The Top End: Lake Argyle to Nitmuluk

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional owners of country throughout Australia. We recognise the continuing connection to land, water, language and community. We pay our respect to the cultures; and to Elders past, present and emerging.

We are committed to walking lightly on the land of your ancestors, only taking knowledge and understanding, only leaving footprints and the whisper of our spirits, breathing in the awe of this great land we are privileged to call home.

We come from the land of the Yugara and Yumambeh peoples and have recently stopped to rest and learn in the lands of the Miriwoong Gajerrong and Jawoyn people.

Kununurra

After leaving Emma Gorge we headed to Kununurra for a well over due grocery shop. Who should we run into in the carpark but the RJs. I’m surprised they are still in Kununurra and not relaxing at Lake Argyle by now! Long story short the solving of the tyre problem was a bit more complex than expected. Jade was in Coles stocking up on groceries and Rob was inspecting the hitch. He had discovered the pin in the jockey wheel was missing – for goodness sake, when were these people going to catch a break! I was surely not going to be the one to break the news to Jade that they wouldn’t be able to unhitch at the next place…

I went in and did the groceries and found Kununurra to be a particularly friendly place. It’s always a fine line when doing a full grocery shop – knowing what you need, what you’d like, and what will fit. Given the fridge and the cupboards were literally bare, we had a bit of room. While in Kununurra we took the opportunity to also get fuel and beer before heading to Lake Argyle.

Lake Argyle

It seems that the days are getting shorter. It was dark when we arrived at Lake Argyle at about twenty to six. We had a bit of an interesting site, quite small but with a grassy patch adjacent that we could use. Leon walked Malachi and Teddy to the bathroom and left when Teddy was done, Malachi saying that was fine. We noticed Mali wasn’t back and it had been a while so Leon went looking for him, but didn’t find him. In another 5 or so minutes he went looking again. This time he found him and Malachi burst into tears because he had been lost in a brand new campground in the dark and very nearly began to panic. It took him quite some time to calm down.

We had an easy dinner of a reasonably elaborate platter and listened to the live music coming from the restaurant/court yard area. 

We had a very lazy Saturday morning with a bit of a sleep in. We arranged with Rob and Jade that we’d feed our own kids, but that we would do lunch and they would do dinner for the adults. We were all craving freshness after the rapidly dwindling supplies at the end of the Gibb. Not only were we craving freshness, after stocking up in Kununurra also realised we likely have to consume or hand over all the fresh goodness at the NT border.

For lunch we cooked up some more of the fishing charter fish and my favourite butter bean salad. After lunch our family took a drive to the dam wall. The Lake Argyle story is a pretty cool one, and one I didn’t know (or didn’t remember maybe) until this visit. It’s the second largest artificial dam in Australia. The lookout overlooks the lake and the dam wall, and delivers an impressive view of a massive lake surrounded by the Carr Boyd Ranges that plunge into the water to form its boarder. Dotted through the lake there are little islands that break up the great expanse of water. The dam wall is 335m long and 98m high enabling the dam to hold 10,763 gigalitres of water! We drove over the damn and stopped at the park to look out over the Ord River where we spotted quite a few crocs swimming and some interesting birds flying around.

Dad had told me to check out the homestead as well as the Zebra Rock mine that we visited back in 1990 when we were there. I couldn’t find the Zebra Rock mine, and I was the only one in the family interested in the homestead. I dropped the kids and Leon back to camp and headed to the homestead alone.

The Homestead

Lake Argyle was named after Argyle Downs, the name given to the huge property established by ‘Patsy’ Durack and his sons on the banks of the Ord River. The Homestead is the original Durack Homestead that would have otherwise gone under in the creation of Lake Argyle, if it wasn’t dismantled and relocated to where it currently rests.

I read the remarkable story of Patrick ‘Patsy’ Durack, an Irishman come Australian who (among many other things) organised the droving of 7250 cattle over 4800km (the longest undertaken by Australian drovers at the time). In about two and a half years he made it to the Ord River from Quilpie. To learn more about it I’ve bought ‘Kings in Grass Castles’ a book by Patsy’s granddaughter, Mary Durack. One of the many things I learnt about the Durack’s was that they acknowledged and respected the indigenous people and worked with them, learning all they could about the land.

While at the homestead I was unexpectedly overwhelmed with being alone and I realised this was the first time in months that I had been without Leon or the kids. It was so weird. I was subsequently overwhelmed by a family with such extensive Australian history. This family that could be traced back several generations to a man who moved here from Ireland was incredible. And all documented on the walls in this homestead. So incredibly different to what I’d find should I try to map my own history. My four grandparents have four different birth countries. Granny, my maternal grandmother, was born in Australia and so was her mother. That’s as extensive as my Australian history gets.

While at the homestead I also found a bower made by a bower bird. The only bower bird I’ve ever known was the Satin Bower Bird. When I saw the bird in the bower I was like, ‘You!’ (Said with a waving fist). These birds have been pestering me ever since Silent Grove. They bounce around in groups, scrounging for your scraps, making the most unpleasant noise accompanied by loads of unnecessary flapping. Lucky they have a cool nest!

Not too long after I’d finished my look around the Homestead, Rob arrived on his mountain bike. Turns out the bike track from the caravan park to the homestead isn’t well used. From memory he was in bare feet, maybe thongs, and for the majority of the ride he couldn’t see the ground because of the overgrown spinifex. There was the time he rode over a dead snake though. He saw that! Compounded by no phone reception, he wasn’t too keen on riding home. So we loaded his bike on the roof of the troopy after he had an explore, and headed back to camp for an afternoon swim.

Final Night

The caravan park has a pretty cool infinity pool that overlooks the lake and surrounding maintains. It’s quite beautiful. Leon made some more friends which has become his MO, and later on we sat down and had an adults only dinner with Rob and Jade while the kids watched their iPads in the campers. It was lovely.

Rob and Jade have also decided that they are not going to Purnululu, which means we will continue travelling with them for a while longer… So where to from here?

We tightened up the plan and booked our sites at Big Horse Creek, Judbarra National Park; Edith Falls, Nitmuluk National Park; and Florance Falls, Litchfield National Park.

Big Horse Creek

In the morning we packed up, had a quick morning swim and headed to Big Horse. We chose to backtrack to Kununurra for fuel as it was so much cheaper than buying diesel at Lake Argle. At the servo Leon got talking again, this time to a man who had built his own caravan, which was pretty cool. We then continued on to Big Horse Creek where we had the tiniest little site. There wasn’t much to do here as you can’t swim because of crocs. Leon went for an afternoon fish while me and the kids enjoyed some sketching.
The RJs arrived later in the afternoon and we hung out with them. There was some tension between Malachi and Elsie, which is unusual. They were both quite upset over a unicorn drawing. Malachi was particularly upset and it took him much longer than usual to calm down. His emotions are becoming quite interesting.

We had another rendang for dinner and played the guitar and sang around the fire before heading to bed.

When we woke up in the morning Malachi really wasn’t feeling well. He had a cup of tea and vomited it straight back up. Me and the kids went for a walk to the creek and the kids attempted to knock a Boab nut from the tree by throwing rocks… unsuccessfully. Joey discovered a bower (two actually!), and the pesky birds. Harriet was quite upset with Joey as she felt he was giving Elsie more attention than her and perhaps liked Elsie more, but after giving herself a break had another quite beautiful conversation with Joey about how they were both feeling.

Nitmuluk National Park

We returned from our walk, packed up and headed for Edith Falls. On the way we took a detour to check out the lookout over Timber Creek and the river which was pretty cool, and then stopped at Katherine for Groceries. It was the same ordeal as always with groceries… what to get, what do we need, what do we want, what will fit etc etc. Katherine was a cool town though. Lots of interesting murals on the sides of buildings. However, also sadness with the number of homeless people. Which I am learning is pretty standard for these northern communities.

We continued up the Stewart to Edith Falls, found our allocated campsite, set up and rested for the afternoon. We used this time to call Jackson for his birthday- 19 today! 

The RJs arrived at Edith Falls later in the afternoon, but for the first time in perhaps two weeks, we are not camped side by side. The kids still played, but the families were quite seperate.

Two Gorge Cruise

In the morning we had seats on a boat booked to cruise through the first two gorges at Nitmuluk. We would need to be up and out of camp before 8 to make it on time.

We left a little later than hoped, but made it to the cruise just in time and boarded reasonably quickly. I enjoyed the boat cruise. The gorge was beautiful and we got to see a few crocodiles. I’m glad we did the cruise but it wasn’t spectacular. It has its own kind of beauty, but it doesn’t compare to the gorges of Karijini or The Gibb. It was nostalgic though as I remembered canoeing down the same river as a five year old… and skinning my pointer finger when the hand-line I had wrapped around my first knuckle got snagged. After the cruise we stopped at McDonalds for lunch. What a treat! They’ll kids couldn’t believe it.

Edith Falls

We headed back to camp and embarked on the Edith Falls walk. It’s not a long walk, but it was hot. The kids weren’t feeling well, particularly Malachi. Perhaps he still hasn’t recovered from whatever hit him at Big Horse. However, when we made it to the top pool at Edith, all their ailments seemed to disappear. The RJs were here. They were about to leave but our arrival threw a spanner in those plans! Elsie, Harriet and Charlie showed our kids how to use the current to propel them through a channel. They could have done this all afternoon.

When the RJs left the kids and Leon explored the waterfall, yet again jumping off the rocks off to the side. We discovered a pretty little hidden waterfall and enjoyed watching the water monitors sun themselves on the rocks. The view from the top of the falls that flow to the middle pool was also spectacular. We checked this area out before heading back down to the lower pool for a brief swim before heading back to camp.

In the morning we packed up, had a swim at the bottom pool, and got on our way to Florance Falls and Litchfield National Park