Wyndham- wetlands, shooting birds and taking a few drives

Our last visit to Wyndham three years ago was fairly fleeting, just a quick day trip from Kununurra. This time we decided to stay a while and explore the area, especially its wetlands.

Many people bypass Wyndham, thinking it has little to offer. I spoke to one bloke in Kununurra who urged me not to bother with Wyndham, “mate, there’s nothing there” he said, “and as for the five rivers lookout, all you can see are mudflats”. He obviously has a limited view of what’s worth looking at!

Wyndham is a little sad at 150 years old, gone are its glory days as the top town of the west.  Wyndham was famous for its meatworks, constructed in 1913, that provided a large amount of employment for the town and support for graziers in the surrounding areas. The meatworks closed in 1985 and I guess that started the slow spiral into near oblivion. Live cattle exports helped to keep the town going for a while but that too has finished.

Wyndham was bombed by the Japanese during WW2 and the remains of the State Ship ‘Koolama” lie submerged just off the main wharf. It is said that you can see eddies caused by the wreck adjacent to the wharf, but I couldn’t see them.

For a while the area was used to send zinc to Korea, but there is no evidence of that now.

A new venture has begun in the town, shipping iron ore, sourced from a mine at Doon Doon some 100 + Km km away. The ore is crushed at Doon Doon and trucked in 4 trailer road trains to a depot at Wyndham where it is unloaded and sent by conveyor to a barge that is then towed out to deep water and loaded onto a bulk ship. There must be money in iron ore to go to so much trouble.

Wyndham is also famous for its Five Rivers Lookout, situated on The Bastion, a 330 metre vantage point with a spectacular view of parts of Cambridge Gulf. From this lookout you can see, in the distance, five rivers emptying into the gulf, being the King, Ord, Durack, Forrest and Pentecost rivers.

 

This trip we stayed at Parry Creek Farm, a 100 Ha (or so) in-holding surrounded by the Ramsar-listed wetlands of Parry Lagoons. We spent a very relaxing week chasing many of the local birds and shooting quite a few. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed shooting them.

There was plenty of opportunity to trip around as well, and we took a trip down the Gibb River Road to El Questro – quite a nice place but they do take themselves a little seriously !!

 Another day trip was along part of the the Old Halls Creek Road, a rough, dry weather road that was originally pushed through in the late 1800s. In places you can still see the paving that was put in place by the convict workmen, probably to ease the way for the stage coaches that used the area. We spent quite a bit of time chasing three brolgas, trying to get close enough for a photo.

We succeeded, but two days later we came upon three more brolgas up close at Marglu Billabong and were able to snap a couple of good pictures.

The final day trip was along the unsealed and quite rough Parry Creek road to meet parts of the Ord River and then ultimately to end up back at Kununurra. That part of the Ord River is a haven for barramundi fishermen (or barramundi fishers to be completely politically correct) and we explored the banks, keeping a wary eye for the many salt water crocodiles that inhabit the area.

If you don’t particularly like bird pictures, stop reading and wait for the next blog… but I can’t absolutely guarantee that the next one will be devoid of all bird pics, I’m getting in the groove!!

Next stop Halls Creek for a couple of days and a confession regarding our indigenous brothers and sisters.