Kununurra - two times

2nd and 7th August -

inbetween we went to the

Bungle Bungles

Diversion Dam - forming Lake Kununurra, from where the irrigation water is fed for irrigation purposes


 

The next stage of the mango "fruit" - flowers just beginning to form tiny little green fruit.



The big wet season, obviously shifted a fair
bit of river sand around the edge of the river
- so much for the picnic??

Ivanhoe Crossing - where else would you stand but on the highest point around (boy style!)

Ivanhoe Crossing is closed , for obvious reasons!



Mango smoothie under the mango trees, at the Ivanhoe Cafe

 

Unpowered site, in Kununurra the second time. We
had hoped to 'power' up all electronic equipment etc, prior to heading West along the Gibb River Road. However, with 6 caravan parks and the showgrounds for the oferflow of tourists, not one had a powered site vacancy!!

Kununurra is "crazy busy" at the moment with the mining, and agricultural industries all going ahead in 'leaps and bounds' and some communities having been evacuated there due to flooding etc in the wet. Not to mention the 1000's of tourists flocking in thhis direction.

It was while sitting at the office near the designated power points for computer/phone charging that I got talking to a retired teacher who was the final impetus we needed to change the kids schooling!
(see next blog)

 The Sandalwood Factory     
Sandalwood is becoming the "crop of choice" at Kununurra 

The processing of sandalwood, uses all parts of               Examples of Australian Sandalwood trees and

the wood in various ways                                                  their companion plantings



 A Sandalwood plantation -the sandalwood trees are the
darker green, smaller trees that rely on
the faster growing host trees for their nutrients



Irrigation of sandalwood plantations.

 From Lily's report she was asked to write about the visit to the factory:

The Kununurra Sandalwood factory cbegan in 1999 and is developing for their first harvest. Each plantation is harvested every 15 years. The first step is planting in what they call the 'Nursery'. The company employs a lot of people from the East Kimberley region communities, or skilled and professional people to control and maintain the sandalwood business.

In the Nursery the sandalwood gets planted in to plastic containers, they get watered by moving sprinklers that run on a rail at the top. When the sandalwood gets to a certain stage the workers move them to the rows of forestry plantations. Around the sandalwoods are lots of other trees, which the sandalwood sucks onto to provide itself with nutrients. Thefirst host tree dies and the roots move on to another host tree (different variety), which is the tree's final host tree.

When the sandalwoods are ready for harvest, after 15years, the workers cut them down and in the factory they chop them into 3 different sizes to make essential oils that are used to make different skin care lotions, toiletries and other skin care products. The processing has no wastage as the final product is added to a skin care repellent.

The Indian sandalwood grows well in Kununurra because of the soil type and the tropical weather. They say that Kununurra is one of the best places in the world to grow sandalwood.

Another picnic table suffers the brunt of a large volume of water in the northern waterways. Excess water is still rushing over the spillway of the Diversion Dam and back into the Ord River system.