninny crater.

    The unusual orange and dark grey banding on the conical rock formations is caused by differences in the layers of sandstone. The darker bands are on the layers of rock which hold more moisture, and are a dark algal or cyanobacteria growth. The orange coloured layers are stained with iron and manganese mineral deposits contained within the sandstone.

    The Bungle Bungle Range formation occupies an area of approximately 450 square kilometres (174 sq mi).    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Bungles Tour (cont’d)

    20 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    We had a couple of very knowledgeable guides in Gabriel, Wes and Lisa.
    Gabriel provided some very powerful indigenous dreamtime stories which spoke mostly of the rainbow serpent and how it created the rivers and waterways.

    The distinctive beehive-shaped towers are made up of sandstones and conglomerates (rocks composed mainly of pebbles and boulders and cemented together by finer material). These sedimentary formations were deposited into the Red Basin 375 to 350 million years ago, when active faults altered the landscape. The combined effects of wind from the Tanami Desert and rainfall over millions of years shaped the domes.    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Bungles Tour (cont’d)

    20 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    The traditional owners of the area are the Kija/Gija people.
    Aboriginal people have been living in the area for over 20,000 years and continue to maintain a strong connection to this ancient landscape. The national park is managed by the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation in conjunction with the traditional Aboriginal owners.
    The range remained largely unknown except by local Aboriginal people and stockmen until 1982 when film-makers arrived and produced a documentary about the Kimberley. The area was gazetted as a National Park in 1987 and was also inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Kununurra

    19 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Kununurra is a town in far northern Western Australia located at the eastern extremity of the Kimberley approximately 45 kilometres (28 mi) from the border with the Northern Territory. Kununurra was initiated to service the Ord River Irrigation Scheme. Its language is Miriwoong.
    Kununurra is also the gateway to the Bungle Bungles and other trips.
    As with most outback towns there is a large indigenous population and they advise not to walk around at nighttime by yourself and to lock up the doors and windows.
    We stayed at a lovely place that had a great pool and an outdoor shower and bath which was special being able to look up at the stars whilst washing yourself down.
    There is a big lake in the middle of town which is run off from the Ord River tributaries and more on that in later posts.
    Key farm activities include the growing of melons, mangoes and until recently, sugar cane. Farmers are now turning to a more lucrative (though longer term) crop of Indian sandalwood. Other crops that have been grown in the Ord are cotton, safflower and rice, which is being trialled once again, having been the first crop planted on the Pilot Farm in 1960. The town has a melon picking season, which attracts migratory farm workers to the area. There is also a thriving tourism industry with most tourist operators capitalising on the scenery of the Ord River, Lake Argyle, Diversion Dam and other local locations, including the relatively nearby Bungle Bungle Range.    Leggi altro

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  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Emma Gorge (cont’d)

    18 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Hard to not keep admiring these beautiful rock pools and the pristine environment surrounding them.
    The water in the rock pools and gorges is so clear and so pure because of the filtration process that the water undergoes before coming down in a waterhole that was both deep and refreshingly cool.Leggi altro

  • BronzeKimberley 2023Viaggiatore

    Emma Gorge (El Questro)

    17 giugno 2023, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Emma Gorge is a drawcard location due its unspoiled beauty and beautiful contrasting colours and escarpments.
    The gorge is approximately 1.6 kms from the lodge and the walk is a graded 4 which is quite easy.
    The track follows the creek bed and there are many beautiful little water holes along the way which we plan to explore tomorrow.
    The two water holes are amazing and very different…one is turquoise in colour and the other because of its depth and shaded aspect is much darker.
    The water is quite cold but really refreshing as a result of the cold water therapy both Jen and I have been doing since January.
    We were lucky to see a juvenile olive python sliding in the underbrush…such beautiful colours although it may be difficult to distinguish in the photo.    Leggi altro

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