Kim Durack's Pump Engine Since locating and researching the
provenance of the 36HP "Petters Atomic Diesel Engine," KHS member
volunteers have worked at trying to make the engine more accessible (to all! :-), for display at the Kununurra Museum, to help show the local, State and National significance of tropical agriculture on the Ord and in the Kimberley Region.
On April 12th 2013, that research work resulted in great success, when 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 (KRS), where the engine was also in use until the 1950s. KHS Archive Number - KHS-2013-124-P-BD Note that the original river loam is still embedded in the fly-wheel and outer belt pulley wheel, left there when the engine was removed from the Ord River east bank at KRS, by Murray Shiner and one of his excavators, some years ago. A request was made when moving the engine this year, to leave this in place and amazingly this soil has remained in place throughout the various movements to get to the museum grounds. [It was the intention to leave this dirt in place, to help tell this story, however, this may need to now be removed to prevent further rusting.If so at least here, that story is remembered, with photographic evidence. - AB 23 X 2013] [For detailed information go to the KHS Carlton Reach Pump Engine RESEARCH page.] Why is this engine significant? The engine was used for the first experiments with irrigation for tropical agriculture, at Carlton Reach, on the Ord River. pumping from what was the Kimberley's largest waterhole. It was used by Kim and Bill Durack, who also described and wrote of the engine, as "the heartbeat of activities" at the Ord River Experimental Farm. In 1946 the engine was relocated to the Kimberley Research Station, where it was in use until at least the time of the Ord in flood during 1956, when the engine went underwater, temporarily. Where is the engine now and where will it go (and how)?At the time the engine was at the old KRS site in view of the Ord River - You can see photographs of it as it was on this page.KHS now has this original Carlton Reach pump engine by the entrance gate of the Kununurra Museum. What's That Thing? - ABC Kimberley - Web Page and Radio Interview [March 2013]
Before the engine was officially donated to KHS, Vanessa Mills of ABC Broome did a radio segment,
"What's That Thing?", featuring KHS research on the Carlton Reach Pump Engine - See the
web page - ABC Kimberley Radio Interview in March 2013 - About the "Petters Atomic Diesel Engine and listen to the audio from there. |