Chapter 19: Kununurra - 3

It was Saturday morning. Their visit to PAKAM had been on Thursday afternoon. On Friday they’d driven around Kununurra for about an hour. Finding that the “planned” parts were (unfortunately) exactly as described. Mirima Village was a bit less formal, but it, too, had been planned by the government.

“Withers was dead right on this,” Tessa remarked.

“Hunh?”

“One of his early chapters is called ‘Bureaucracy or Common Sense?’ And it’s about the three different bodies responsible for Kununurra. We need to discuss what to do next.”

“I want to drive out to see one or two of the bigger farms.”

“OK. But that’s not what I meant.”

“I realize that. But I want a better view of the larger area.

“Very well. I can see where the agricultural areas are marked along the watercourse downstream on the Ord and between here and Lake Argyle.”

“I’m curious. Let’s take all day tomorrow.”

“Fine.”

The Durack family made the first attempts at tropical agriculture on the Ord River in 1941 with an experimental farm. ‘The Frank Wise Institute of Tropical Agriculture, formerly known as the Kimberley Research Station (KRS) started in 1945 from the original Carlton Reach Research Station, set up by Kimberley Michael Durack with help from his brother William Aiden Durack in 1941, and support from the WA Department of Agriculture and the WA Public Works Department, being the first serious attempt at tropical agriculture on the banks of the Ord River’

In 1963, the Kununurra Diversion Dam across the Ord River was built, marking completion of the first stage of the Ord Irrigation Scheme.

This investment also led to the establishment of the town of Kununurra, built as the service centre for the scheme. WA Department of Regional Development, 2018

“I suppose we should start at Durack on Lake Argyle.”

“OK, but I’d also like to see where they grow mangos.”

[Mangoes are grown commercially in Western Australia from Kununurra in the north to Gingin (north of Perth) in the south.]

They drove south on the Victoria Highway towards the Northern Territory and then forked off onto Lake Argyle Road. Among her stack of local literature, Tessa had a brochure from “Lake Argyle Adventure Tours” and read from it.

“It says ‘Your Durack journey begins at the Argyle Homestead Museum. Originally built by Patsy Durack himself on Argyle Station. Feel the history as we walk through the information-packed rooms.’ But that’s not true! The original homestead’s been underwater since the dam was built. They took apart the building, numbered the stones and reconstructed it as the Museum.”

The magnificent homestead was originally built in 1895 by the Durack family on Argyle Downs Station (now mostly submerged by the lake). The famous pioneering Durack family home became known far and wide as one of the social gathering places of the East Kimberley. During the early 1970’s a decision was made to remove the homestead before Lake Argyle began to fill in order to preserve this magnificent building for all time.

The homestead was dismantled stone by stone with every stone coded in such a way so as to be able to be rebuilt with every stone back in its original position. Lake Argyle Resort 2018

“Makes sense. You wouldn’t see much after the limestone’d been under water for a half-century.”

“You... ! And it goes on ‘Explore Aboriginal art, bush tucker and learn about the flora and fauna the rugged Kimberley region has to offer.’ That’s the Aboriginal art they stole! You and I know that indigenous people are being kicked off programs in remote areas like this because there is no way known they can fulfill their so-called ‘mutual’ obligations!”

“You’re right. I certainly don’t know whether the Community Development Program is especially racist or just Aussie standard racist? Remember, my mum and I are ‘japs.’ It’s very tough. But, I think the government knows this. In the past they’ve made it policy to shut down communities, withdrawing the most basic support, and health and community services. In most ways that’s now over.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yes. But in some ways, its gotten worse. The men working in the fields west and north of here are basically slaves. Throughout rural and remote Australia the reliance on slave labour is almost total. We rip off backpackers to the extent that they are basically living on rice out of the back of a car to get visas because Australians won’t travel to rural and remote areas to get paid less than half the minimum wage and suffer abuse ... so that the supermarkets in big cities can have obscene profits.”

“I never thought...”

“No. I got into trouble when I was at Scotch College. I asserted in class once that by most Australians, the Aboriginal people are seen as a pest that needs to be wiped out.”

[In 1999, Lesley Head wrote about the Ord River Project in Australian Geographer that: “Despite a context in which consideration of both Aboriginal and environmental issues is now integrated into the development process, three colonial themes persist in the rhetoric of Stage Two. These are the empty landscape, the invisible Aborigine, and the idealisation of agricultural land use.”]

“Then why are we going here?”