KUNUNURRA (WYNDHAM)

Marlgu  Billabong brolgas

Dreamtime Statues, Wyndham

Beth and a Valley Kangaroo

Tess and the Valley Kangaroo

Ben and the wallaby

Bridgie and the wallaby

Wyndham Port looking out to the Durack River

DAY 42 – KUNUNURRA (WYNDHAM)                                                                   Saturday, 13^th August

Awake early this morning – like at 3AM.  Friday night football in Kununurra is obviously a BIG affair.  Parties EVERYWHERE ALL NIGHT.  In fact, as I write this at 6am (almost lunchtime for me!) the parties are STILL going on!!  The caravan parks awake as the locals go to bed in this town! As David went on his early morning walk, he saw so many people passed out on the footpath, but more seriously, in the middle of the road.  So sad.

Off to Wyndam today – and I have very mixed feelings about it.  We went to Wyndham via a 4WD track which was pretty uninteresting (although my beautiful husband finds EVERYTHING interesting!!) except for Marlgu Billabong where we saw an enormous amount of bird life – big brolgas, green pygmy geese, cormorants, whiskered terns, whistling kites etc. Beth was great today.  As she sat beside me in the birdhide she said:  “Mum I have learnt so much about birds on this holiday.  Before we came on holidays, I thought they were pretty boring but now I am really interested and know a lot about them.”  She is amazing the way she can pick a Whistling Kite from a Black Buzzard etc.

After that we headed straight to Wyndham for toilets and lunch.  We drove through Wyndham and blinked and almost missed it, drove on to Wyndham Port which was a deserted because it was a Saturday but it was obvious that a fair amount of iron ore is transported onto the barges there.  We must have seen 5 or 6 road trains, each with four trailers just in the time we were there.  We drove back into Wyndham and up to the Five Ways lookout where the Durack, Pentecost, Ord, Forrest and King Rivers all meet the Cambridge Gulf.  It was such an amazing view and such an enormous expanse of water.  After lunch we drove back down into Wyndham and had a look at the Dreamtime Statues which was set up in the Bicentennial Year as a beautiful park celebrating the Aboriginal dreamtime.  But it is so derelict …  as is the whole town.  There were two “sobering up” or “rehabilitation” centres in the town, which I suppose is good, but the number of Aborigines affected by alcohol and apparently living in the street was shocking.  It just made me so sad, I suppose, because of the feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness – and that was just ME. 

On our way back we stopped at an Art Gallery and found the owner was a wildlife rescue worker who happened to be feeding two joeys just as we got there.  You can imagine the kids!!  One was a 6 month old Valley Kangeroo and the other a slightly older wallaby.  All the kids got to hold them and play with them which was fantastic.  No doubt that will go down in the journals as a real buzz.

Had a good chat with Kevin and Alannah from Melbourne and their children, Caleb and Tess, at the pool this afternoon.  It is always good to talk to people about what they have done and what they are planning on!  We have met some lovely people along the way.