Wyndham
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Wyndham is the oldest and northernmost town in the Kimberley region in Western Australia . It is located at the northern end of the Great Northern Highway 3440 kilometers northeast of Perth .
Wyndham is a port city and a service center for the population in the northeast of the Kimberley region with around 600 inhabitants (2016). The original location of the city is on the Cambridge Gulf - a bay of the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in the Timor Sea - while Wyndham Three Mile (also known as Wyndham East ) is the current residential, business and school district of the city.
history
The first European to explore this area was Philip Parker King in 1819. He was looking for a river that would allow it to penetrate into the interior of Western Australia. Over the bay Cambridge Gulf , named after Adolphus Frederick, 1st Duke of Cambridge , he penetrated into a river that was later named King River in his honor . However, since he could not find any sources of drinking water, he gave up the search.
Alexander Forrest arrived in the area in 1879, saw its potential as pastureland and recommended it to Patrick Durack , an Irish immigrant and pioneer of cattle breeding in the Kimberleys. In 1881 he passed here, but in the end he moved on to the Ord River and built his country house at a spot that is now flooded by Lake Argyle .
Wyndham was only founded in 1886 by John Forrest as an important port and trading post in East Kimberley after gold was found in Halls Creek the previous year . Ships brought at least 5,000 gold diggers into the city by the end of the boom in 1888. But after the gold rush relocated to the temperate climates of South Australia, the population was reduced to a few cattle farmers.
In 1913, the Western Australasian government began building a meat processing facility called Wyndham Meatworks to restart Wyndham's economy. Despite an interruption caused by the First World War , the Meatworks was completed in 1919. They were the mainstay of the city's economy until they closed in 1985.
Since the closure of the slaughterhouse, which reduced the port's economic importance for meat exports, the city has opted for tourism as an alternative. In terms of infrastructure, it has not reached the importance of Kununurra , but is regularly visited in the dry season .
climate
Wyndham has a tropical climate, with the wet season from late November through March and the dry season from April through early November. The hottest month is December with an average temperature of 32.2 ° C, the coldest months are June with 24.9 ° C and July with 24.2 ° C. The annual average temperature is 29.1 ° C, one of the highest temperatures in Australia. In 1946 Wyndham recorded 333 consecutive days with temperatures above 32 ° C. The average annual rainfall is 1500 millimeters.
education
Wyndham has two schools and a TAFE campus, a tertiary education facility .
tourism
Wyndham's tourist flagship is the saltwater crocodile . At the entrance to the village, a 20-meter-long concrete replica advertises this tourist attraction. Livelier specimens can be found on a crocodile farm, where animals are raised for their meat and skins. Organized tours with feedings take place regularly during the dry season.
In addition to some historical cemeteries, reminiscences of the Wilhelminian era can be found in the old courthouse ( Wyndham Historical Society Museum ): documents and photos illustrate cattle breeding, the meat industry, port facilities and export. The port itself and the shipyard cannot be visited.
The other sights are primarily of natural origin. The Five Rivers Lookout , a lookout on the West Bastion (350 m) over the mud lands and mangroves of the Cambridge Gulf, is popular. The five rivers that flow into it are King River , Pentecost River , Durack River , Forrest River - these form a common estuary called the West Arm - and the Ord River with its own large estuary in the east.
The place offers several different accommodation options and facilities for recreational activities, such as an outdoor swimming pool or a cinema. According to tourism advertising, the largest boab tree in the Kimberley is in the Caravan Park .
Another large boab tree is about 25 km inland on the four-wheel drive along the King River ( King River Road ). As with its counterpart in Derby , this is a so-called prison tree to which, according to tradition, captured Aborigines are said to have been tied. On the same slope there is also a small dam ( Moochlabra Dam ) and rock carvings by Aborigines.
Transport & Infrastructure
The airport ( ICAO code: YWYM) is located southeast of Wyndham . Charter flights are available there and Airbus has been using it for its Zephyr program since the end of 2018 .
The main connection to Wyndham is the Great Northern Highway from the south. All other routes are all-wheel-drive slopes that are not accessible during the rainy season . This includes the King River Road, which constitutes a connection to the Gibb River Road , as well as the Parry Creek Road (paved to the Caravan Park Parry Creek Farm in the Parry Lagoon Nature Reserve ) with crossing the Ord River and various swimming and fishing spots the way to Kununurra.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Australian Bureau of Statistics : Wyndham (L) (Urban Center / Locality) ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
- ↑ http://www.kimberleyaustralia.com/wyndham.html#wyndham-australia-attractions
- ↑ http://www.stratosjets.com/jet-charter-airports/Australia/WYNDHAM
- ↑ Airbus opens Zephyr operating site in Australia, Janes, December 3, 2018