On this day - March 20th - in 1942 a Royal Australian Air Force 12 Squadron Wirraway A20-62, flying from Batchelor, Northern Territory, Australia, to Wyndham WA force-landed on coastal saltmarsh near the WA-NT border - just inside WA.  Within a week of finding this in 2004 we were able to contact the pilot, living at Taylor's Beach in Queensland.  An oral history was recorded with Lew Dwyer, which you can hear in Part 5 of 8 on the Kununurra Museum YouTube 'Cinema' (play from linked video below)

  It is hard to believe it is now 14 years since we got the pilot, Flight Sergeant Lex Cameron "Lew" Dwyer to Kununurra to open the 'Wirraway-Challenge' Display on March 20th 2005.  His friend and co-pilot, Flight Sergeant, Warwick Carmody, joined us by phone from hospital that day in 2005.  Warwick Carmody provided us some great photographs and information and after WWII he would become the Town Clerk of Bunbury.

  A story of survival and rescue of two RAAF pilots by Aboriginal stockmen from Carlton Hill station - When war came to the Kimberley (this was just a month after Darwin was first attacked).

See the 8 part digital video at our YouTube 'Cinema' and read more from our website link below or come in to Kununurra Museum and see the "Wirraway-Challenge" exhibits. (Wirraway means 'Challenge' :^)

Part 5 of 8 - Wirraway A20-62 Forced-Landing (The Main Story) - 29 min.

[No longer..] WANTED! - RM Williams Cuban Heels

 Response was good to a plea for an old pair of RM Williams Cuban Heel Stockman's boots that were no longer in use, as the fitting item to display the Wave Hill spurs on, and we now have 2 x pairs. This was fortunate as Ian Petherick donated spurs owned by his late  father Hugh Petherick (VRD - Legune - East Kimberley) said to have been acquired by Hugh from Lake Nash station NT, close to the Queensland border in the 1930s.

 We had no spurs before June 2016 to now have 5 x Spurs in the Kununurra Museum collections, now, besides the two pairs mentioned, another machine-made brass, 'Mexican spur' circa 1910s to 1920s & oldest in the collection (may be USA machine made), with provenance to East Kimberley history.  This odd spur had been found under or near the school-house in use at the Argyle Downs homestead school of the 1960s, by a teacher there at the time and kept by his wife. I know that KHS member Meg Gayoso had treasured this brass spur, in her life since that time and it must have been hard for her to part with it for KHS collections, so thanks to Meg, and hope you can be happy to hear that many visitors have already seen this on display and wondered at it's well machined structure, and to compare to the two larger pairs of Australian hand-made spurs.  

On the weekend of June 24^th to 26^th 2016, we commemorated this history with various events that opened on the night of Friday June 24^th with a KHS version of the 1946 Rosewood Station film with embedded history images and a documentary film, “On the Banks of the Ord” made by Kevin Richards.

 These were shown on the big screen at the Kununurra Picture Gardens. The following morning (Saturday June 25th) started at the original Carlton Reach – 'Ord River Experimental Farm' site @lias Lake Kununurra Golf Club, with an opening address by Matthew Durack (the son of Bill Durack, who had worked with his brother, Kim Durack at Carlton Reach 1942-1944). 

[Photograph - 1957 - Kimberley Michael Durack (1917-1968) - Taken at Camballin, West Kimberley 1957 - KHS-2010-43-P-BD - Carlton Reach 1941 Display - This KHS Archive was part of displays originally made for the conference '50 Years of Ord Irrigation - Reviews & Future Perspectives' in 1991, now on display at the Kununurra Museum.]

The group of 40 to 50 people at the history forum then drove out to the former Kimberley Research Station site, now Department of Agriculture WA - Kununurra HQ, where the rest of the day was spent with tours and talks covering from the earliest history through to the future directions of Ord Irrigation. On Sunday there was a tag-along tour to see graves near old Ivanhoe station, then back to town to take a look at some of the fascinating history in the Kununurra Museum and KHS Archive, at an Open Day. All events were well attended and from far and wide, came members of the Durack family, who made up almost half of those who attended. [Read more about the forum weekend on the Events page.]   

[Photograph - Below - A 1944 aerial photograph of the Carlton Reach Experimental Farm overlaid to show as it is now, with the main channel cutting through the first Research Station]

75 Years of Ord Irrigation - History Forum - Booking Form

"Wirraway-Challenge" Day
Every March 20th is "Wirraway-Challenge" Day at the Kununurra Museum

 They were out over the Timor sea, in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, when their engine suddenly lost power and oil spread out over the windscreen, which Lew found was hot on his face, when he opened the canopy to clean the windscreen. Carmody was able to take control with the twinned rear training controls of the Wirraway, while Lew cleared the oil from his face, having already headed the aircraft to port, south, towards Australia! It was still around 20 km to land, but with their altitude, the stricken plane managed the distance to the coastline. They glided in over one of the widest stretches of saltmarsh, where it is about 40 km from sea to bush, with a dead flat saltmarsh between.
Wirraway means Challenge - Read more and see listings of the eight Wirraway-Challenge digital videos.

We have now had 1,992,492 (1.99 Million) Image Views (Dec. 7 2016).

 In December 2016 or January 2017 - Will you be our 2,000,000th Viewer?

The KHS photographs on the Flickr site, have now had over 1,938,650 image views (August 20th 2016). In Feb 2016 it was 1,760,057, a good increase of 70,789 views in the two months before (Feb 2016). Views peaked on January 28^th – 7,006 views on that day.

KHS – Ord History Photographs

Albums (Sets)

[These Links open in new tabs/windows]

Collections (of Albums)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/khs-museum/collections

Subject Themes

https://www.flickr.com/photos/khs-museum/collections/72157625849162917/

Hope you enjoy.

 In March 1941 Kimberley Michael Durack (KMD) published a thoroughly researched document, 'Developing the North - A Proposed Research Station for the Kimberleys,' and by the end of 1941 his proposal had become a reality.

 In 2014 it was realised that we did not have this document of great significance to Ord River Irrigation history, in the KHS archive, so in February 2015 the document was photographed at the Battye Library, then back in Kununurra each page was transcribed by KHS volunteers. Since then the transcriptions and 'Proposed Research Station' page images have been compiled into a new electronic document format, which we are placing online to make this accessible to all.

 It is fascinating to realise that Kim Durack was just 24 years old when he wrote this proposal, researched and written with great skill. We hope you enjoy reading...

Download KHS archive number KHS-2015-1-H-BD - 'Developing the North - Proposed Research Station for the Kimberleys' (5.6 MB) written by KM Durack and published 75 years ago on March 31st 1941 (in 2016).

KHS hopes you enjoy and we would appreciate any feedback you may have.

[As this PDF is hyperlinked it is best viewed by saving to your hard drive and viewing in Adobe Acrobat Reader and not in web based viewers as hyperlinking may not work correctly. - Below - Crop from cover of the KHS transcribed document - Click image to download this document of historical significance, to mark 75 years of Ord Irrigation history in 2016, made accessible to all by KHS in August 2015.]

2016 - Commemorations

130 Years ago - Wyndham & Halls Creek Gold Rush

 In 1886 the town of Wyndham came into existence and the rush was setting in for 'Kimberley' (Halls Creek) goldfields, with ships arriving the tent city of Wyndham soon turned into a town.  Visit Halls Creek and Wyndham in 2016 and make sure you go to the old Courthouse in the Port to the Wyndham Museum and experience the history there too mark 130 years.

70 Years ago - Start of Kimberley Research Station (KRS) in 1946

Dillon's Bottle Tree

"Dillon's [Boab] Bottle Tree" from KHS

KHS Anniversaries (15 & 30 :^)

 Amazingly in 2016 our 'new' purpose-built archive and museum facility, today known as the Kununurra Museum, will have been in operation for fifteen years. This amounts to half of the existence of the Kununurra Historical Society, having been inaugurated on June 5th 1986, we will be commemorating 30 years as a society.

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Kim Durack's Pump Engine is Now at the Kununurra Museum

July 20th 2013 - 50th Year Commemorations

The Official Opening of Ord Stage I and the Ord River Diversion Dam took place at a Ceremony on July 20th 1963 - On that date in 2013 (this week), Engineering Heritage WA along with support from the Water Corporation of Western Australia, will unveil a new interpretive panel at the Kununurra Swim Beach, about the Ord River Diversion Dam, with some images and the history supplied by KHS. This will incorporate a lunch for invited guests and a tour of inspection over the Ord River Diversion Dam, which is normally closed to pedestrians. Later in the day from 2pm the Kununurra Museum will be open for the visiting pioneer engineers, VIPs and guests.

An Honorary Life Member of the Kununurra Historical Society passed away on Christmas eve 2013. To celebrate the life of William Arthur Champness Wright, we hope you enjoy here a slideshow of Bill's 35mm slide collection. KHS was also fortunate enough to have recorded an oral history and had some great interaction with Bill, especially during the last two or three years. The Oral History and this slide collection are in the same archive - KHS-2011-46-P-A-OH-BD - Bill Wright Oral History and 35mm Slide Collection. [P=Photographic, A=Audio, OH=Oral History, BD=Born Digital]

[Use the four cornered gadget at lower right to go fullscreen. Once in fullscreen mode use "Show Info" at top right for detailed information on each slide.]

NT Chief Minister's NT Book Award to Darrell Lewis for "A Wild History"

[July 14th 2013 Note]

 Congratulations go out to Darrell Lewis, who has been visiting Kununurra this past week, attending several Kununurra Museum functions, a few days after he had been present in Darwin to receive the NT Chief Minister's - History Book Award, as equal winner, for his book, "A Wild History - Life and Death on the Victoria River Frontier."  This is a fascinating, well written and referenced, easy read for the general public, being an early history (to circa 1910) of the entire Victoria River district, from Katherine to the East Kimberley WA/NT border regions.

  Down the Duncan Road and out to the southern side of the Buchanan Highway to beyond Birrindudu. There on the edge of desert country, on the northern slopes of the Browns Range, lies a belt of about 280 "big, old" boab trees, cut off by great distance from the nearest of all other Kimberley boab trees, and close to where the Leichhardt name-plate is said to have been found over a century ago.

 The name-plate, with the words "Ludwig Leichhardt 1848," was found on a burnt gun in the hollow of a "bottle-tree," (boab) reputedly with an "L" inscribed on the tree. The gun to which the brass nameplate (145mm wide x 20mm high x 2mm thick) had been attached, was left at the tree, was supposedly found by stockman, Charlie Harding's Aboriginal assistant, "Jackie." Little is known of this pair's Kimberley movements, who may have gone out prospecting from Hall's Creek towards the Gardiner Range and near the Sturt Creek WA/NT border region, Despite intensive search by helicopter and quad bike, by Darrell and others in 2007 and 2008 respectively, a boab with an "L" inscribed, nor the gun remains (which would have been an early muzzle-loader), have yet been located. [KHS President - 14 VII 2013]

The Leichhardt nameplate is on display at the National Museum of Australia (NMA), where more information can be found. The image below of the nameplate is from the NMA s web page for the object listing - NMA Collection Object Listing - Leichhardt Nameplate [This link will open in a new tab to keep this page open]

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

A new book by Darrell Lewis.

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

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