Kununurra Historical Society

Thanks for sharing in our part of North Australian and Kimberley History and joining KHS on behalf of, past, present and future people of the East Kimberley Region, to show the Local, State and National Significance of the Histories of ; Tropical Agriculture on the Ord River ; Kununurra ; the Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) ; Kimberley history in general ; and related Northern Territory history (with Kununurra's close proximity to the WA/NT border and the East Kimberley's ties to the history of the NT).

Latest KHS News - To read about the KHS Open Days during the 2013 Ord Valley Muster visit the Kununurra Museum Events Page to see what's happening. There is also some information there about the "Graves in the Long Grass" tour during the muster.

  Where is Dr. Leichhardt - The Greatest Mystery in Australian History

A new book by Darrell Lewis.

Could the famous lost explorer have made it to the Kimberley? Read more about a new book launch on Thursday May 16th at the National Museum of Australia from the KHS News page.

Thanks to Museums Australia (the peak body for Museums in Australia), the KHS President was successful in applying for a bursary, to help cover costs associated with  travel between May 15th and 23rd, to attend the Museums Australia Conference in Canberra, which has a great range of topics relevant to a regional museum (See full conference program from KHS News).

Carlton Reach Pump Engine Donated to KHS

The Department of Agriculture and Food WA - Frank Wise Institute (of Tropical Agriculture - formerly Kimberley Research Station - KRS), have donated the original Carlton Reach Pump Engine, a 36HP "Petters Atomic Diesel Engine," to the Kununurra Historical Society. KHS member volunteers hope to install the engine by the Kununurra Museum entrance gate. Read more in KHS News - Carlton Reach Petters Engine Donated to Kununurra Museum and on the Carlton Reach Pump Engine page.

On March 17th 2013 - Saint Patrick's Day, to comemmorate the day 50 years ago that the Royal Tour landed at Kununurra, KHS held an Open Day (10am to 4pm), but if you didn't join us at the Museum, you can still be a part of it. The Kununurra Museum has now made accessible to all!, three 8mm films, shot by three photographers (Henskens, O'Brien and Revell), edited into a Digital Video (in 2 parts) as our first YouTube videos, to the NEW  Kununurra Museum YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/KununurraMuseum

You can also see some research on the RAAF Convair aircraft A96-353, that carried the Royal Tour party to Kununurra, from the KHS Research page.

Hoping you enjoy this visit to the gateway for the Kununurra Museum's online presence. If you are in the East Kimberley visit the KHS Archive, Gallery, Library, Museum & Research facilities in Coolibah Drive - Contact KHS or Join KHS Now!. Please remember we are a completely volunteer run community museum and at times may not be open for advertised hours, however we are flexible in that we can be contacted to open outside advertised hours.

Latest KHS News - Visit the Kununurra Museum Events Page  to see what's happening.

    • It is easy to navigate the site using the Short Contents (Links on this Page :), and the Heading links to get there fast! eg. click the "Did You Know..." title link below.

1963 Royal Tour

Did you know that Kununurra was a stop on the Royal Tour of 1963? In 2013 it will be 50 years since March 17th 1963, the day the Royal Tour landed, reputedly, the first (and only?) time, that the Queen has landed on an unsealed,(gravel - "dirt strip") runway. Do any royal watchers know if this is true? If so please contact us.

A countdown to this 50th anniversary has been added to the sidebar on the right. Some new images of a control tower, which was erected for the 1963 Royal Tour, then dismantled. It was made of scaffolding, but no doubt equipped with the latest technology available in 1963. These photographs and others in the collections also show two RAAF fire tenders, which were reputed to have been flown to Kununurra on RAAF transport aircraft, then flown away. The newly made accessible images of the control tower were from a 2007 accession to the archive, being part of a collection sent by the Civil Aviation Historical Society (WA). Other images from this collection will also be placed online.

It would be great to see if there are any photographs of the Royal Yacht, Brittania, alongside the Broome jetty, or any others you may have of the Royal Tour to the Kimberley in 1963. Please contact us if you do and tell us your story on this or any other Kimberley history. 

To commemorate this 50th anniversary of the 1963 Royal Tour, other collection images not yet online, will be uploaded and made accessible to all. KHS is also hoping to have ready, some 8mm film footage of the Royal Tour, available as our first YouTube video, before March 17th 2013. [This did happen on the eve of and just in time for that anniversary]

Embed gadget

View an embedded SlideShow of still images from the KHS Flickr site of the Royal Tour in Kununurra, from various KHS archive collections, here while on this page, use the right hand cornered gadget to go full screen.

OR View the Royal Tour 1963 photographic "Set" on Flickr, (Link goes to the set on Flickr in a new tab),

Do you know who opened the Ord River Diversion Dam at "the most exciting place in Australia"? In 2013 it will be 50 years since July 20th 1963, when the official opening of Stage I of the Ord River Irrigation Project,  by then Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies. On that day, Menzies described Kununurra and the Ord as "the most exciting place in Australia". Photographs of the opening ceremony event and tours Menzies made of the Pilot Farm and a cotton harvesting demonstration can be seen in the slideshow. A countdown to this 50th anniversary has been added to the sidebar on the right,

Embed gadget

View an embedded SlideShow of photographs of the July 20th 1963 Diversion Dam opening, from various KHS archive collections, here while on this page.

[Use the right hand cornered gadget to go full screen.- and view "Information" (once in full screen mode) for documentation on the photographs. Use the the right hand cornered gadget to go out of full screen mode.]

OR View the Ord River Diversion Dam Official Opening photographic "Set" on Flickr. (Link goes to the set on Flickr in a new tab)

  • It is easy to navigate the site using the Short Contents (Links on this Page :), and the Heading links to get there fast! eg. click the "Welcome..." title link above.

About the Header Photograph

[The full version of the cropped photograph above is available from 1962-08-ca - Ord River Diversion Dam crossing the river - KHS-2011-31-379-3.17-P2-D (Link goes to that image on Flickr in a new Tab) - You can most likely only see the first ten, gateways of the Ord River Diversion Dam gateways above, but if you scroll across to the right you can see all 20 of the gateways, under construction during 1962 (50 years ago in 2012). The image comes from the KHS - Kevin Richards Collection. Kevin was an entomologist for the WA Department of Agriculture, based at the Kimberley Research Station in the Ord River Irrigation Area.

 The Kununurra Historical Society was inaugurated on June 5th 1986, as an archive for regional history, which, with your volunteered help and your histories, can continue to be an archive and museum, for interpreting the Ord's development though this history, which is of Regional, State and National "Significance," for present and future visitors and communities in Kununurra.

Latest Info at KHS News

Visit KHS Museum

 If you are in Kununurra - Visit the KHS Archive, Library, Museum & Research Facility on Coolibah Drive - Come in for a visual feast of some of the town's short, 51 year, but incredibly interesting, history, which KHS has been collecting and documenting during the past 26 years, to preserve for our community and for future generations. In the mean time ENJOY! our history site. - Sharing Your Histories!

Search ALL on the KHS Site

To search the entire site, use the search box at the top of the page, which by default will search the site.

 KHS is seeking past and present Kununurra residents to participate in a project to celebrate the 50th anniversary year of the town by calling on all businesses, Government Departments, Organisations, Clubs, Associations, and especially people to supply and share a history of their Kununurra involvements. - See Your Kununurra History.

Thanks to a grant from the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley and other donors see over 2500 photographs that have been digitised and documented by dedicated KHS volunteers.

Read more about KHS on Flickr (here on this site : ) for an overview of the best ways to view the archive images on the Flickr site.

See the KHS Digital Archive - Images Online as Slideshows or view groups of photographs as KHS Collections or KHS Subject Themes

KHS Subject Themes             KHS Collections

KHS Subject Themes 


OR View KHS Collections
(As Embedded Slideshows)
KHS Collections

Latest Images uploaded to Flickr



KHS Digital Image Collections

For an overview of how best to view collections visit KHS on Flickr (on this website), before viewing these links on Flickr.



View in Decades

 (These go to "Sets" on Flickr : )

1910s

1920s

KHS on Flickr

For more information before you go to a flickr link view some tips here about KHS on Flickr (Here on this site)

KHS PhotoStream - http://www.flickr.com/photos/khs-museum/ (on Flickr)

KHS Group Photographic Pools

KHS would like to share some of the great new images that people have been sharing with KHS to make this ACCESSIBLE to You! You too can share your images in two of the new Public Group Photo Pools that KHS has started on Flickr.
"Have You Lived in Kununurra?"
http://www.flickr.com/groups/have-you-lived-in-kununurra/

&

Have You Lived in the Kimberley?

Kimberley Images and Histories

Have You Lived in the Kimberley?
Boab near the WA/NT Border in morning twilight, far north-east Kimberley coast by KHS
Have You Ever Lived in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia? In towns like Broome, Derby, Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek, Wyndham or Kununurra, any of the many Aboriginal communities, or on pastoral stations, mines or resorts and other islands or places?

Then you have an experience that is impossible to fully describe!

People have already submitted some great images to both of these Group Photographic Pools - Click the link (below) or the Boab to get there!


KHS Web Presence Profile

Google Profile

KHS Google Profile has links to other profiles - eg Facebook, Flickr, Web, Pages and Sites we have contributed to, etc.

You will "Find us on Facebook" from here (KHS Google Profile)... http://profiles.google.com/KununurraHistoricalSociety/

Flickr Profile

View the "KHS Flickr Profile for more detail on our digitisation program and the KHS Flickr site in general. OR for some tips about now best to view in the many and varied ways available, see KHS on Flickr (here on this site).

Hope you enjoy these KHS experiments in "Accessibility" to KHS archival material.

Gazetting of Kununurra 1961

From the Goverment Gazette February 10th 1961

February 10th 1961 - Township of Kununurra
Town of Kununurra Declaration February 10th 1961

This image has been published with the permission of the State of Western Australia, with great thanks from KHS to the Treasurer; Attorney General the Hon Christian Porter MLA.

[Also see below for an extract from the Government Gazette]

Department of Lands and Surveys – Files – General, ‘Kununurra. Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley.’

(WAS 211, cons. 4489, SROWA)

This image was provided to KHS by the State Records Office of Western Australia, www.sro.wa.gov.au

KHS Archive No. KHS-2011-13-WA-SRO-Collection-WA-SRO-cons4489_1959_2811_2

Kununurra Townsite Proclamation

Kununurra Townsite Proclamation [Signed by Minister for Lands Stewart Bovelle]


Don't forget to ADD the KHS Website http://www.kununurra.org.au/ to your "Favourites" (Right Click - "Bookmark") and keep coming back as new images are uploaded over coming months.

The "CountDowns" that are in the side bar are all related to either current events for KHS or any Historic Events, to keep the Kimberley History Community informed of approaching anniversaries. If you know of a date for ANY Kimberley history event you can submit that for inclusion. - Contact KHS.

Significance (Definition)

- "Significance refers to the value and meanings that items and collections have for people and communities. Significance helps unlock the potential of collections, creating opportunities for communities to access and enjoy collections, and to understand the history, cultures and environments of Australia". From Significance 2.0 a guide to assessing the significance of collections, by Roslyn Russell and Kylie Winkworth for the Collections Council of Australia Ltd. (Now axed - This may still be available online as a PDF - Search title).

  • Back to Top of Page.

Short Contents (Links on this Page)

OR See an expanded...
Table of Contents (of this page) or view the entire KHS SiteMap

Expanded Table of Contents (This Page)

Contents

  1. 1 Welcome to the Kununurra Historical Society Inc. (KHS) Website
    1. 1.1 Where is Dr. Leichhardt? - The Greatest Mystery in Australian History
    2. 1.2 Museums Australia Conference in Canberra - May 2013
      1. 1.2.1 Carlton Reach Pump Engine Donated to KHS
      2. 1.2.2 Kununurra Museum - YouTube Channel
    3. 1.3 1963 Royal Tour
    4. 1.4 About the Header Photograph
  2. 2 Visit KHS Museum
    1. 2.1 Search ALL on the KHS Site
  3. 3 KHS Digital Archive
    1. 3.1 KHS Subject Themes             KHS Collections
  4. 4 KHS Digital Image Collections
    1. 4.1 KHS Subject Themes
      1. 4.1.1 KHS Archive Collections
  5. 5 View in Decades
    1. 5.1 1910s
      1. 5.1.1 1920s
      2. 5.1.2 1930s
      3. 5.1.3 1940s
      4. 5.1.4 1950s
      5. 5.1.5 1960s
      6. 5.1.6 1970s
      7. 5.1.7 1980's
      8. 5.1.8 2000 and on...
  6. 6 KHS on Flickr
  7. 7 KHS Group Photographic Pools
    1. 7.1 Have You Lived in Kununurra?
    2. 7.2 Have You Lived in the Kimberley?
      1. 7.2.1 Kimberley Images and Histories
  8. 8 KHS Web Presence Profile
    1. 8.1 Google Profile
    2. 8.2 Flickr Profile
  9. 9 Gazetting of Kununurra 1961
  10. 10 Significance (Definition)
  11. 11 Short Contents (Links on this Page)
  12. 12 Expanded Table of Contents (This Page)
  13. 13 KHS SiteMap
    1. 13.1 1911 CP Conigrave Expedition
      1. 13.1.1 1921 Fixing the NT/WA Border
      2. 13.1.2 1927 Governor Campion at...
      3. 13.1.3 1944 Ord River Dam Survey
      4. 13.1.4 1959 Bandicoot Bar PWD Camp
      5. 13.1.5 1960 PWD Town Camp
      6. 13.1.6 Aerial Views
      7. 13.1.7 Argyle Downs
      8. 13.1.8 Artistic
      9. 13.1.9 Aviation
      10. 13.1.10 Bee Keeping
      11. 13.1.11 Boab Trees
      12. 13.1.12 Boolathanna Station Bore
      13. 13.1.13 Camballin
      14. 13.1.14 Carlton Reach
      15. 13.1.15 Carlton Reach Pump Engine 1941
      16. 13.1.16 Cars in the Kimberley
      17. 13.1.17 Castor Oil
      18. 13.1.18 Christiani Nielsen &...
      19. 13.1.19 Christmas
      20. 13.1.20 CNC (ex GBC) Wet Mess
      21. 13.1.21 CNC Mess Fire Aug. 15 1962
      22. 13.1.22 CNC Worker's Camp Kununurra
      23. 13.1.23 Cotton
      24. 13.1.24 Crops
      25. 13.1.25 Dillon's Bottle Tree (KRS...
      26. 13.1.26 Diversion Dam Construction
      27. 13.1.27 Diversion Dam Opening Ceremony
      28. 13.1.28 Cattle and Droving
      29. 13.1.29 Dunham River Bridge
      30. 13.1.30 Fishing
      31. 13.1.31 Flowers & Trees
      32. 13.1.32 Graves and Headstones
      33. 13.1.33 Helicopters
      34. 13.1.34 Irrigation
      35. 13.1.35 Houses & Buildings
      36. 13.1.36 Ivanhoe Crossing
      37. 13.1.37 Ivanhoe Ord in Flood 2011
      38. 13.1.38 Ivanhoe Station
      39. 13.1.39 Kalumburu
      40. 13.1.40 KHS Camera Collection
      41. 13.1.41 KHS Now & Then
      42. 13.1.42 KRS - Kimberley Research...
      43. 13.1.43 Kununurra Airport
      44. 13.1.44 Kununurra Hotel
      45. 13.1.45 Kununurra Town
      46. 13.1.46 Linseed
      47. 13.1.47 Machinery
      48. 13.1.48 Main Channel (M1C1)
      49. 13.1.49 & Pump Station
      50. 13.1.50 Monuments & Plaques
      51. 13.1.51 Northern Territory (NT)
      52. 13.1.52 Okes-Durack Oil Company
      53. 13.1.53 On the Road
      54. 13.1.54 Opening Ceremony Top Dam
      55. 13.1.55 Ord Produce at Darwin Show
      56. 13.1.56 Ord River
      57. 13.1.57 Ord Stage II Development
      58. 13.1.58 People & Places
      59. 13.1.59 Pilot Farm Set
      60. 13.1.60 Pre-cast Yard and Beams
      61. 13.1.61 Recreation
      62. 13.1.62 Rice
      63. 13.1.63 Royal Tour 1963
      64. 13.1.64 Richards Family & House
      65. 13.1.65 Safflower
      66. 13.1.66 Scenic Kimberley
      67. 13.1.67 Serpentine Dam
      68. 13.1.68 Shipping
      69. 13.1.69 Signs
      70. 13.1.70 Sorghum
      71. 13.1.71 Sugar Cane
      72. 13.1.72 Swim Beach Tree
      73. 13.1.73 "Now & Then"
      74. 13.1.74 Thompson Springs
      75. 13.1.75 Trucks
      76. 13.1.76 WA-NT Border
      77. 13.1.77 West Kimberley
      78. 13.1.78 Wildlife
      79. 13.1.79 Wyndham
      80. 13.1.80 Wyndham Airport
      81. 13.1.81 Wyndham Hotel
      82. 13.1.82 Wyndham Six Mile Hotel

KHS SiteMap

Subpage Listing

Thanks for Visiting Kununurra Historical Society
Archive, Library, Museum & Research
Kimberley History Site. Please come back again!
Themed Sets and Archive Collections

Various themes in photographic collections from the Kununurra Historical Society Digital Archive

Wyndham Six Mile Hotel

Wyndham Six Mile Hotel


Subpages (3): Contact KHS Join KHS Now! KHS Links
Comments

Ninbing Boab in Early Morning Twilight

Site Owners

Kununurra Historical Society (KHS)
 Archive, Gallery Library, Museum & Research
Kununurra Museum - Coolibah Drive & Online

Dates & Events
Next KHS Meeting
1st Tuesday of the Month at 7pm
All Welcome

11days until
KHS Meeting 1st Tuesday of the Month (March 5th 2013) at 7pm - All Welcome!

68days since
KHS Open Day - On Sunday, March 17th 2013, when it was 50 Years since the Royal Tour visited Kununurra on March 17th 1963.

57days until
July 20th 2013, when it will be 50 years since the Ord River Diversion Dam was officially opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies

Kununurra Museum Events

For more information on Kununurra Museum Events, for the Australian "Year of the Farmer," see the KHS Events Page

1942

March 20th 1942

Wirraway A20-62

On March 20th 2017 it will be...

75 Years...

Since the forced landing of Wirraway A20-62, on coastal saltmarsh, just inside the WA/NT border, by Pilots Lew Dwyer and Warwick Carmody. See the permanent "Wirraway - Challenge" display at the KHS Museum.

65days since
March 20th, which was the date of the forced landing of 12 Squadron Wirraway A20-62 in 1942. Broome and Derby suffered air raids on this day, March 20th 1942.

1942

1943 (Dry Season)

70 Years ago at Carlton Reach

(Ord River Experimental Station)

During the dry season of 1943 Kim and Bill Durack continued their work on the "Ord River Experimental Station," which had been set up late in 1941 at Carlton Reach using the waters of the Ord. More information is available about the 36 HP Petters "Atomic" diesel pump engine, used to raise the water for these first major experimental attempts at irrigation, at the twenty acre farm site. available from the Carlton Reach Pump Engine

ABC Kimberley Radio Interview (March 2013) - About the "Petters Atomic Diesel Engine - See http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/03/18/3718139.htm?site=kimberley

News Flash!
In April 2013 the 36 HP "Petters Atomic Diesel Engine" was donated to the Kununurra Historical Society by the Department of Agriculture and Food WA - Frank Wise Institute of Tropical Agriculture (formerly the Kimberley Research Station, where the engine was also in use until the 1950s), KHS plans to display the original pump engine by the entrance gate of the Kununurra Museum.

Events from 2011

Wyndham and Hall's Creek (aka "Kimberley") were established.

1886

125 Years Ago
(In 2011)

In May and June 2011 It was
90 Years
Since the WA and SA Government Astronomers came to the Kimberley in
1921
to determine the position of the WA/NT Border on the ground by using the new technology (in 1921), of radio time signals. This exepedition in 1921 would locate the border position and a WA Survey crew would come back in 1927 to build the Kimberley Obelisk, which still determines the border today.
Read More about the 1921 WA/NT Border Determinations

1941

1941
Carlton Reach

"Thethebeleng" or "Carlton Reach"
:-( now sadly, referred to as Lake Kununurra)
Was the largest permanent waterhole in the entire Kimberley Region, held back by a place called "Tharram," the "Rocky Falls" or "Jasper Bar" or "Bandicoot Bar," stretching all the way to "Carlton Ridge" or the head of the "Sleeping Buddha, as it is known today."

"Kim's Place"  or "Ord River Experimental Station" or "Ord River Experimental Farm" or "The Cabbage Patch" - No matter what it has been referred to in writing, this was the WA Government's precursor to the joint Federal (CSIRO) - State (WA Ag. Dept.) Kimberley Research Station (KRS).

The 1941 experimental station was set up at Carlton Reach, by Kimberley Michael Durack, for the Department of Agriculture WA, with assistance from the Public Works Department, along with his brother William A. (Bill) Durack, and other helpers along the way.

It will be 75 Years Ago
(in 2016)

Read More on the Carlton Reach Pump Engine Research Page

Top (Top of page text start - Starts below header photograph of the Diversion Dam)

844days since
This site was started on January 31st 2011

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