Tripple J Ord River Boat Trip

Today we decided to take the Tripple J Boat Trip. Their reputation preceded them. They picked us up at 11:30am and bused us up to the Durack Homestead. It was removed from the now 25m below the current water level and brick by brick was reinstalled on the current site. I don’t think the concrete floor was part of that, but there were lots of great photos and cheap copies of all the Durak publications. We then were taken to the Lake Argyle settlement. It was originally supposed to be the temporary housing for the workers when they built the dam and then removed. Its now 40 years old and tourist accommodation. It looks a little tired and worn, but well used. We then went to the observation deck to check out the dams before heading down to the boat.

What you can see in this picture (and into the distance), is just 1% of the total water held in Lake Argyle. Its amazing to try and put it in perspective. Apparently it holds 60 Sydney Harbours at capacity so its absolutely enormous. Talk has been made during the trip about the running of the pipeline to Perth, or even the East coast, but the cost is the prohibitive part of the process. Its really interesting. It really evokes a lot of discussions. I guess the election will be interesting. I think the costs far outweigh the benefits...

The boat trip was amazing. We happened to get on the boat run by the owner himself – Jeff. He was amazing. What he didn’t know about the water, dam, birds, bats and wildlife in general, Kununurra’s economy, water use in the area etc, just wasn’t worth knowing! We spent the next 5 hours being entertained by Jeff and his encyclopaedic knowledge, as well as enjoying a fabulous Ord River sunset. We explored lots of different creeks and crevices and some without even names that had the most incredible water flow during the wet season. The place was alive with all manner of plant and animal life. We had a blast. Thoroughly recommend this trip to anyone heading this way!