DAY 75 - KUNUNURRA - COASTAL FLIGHT

13 May 2008

DAY 75 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

KUNUNURRA - COASTAL FLIGHT

We were picked up at 5.30 this morning for our 8 hour tour along the Kimberley coastline.

We flew with Alligator Airways and they were fantastic. There was another couple on the tour.

We were provided with an information booklet outlining the flight path and presenting the history, geography and other relevant information about the area as well as a DVD.

We took off and flew over irrigated fields.

We flew at 500 feet over the Lower Ord River including Ivanhoe Crossing.

Hubby spotted an estuarine crocodile or salty. I missed it. The scenery was beautiful as we followed the river.




We flew over Carlton Hill Station and the homestead that was built for the film “Australia”.

Beautiful scenery between Wyndham and Berkeley River.

We continued on over the Cambridge Gulf and Adolfus Island and then over the magnificent gorges over the Berkeley River,

Seaplane Bay,

and then over the King Georges Falls that hubby had always wanted to see. There was still considerable water flowing over them.

We then followed a truly magnificent coastline over to the old Pago Mission site



whilst flying over Faraway Bay along the way.

We landed at Kalumburu and then took a ten minute walk to the mission.


When we landed we were the only plane there. During the 90 minutes we were there were another 4 planes that had arrived.

We visited the Kalumburu mission. The road is still closed to this community. The army is here to upgrade the airport and do other work and their personnel are being barged in. The mission was very interesting with an amazing collection of artefacts that are being put into a permanent museum that has been built at the mission. The church looks like a corrugated tin building from the outside but is amazing inside.

It has artefacts that are centuries old as well christening fountain and pulpit made from local burls.



Father Anscall gave us a tour through what will be the museum and the artefacts. His presentation was incredibly interesting. He is presenting everything within the indigenous context historically. There are relics from the Inca and Maya civilizations and a dinar from Caesar’s time. It is an amazing collection.

After some light refreshments we walked back in the heat to the plane.

We took off and flew over the historic Truscott airbase that is still in use today to ferry people to the oil platforms.

We then flew on over Port Warrender


and the spectacular Mitchell Falls.


After circling the several times we flew to Drysdale Station for lunch. And what a lunch we had - a huge Kimberley Burger. We were given a very interesting perspective of station life by the owner’s daughter who is currently running the station and is very passionate about it. They have quite a few Bradshaw figures on the property but because of all the issues surrounding them they are not available for viewing by the public. We asked about the road to Mitchell Falls and were told that it is closed and that until the road is graded it is not worth going on. It takes three hours to do 80 km and nearly everyone is shredding their tyres. Some people are ignoring the road closed signs but they are paying for it. Diesel here is costing over two dollars and there was talk that at Kalumburu it would be over $3 as it already was over $2.80.

After Drysdale Station we flew over the Pentacost and Durack Rivers, over El Questro and its homestead

to finally return over the Cockburn Ranges


to Kununurra after a most fabulous day.

It is difficult to comprehend how much water flows into the Timor Sea and the Indian Ocean from this area. The rivers are huge and so much of it goes out to sea.