Interesting Facts About The Sightson A Mitchell Falls Flight

By Author: Sonja Mitchell
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Mitchell falls tours from Kununurra offer amazing scenery during the flight on the way to Mitchell Plateau. Here are some little known facts about the region.
o House Roof Hill
• Was part of the 2009 “Australia” movie.
• For the movie, Faraway downs homestead was built from new materials and then sandblasted to give it an aged appearance.
• The trees were shipped in from Bowen QLD.
• The area is now not accessible, as it is part of the Carlton Hill Station.

o Carlton Hill Station
• Originally owned by the Durack family.
• 1 Million Acres.
• Boundaries are the Keep River to the East, Ord River to the South, Cambridge Gulf to the West and the Kimberley Coastline to the north.
• Can support up to 50,000 head of cattle.
• Property Owners expect to lose 1 Cattle per day due to Saltwater Crocs.
• Part of the Consolidated Pastoral Company, 19 Cattle Stations (NT,WA,QLD), more than 360,000 head of cattle and totals 5.6m hectares.

o Wyndham
• Most northern town in WA
• Est. 1886 to support halls creek and the gold ...
... rush
• In 1919 a meat works opened and turned into a tourist attraction as at the end of each day they would throw the scraps into the river and the saltwater crocs would have a feeding frenzy
• Formed a croc farm since then
• In 1980’s live export trade started from Wyndham

o Salt Water Crocodiles
• World’s Largest Reptile.
• Found up to 100km inland.
• Up to 7m in length.
• Average size is 4m.
• Kill on average 1-2 people per year.
• Saltwater is misleading, they also live in freshwater, swamps and billabongs.
• Reproduce between November and March where the female lays around 40-60 eggs. Eggs take 90 days to develop.
• The ‘Salty’ is a protected species population around 150,000.

o Cambridge Gulf
• Entrance point for five rivers, Pentecost River, King George River, Forrest River, Ord River, Durack River.

o Berkley River
• Starts in the middle of the Kimberley and flows out to the Timor sea where the last 20km is dominated by spectacular gorges.
• Also, an area where exploration companies have found a concentration of alluvial diamonds.
• Set up a dredging operation in the 90’s to find diamonds, they found some but not enough to keep the operation going.

o Marine Life
• Large variety of marine life including Bull and Tiger Sharks, Hammerhead Sharks and Saltwater Crocodiles.
• Box Jelly fish and Irukandji Jellyfish.
• Not all dangerous marine life! There are also Dolphins, Whales, Dugongs and Manta Rays
• Bull sharks are aggressive and live in murky water.

o King George Falls
• Dual Waterfall, vertical drop of 80m!
• Tallest waterfall in WA!
• Full flow December to May due to wet season.
• Spectacular river leading up to the falls.

o Kalumburu
• Original settlement was at Pago, about 30kms to the north. Founded in 1908 it took 5 years to make peace with the local Aboriginals.
• The airstrip was built for the military, which arrived in 1940 and was used until Truscott was built.
• Kalumburu was bombed by the Japanese who mistook the mission for the aircraft base, killing 7 people.
• Today Kalumburuis home to about 500 people. It has a government run school and a health clinic with a regular flying doctor. One of the biggest Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley

o Mitchell Plateau
• First European to the Mitchell Plateau region was Lt Phillip Parker King in 1819 where he entered the Admiralty Gulf
• Wasn’t named until the 1950’s, located by a mining company called AMAX who was in the area looking for Bauxite
• Mitchell River National Park is about 115,000 hectares and is one of the most scenic and biologically important areas of the state containing many plants and animals as well as patched of rainforest which only grow around the plateau
• Bauxite is a sponge like rock and is why the waterfall flows all year round
• Livistonia palm trees, extensive route system

Witness all these spectacular sites and marine life on a Mitchell Falls tour from Kununurra with Aviair.