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KHS 25th Birthday

posted 30 May 2011 19:56 by Kununurra Historical Society Inc. Archive and Museum
 To celebrate the 25th year of the Kununurra Historical Society, having been inaugurated on June 5th 1986, YOU are invited to celebrate 25 years since the establishment of an archive for our regional history, which, with your help and your histories, can continue to be an Archive and Museum of Regional, State and National "Significance."

  In the past two years KHS has actively sought out pioneers of the early 1960's and approached other archival institutions with great successes, resulting in new archives of images, documents, and objects of "significance" to our history, which have come back to the region, or digitised and returned, to be preserved in the KHS archive for future generations.

  KHS has endeavoured to make the KHS archive more accessible to the public through (this website) http://www.kununurra.org.au/ and by the resource of archive images online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/khs-museum/ (New images this week from another archive of B&W prints received from Dennis O'Brien in 2007 - View as a Slideshow from http://www.flickr.com/photos/khs-museum/show/).

  Many new collections are being readied during the next week in the lead up to our 25th on Sunday June 5th 2011, when we will officially show the results of around 25 hundred images (Many not seen during the successful Ord Valley Muster Open Nights and most yet to be uploaded to Flickr). These images have been digitised and, importantly, fully documented, during the "Photographic Journey on the Ord," digitisation project, with a huge effort by two volunteers, and with a grant from the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley.

 You are invited to the KHS Archive & Museum on the afternoon of Sunday June 5th 2011 (Inauguration Day 1986), for a visual feast of some of the town's short, 50 year, but incredibly interesting, history, which KHS has been collecting and documenting during the past 25 years, to preserve for our community and for future generations.

Sunday June 5th 2011 (Inauguration Day 1986) - KHS Museum & Archives - Any time between 1pm and 8pm - Members, friends, invited guests, and members of the public are ALL Welcome.
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Ninbing Boab in Early Morning Twilight

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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

13days until
KHS Meeting 1st Tuesday of the Month (March 5th 2013) at 7pm - All Welcome!

66days since
KHS Open Day - On Sunday, March 17th 2013, when it was 50 Years since the Royal Tour visited Kununurra on March 17th 1963.

59days 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.

63days 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)

842days since
This site was started on January 31st 2011

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