Western Australia

Eastern Kimberley 

Kununurra

Kunnunurra is a modern town on the Ord River and it was built in the 1960s to service the Ord River Irrigation Project, which began with the creation of Lake Kununurra. In 1971 another dam was built 50 km up river, creating the huge Lake Argyle. Nearby to the town is Mirama National Park (Hidden Valley) with good walking trails, reminiscent of a scaled down version of the Bungle Bungles. There are pleasant river trips available and Kununurra is the centre for a variety of day and longer trips in the Kimberley, including aerial safaris.

The El Questro Wilderness Park, a million acre privately owned area, is 100 km west of Kununurra, on unsealed roads. El Questro has a range of accommodation from top of the range full board through to camping and the property does have a small touring programme of its own. El Questro has two airstrips. A number of the Kimberley operators include a stay at El Questro in their tours.

Wyndham

Wyndham is a small port, originally built as a result of the discovery of gold at Halls Creek. The town now has a residential area with shops on the Great Northern Highway. The port still functions and among other exports is unfortunately used to export live cattle to Asia.

Halls Creek

Located to the south of the region on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert. Nearby is Wolfe Creek Crater, the second largest meteorite crater in the world.

Mitchell Plateau
Mitchell Plateau is not yet a national park and it is best known for the wonderful Mitchell River Falls, exceptional wildlife and the palm Livistona eastonii. There is camping within the park and at the main camping area at Mitchell River Falls a helicopter offers flights over the falls. It takes an hour each way to walk to the falls from the campsite and you can scramble to the top of the falls where there are amazing waterholes.

Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) National Park www.naturebase.net(Punululu)
Amazingly this park was only ‘discovered’ in the 1980s and has since become a favourite national park with its huge, stripey beehive shaped domes of rock. The park is accessed from a rough track off the main highway about 110 km north of Halls Creek. Fifty one km up the track you reach a junction called Three Ways where there is a ranger station. From here it is 5 km north to Kurrajong Camp or 16 km south to Walardi Camp. Not far from Walardi Camp is Bellburn Camp, a privately run safari camp with permanent tented accommodation, full board and good facilities.
Places to visit in Purnululu NP include:

Echidna Chasm

Cathedral Gorge

Froghole

Piccaninny Gorge

Drysdale River National Park www.naturebase.net(Drysdale River)
580 km west of Wyndham off the Gibb River Kalumburu Road. 4WD access only A beautiful and remote park if you have the time and opportunity.

Parry Lagoons Nature Reserve www.naturebase.net(Parry Lagoons)
This park is 20 km south of Wyndham in the NE Kimberley and in the dry season you can big flocks of birds. In the wet season the whole area becomes an inland sea. There is no camping but there are bird hides and information panels.

Ord River Scheme
The Ord River dam has created Lake Argyle, 72 km south of Kununurra. This is the largest man made lake in Australia and capable of irrigating 72000 hectares of land. What would previously have been hill tops are now islands in the lake and as the area naturalises, it is becoming increasingly attractive and is now a draw for visitors.

 

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