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The Kununurra Historical Society Inc. - Archive

Archival Records

Archive accession listings are currently only available to view at the KHS Archive and Museum building. A comprehensive index listing and finding aid for the KHS archive has been building up since 2006, but is far from complete. It is hoped that listings will eventually be available online.

Researching?

If you are researching be sure to Contact KHS with your enquiry and make certain you see the KHS History Research Links Page.

Volunteering?

If you are interested in volunteering please see our Volunteers page.

Kununurra Archive and Museum

The KHS archive and museum building is a purpose built (2001) archive and museum facility, containing the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley archive room as well as the KHS archive room, museum space, office, kitchen and work area as well as accessible conveniences.

Online Archives

You can view the Digital Archive - Online Images - 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 for "A Photographic Journey on the Ord."

Your Archival Records

Because of the constant transient nature of Kununurra's population in the past 50 years, KHS Archive, Library, Museum & Research facility is actively seeking archives from past residents. If you have archival material in the way of photographs, documents, books or other objects, which you would like to be preserved locally for future generations in the KHS purpose built archive facility, please Contact KHS.

KHS Collection Policy

The collection policy of the Kununurra Historical Society Inc. takes in Kununurra and the Ord River Irrigation Area, East Kimberley, NT/WA Border, areas as the main areas of interest and collection and we have general areas of interest in the Victoria River Region of the NT to the WA/NT border and how that links to Kimberley history as well as any Kimberley, NT and WA History in general.
 
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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

16days until
KHS Meeting 1st Tuesday of the Month (March 5th 2013) at 7pm - All Welcome!

63days since
KHS Open Day - On Sunday, March 17th 2013, when it was 50 Years since the Royal Tour visited Kununurra on March 17th 1963.

62days 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.

60days 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)

839days since
This site was started on January 31st 2011

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