Friday, 6 May 2016

Durack House Museum

Bit of a history lesson here. back in 1800's the Durack family came out from Ireland got into cattle and then decided to take up land in Northern Western Australia. They drove 7,500 cattle from the south west corner of Queensland up and across the top end. They thought it would take six months, it actually took them two and a half years and they arrive with only half the cattle.

Coming back from Wolfe Creek Crater we had to stop/slow to go through a mob of cattle that were being moved along the road, there were 500 in that lot and they took up a lot of area, I couldn't imagine seeing fourteen times that many.

Anyway they finally made it and operated as a cattle station for many years. Drought flood and heat all made a difference and one of the sons Kimberley suggested and proved to the current Government that if dams were put in place then the water could used to grow crops in the Kununurra area. (this is now Lake Argyle)

The dam wall was built but it did mean that the homestead was in the valley that was dammed. The homestead was taken apart stone by stone and moved then reconstructed in its present location. The rest of the buildings are at the bottom of the lake.

The dam holds between 18 and 76 times as much water as the Sydney harbour which is a massive amount of water. Rice and vegetables are grown as there is ample water to do so rather than rushing out to sea.

I didnt expect to be going to see it and so I didnt have my camera but it was a very impressive building and not cluttered with too much stuff.

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