| Kununurra
Latitude :
15 46 S Longitude 128 44 E.
The townsite
of Kununurra is located in the Kimberley region in the extreme north
east of the state, 3214 km from Perth. When the Ord River Irrigation
scheme was being planned in the 1950s a townsite was included in the
proposed development. Amongst other submissions of Aboriginal names
put forward for the new townsite being created in the vicinity of
the Ord River Dam was "Cununurra", said to mean "black
soil" and to be the Aboriginal name for the Ord River according
to Mary Durack. A Mr. Lewis of the Public Works Department reported
that a soil survey undertaken in 1954 had disclosed that 99% of the
land to be irrigated from the dam was composed of "cununurra
clay". This name was not favoured by the Postmaster-General's
Department because of its similarity to place names in Queensland,
New South Wales and South Australia. However, to compromise, that
department suggested adopting the spelling, "Kununurra",
this version being approved in March 1960. The townsite was gazetted
in 1961.
Harvesting
the Net
sponsored by the
Western Australian Department of Agriculture
Click on the small picture to enlarge |
