TOP END TREASURE

THE WYNDHAM AND KUNUNURRA REGION IS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS THE GATEWAY TO THE KIMBERLEY BUT BEFORE YOU HEAD WEST ALONG THE GIBB RIVER ROAD, OR ON THE RETURN JOURNEY, MAKE SOME TIME TO EXPLORE THIS INCREDIBLE AREA

- KEV SMITH

AFTER a month on the Gibb River Road, I was looking forward to getting into Wyndham for some decent food, a shower and to relax in town. I had been enjoying the Karunjie Track, with its amazing history and stunning scenery, before I popped on to the King River Road, and after that it wasn’t long before I hit the tar heading to Wyndham.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much around the Wyndham area, but boy was I surprised with what the town had to offer, so after booking into the local caravan park I headed off to explore the sights and sounds.

IN AND AROUND WYNDHAM

MY first port of call was Wyndham’s Five Rivers Lookout just a few miles out of town. Aptly named for what you can view from the lookout, which is five rivers draining into Cambridge Gulf: the Ord, Durack, Pentecost, Forrest and King rivers. The massive waterway the rivers flow into, not only provides an exit out to the gulf, but allows for recreational and commercial fishing.

You’ll find day facilities at the lookout as well as an information board outlining the history of Wyndham. It states that the first Indigenous people arrived in the area about 45,000 years ago, and that they lived throughout the Top End, with their descendants still living in the local area. The first contact with white Europeans was in 1819 when Captain Phillip Parker King surveyed the coastline and named the Cambridge Gulf after the then Duke of Cambridge.