Kununurra Historical Society
(KHS) - Incorporated
Volunteer Run Not-for-Profit
Archive, Gallery Library,
Museum & Research
@ Kununurra Museum 72 Coolibah Drive (Goes to Map :^)
_________________________ General Meetings
Next KHS Meeting?
(Suspended during CV Pandemic - Usually)
1st Tuesday of the Month 6pm
(New time from Sept 2018)
at the
Kununurra Museum
All Welcome!
1040days since Kununurra Museum Closed - At 12pm on Monday March 23rd 2020 Kununurra Museum closed doors to the public due to the Corona Virus social distancing requirements - Work goes on behind the scenes - At present scanning a collection of over 1,000 slides.
This exhibition opened at the Kununurra Museum on May 5th 2018.
2018 marked the centenary of the end of World War I and
these exhibitions were initially researched and devised locally, then,
with thanks to further research by the Royal WA Historical Society, the
panels were professionally designed with collaboration between each
Society (Kununurra & Wyndham) and staff of the WA Museum and Museums
& Galleries Australia WA. There is also a museum quality showcase
for each of the Kununurra and Wyndham Museums.
The Remembering Them project that has been in progress since 2014 (to
2018) to commemorate the 1914-1918 WWI centenary) has been generously
funded by Lottery West and the WA Government. Thanks go to the Army
Museum (Fremantle) WA for temporary display objects of the 10th Light
Horse (for Kununurra Museum), as well as the WA State Records Office for
images of the 'cancelled public plans' and the State Library of Western
Australia who supplied photographs (& plans) for use on the history
exhibition panels.
1043days since Wirraway-Challenge Day 2020 -"Wirraway Challenge Day" (March 20th) at the Kununurra Museum. In 2017 it was 75 Years since March 20th 1942, which was the date of the forced landing of RAAF 12 Squadron CAC Wirraway A20-62 on coastline near the WA-NT border. Broome and Derby suffered air raids on the same day, March 20th 1942.
1942
"Wirraway Challenge Day"
at
Kununurra Museum
March 20th 2020
RAAF 12 Sqn. CAC Wirraway A20-62
On March 20th 2017 it was...
75 Years...
...since the forced landing of RAAF 12 Squadron CAC Wirraway A20-62, on coastal saltmarsh, just inside the WA/NT border, by Pilots Lew Dwyer and Warwick Carmody. Watch the Digital Videos (DVs) from the KHS - "A Story of Survival & Rescue in the far north-east Kimberley"
Read & see more from the KHS "Wirraway - Challenge"Research Page (has links to all 8 parts of the DVs on the "Kununurra Museum" YouTube Channel OR See the permanent display at the Kununurra Museum.
1944
1944 (Dry Season)
75 Years Ago in 2019
Experimental Irrigation continues at Carlton Reach
Ord River Experimental Station
On March 31st 1941 Kim Durack published his paper, 'Developing the North - Proposed Research Station for the Kimberleys', and before the end of that year the
"Ord River Experimental Station," was established at
Carlton Reach using the waters of the Ord for irrigation. In 1942 agricultural experiments began with the first irrigation in June that year. 75 years ago in 1944 experimentation continued and widened, as shown in regular reports by Kimberley Michael Durack that we have in the archive. The station would operate on the Carlton Reach Site for five years and all would be moved to the Kimberley Research Station site in 1946.
More
information is available about the 36 HP Petters "Atomic" diesel pump
engine (Now at front of Kununurra Museum), 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 (On this site)
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 now has the original pump engine by the entrance
gate of the Kununurra Museum.
50 Years Ago - 1969
What was happening 50 Years Ago in Kununurra during 1969?
At the end of 1968 the contracts were awarded for the construction of the Ord River Dam (to Dam). The village was constructed and work began in 1969 - See KHS Archive collections on Flickr for photographs of the time.
1332days since KHS Inauguration Day - June 5th - Inaugural Meeting that resulted in the formation of the Kununurra Historical Society Inc. (KHS - Us! ;^) on June 5th 1986. In 2016 we commemorated 30 Years as a Society.
Events in 2016
Wyndham and Hall's Creek (aka "Kimberley") were established.
1886
130 Years Ago (In 2016)
WA-NT Border Determinations
It will be.. 100 Years
...in 2021 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 of the day (in 1921), of radio time signals. (Yes!, the pips you used to hear before the news! :^) This expedition in 1921 would determine the border position from time signals girdling the earth, from Greenwich UK, Annapolis USA, Applecross WA, SA Observatory & Lyons France - as in how many hours minutes and seconds east of Greenwich they were.
1927 - 100 Years ago in 2027
A WA Survey crew would come back in 1927 to build the Kimberley Obelisk, which still determines the border on the ground today. Read More about the 1921 WA/NT Border Determinations