I’d only been in Wyndham a couple of hours, but I was liking it already.

First up was the 20 metre (65.6 ft), grinning crocodile at the town’s entrance – the most creative way to use up 5.5 km (3.4 miles) of steel rods, 50 kg (110 lb) of welding rods, 10 rolls of bird mesh and 6 cubic metres (212 cubic feet) of concrete I’d ever seen.

The croc was looking pretty good for a 28 year-old!

Quite a bit older, the largest Boab Tree in captivity in Australia – 25 metres (82 feet) around its widest point – lurked behind its neat fence just a short walk from our cosy campsite at the Three Mile Caravan Park. It didn’t appear to be planning a break-out any time soon – but don’t take my word for it; I’m one of the majority of Australians untrained in in the fine art of Boab-wrangling …

And like the thrill-seeker I am, I got a kick out of being in Western Australia’s northernmost town at the end of the Great Northern Highway!

But alluring though these drawcards were, they’re not what kept us in Wyndham for several days. Here’s FIVE MORE of the attractions that make Wyndham a TOP Aussie town!

1 The Landscape

Wyndham’s bizarre and varied landscape has sweeping tidal mud flats covered with mangroves and washed by some of Australia’s highest tides. The coastline is blurred by the massive tides so causeways linking old and new parts of the town ensure year-round accessibility.

The massive Cambridge Gulf – final destination for five Kimberley rivers – flows out into the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf near Western Australia’s northernmost tip.

The impressive sandstone escarpments of the Cockburn Range between Wyndham and the Gibb River Road are visible along the King River Road.

And the jewel in the crown, towering 330 metres (~1082 ft) above the Gulf and the town, is the Bastion, part of the Daharwi Range and named by explorer Philip Parker King in 1819.

2 The History

Never heard of Aussie explorer Philip Parker King? That’s probably because his exploratory trips were disaster-free, unlike those of, say, Burke and Wills – who EVERYBODY’S heard of!! I rest my case.

And I digress …

Established in the 1880’s, the Port of Wyndham was established to support the Halls Creek gold rush, and the East Kimberley pastoralists. In 1919 the Wyndham Meatworks was completed, operating until 1986.

Nowadays, the port continues to service the live cattle export and mining industries, and the Ord River Project.

Of course there’s a LOT more to the town’s colonial history than that – and the best place to discover it is at the Wyndham Museum in the old Courthouse. That’s where I found out about the crocodile hunting; wreck of the MV Koolama during World War II (the remains are nearby in the Gulf); a wartime attack on the airfield; the ‘Pussycat’ taxi service; Chinese market gardeners; visits from famous aviators and so on.

Other historic sites are nearby, like historic buildings and sites at the Old Wyndham Port, the Prison Tree and Singh’s Gardens along the King River Road; and Telegraph Hill near Marlgu Billabong on the back road to Wyndham.

But to experience a small part of the region’s Indigenous history, take a look at the petroglyphs near Moochalabra Dam (town water supply) along the King River Road.

3 Birding and Parrys Lagoon Nature Reserve

After clocking over 60 bird species and several crocodiles in two separate visits to Marlgu Billabong, part of the Parry Lagoons Nature reserve and oasis in the middle of a grassy plain not far from Wyndham, I was experienced enough to become an unofficial ‘tour guide’.

I didn’t have anything else to do while the REAL birdos – Pilchard and his new friend-with-a-telescope from the caravan park – were still arguing over whether that odd looking bird I’d pointed out to them what seemed like hours before was actually a rare sighting of Oriental Reed Warbler or something more ordinary.

But although the mostly overseas tourists seemed quite happy to have me point out the crocodiles and assorted Aussie bird life, no one actually offered me any money! Maybe they were just being polite?!

Read more about my Marlgu Billabong adventures HERE!

It’ll be unsurprising to any keen birdo that Pilchard’s real target species in Wyndham was the rare Gouldian Finch. They’d apparently been seen at the campground waterhole a couple of days before so we staked it out whenever we weren’t doing anything else. But a few days later a new arrival was told the exact same thing!

Maybe it’s just a way to keep the twitchers in town?

Our next hot tip was to hang out at the Shire Offices when the sprinklers are on – but despite our best (and most tedious) efforts, Gouldian Finch remained elusive.

I’m kinda glad. That means I won’t have any arguments from Pilchard for a return visit.

4 The Grotto

140 steps down the sheer walls of a natural amphitheatre and I was on a direct descent into Middle Earth. At the base lies the Grotto – reportedly 122 metres (400 feet) deep.

I SO admire the nerve of whoever hung the rope swing from its precarious position high above the swimming hole, but not enough to actually test it out.

Not because I’m a total coward – but because my foot went numb with cold when I dipped it into the pool and the thought of immersing my whole body into water that icy seemed like the worst sort of torture.

Read more about my Adventure at the Grotto HERE!

5 True Blue Two Loo View!

Although most visitors ascend the Bastion to the Five Rivers Lookout atop the peak at sunset, the view overlooking Cambridge Gulf and surrounds is staggering at any time of day.

And ‘Five Rivers Lookout’ isn’t just a randomly inaccurate name – there really ARE Five Rivers visible from the vantage point if you know where to look.

The final destination for the King, Ord, Durack, Forrest and Pentecost rivers is right here in the Cambridge Gulf where there’s enough water to support numerous Crocodiles – and Barramundi, making this a top fishing spot as well as a danger zone!

I can only imagine what it’s like during the wet season.

But despite the awe-inspiring vista of what is arguably one of Australia’s finest lookouts, my mind remained firmly in the gutter and turned to toilets. One up the top near the car park. And one down below by the jetty. SO good, I just HAD to put it into my book Aussie Loos with Views!

Read more about the Five Rivers Lookout HERE!

Tourist information suggests taking a day trip to Wyndham from Kununurra, 100 km (62 miles) to the east. But as we reluctantly left Wyndham after 4 days with a list of enough things to ensure a return visit, I wondered if the day-trippers actually saw what I’d seen.

And that’s a TOP Aussie town with a wealth of attractions that’ll bring me back again!

Wyndham Fast Facts:

Where: Wyndham is in North-Western Australia’s East Kimberley on the Cambridge Gulf. Click HERE for a map!

When: Temperatures are generally cooler during the Dry Season from April to October.

How to get there: Wyndham is 100 km (~62 miles) by road from nearest town, Kununurra on fully sealed roads on the Great Northern Highway. Fly to, or drive from Kununurra, Darwin or Broome.

What to do: Wyndham is at the end of the Great Northern Highway. Use it as a base to explore this corner of the Kimberley with day trips to Marlgu Billabong, the Grotto, the King River Road; or as a starting point to visit Kalumburu; or connect with the Gibb River Road. Discover the history, wildlife and landscape with local attractions, or go fishing in the Gulf.

Want MORE?

• Wyndham
• Kununurra
• The Kimberley
• Red Nomad OZ in the Kimberley
• More Wyndham Photos on Flickr HERE
• More Kimberley Photos on Flickr HERE
• MORE TOP Aussie Towns!

PS … if all that’s not enough for you, then maybe Fuzzy – a tame donkey who scavenges through the Three Mile Caravan Park – might just tip the scales

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The post FIVE Reasons why Wyndham is a TOP Aussie Town! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Even without maps to guide them, Australian place names mean visitors to Australia – whether overseas tourists or aliens from beyond the Southern Cross – need not fear losing their way.

In some parts of Australia, anyway.

Thanks to the daring imagination and colourful speech of our colonial past, working out your location can be as simple as describing what you see.  So join me for a tour of several Australian place names that’ll have you scratching your head … NOT!

1 Big Bend, South Australia

The River Murray, part of Australia’s largest river system, wends its way from high in the Snowy Mountains, through Victoria and into South Australia where it meets the sea at – yes, you guessed right – the Murray Mouth.

But en route to this glorious spot on the South Aussie coast, the river winds through what would otherwise be the quite arid Riverland. What do you get when the river is winding through the cliffs? Bends, of course. So what would you call the biggest bend on the river just out of Swan Reach??

Big Bend, of course!  Incidentally, I bet you can’t guess how Swan Reach got its name …

MORE about Big Bend, Murray River

2 Black Mountain, Queensland

If the person responsible for naming Queensland’s Black Mountain had been slightly more descriptive, it’d be called ‘Mountain covered with house-sized black rocks, unusual plants and animals and odd smells – where weird things happen’.

The odd aroma surrounding Black Mountain National Park 25 km south of Cooktown en route to Cairns is as much a mystery as the local legends about disappearing people and stock, strange noises and unusual turbulence and magnetic fields over the mountain reported by pilots.

And it’s a habitat unique enough to support three endemic species – a skink, a frog and a gecko, the names of which are all preceded by ‘Black Mountain!’

But all that’s too much to fit into a single descriptive place name, so in a grand display of brevity, the unknown (to me) name-bestower chose the two most important words.

MORE about Black Mountain (Kalkajaka) National Park

3 Black Rock Falls, Western Australia

A waterfall that flows over black rocks can’t really be called anything other than Black Rock Falls, right?

And although this Kimberley beauty near Western Australia’s Kununurra wasn’t flowing on our visit, the path of the water was visible against the black rock surrounding the falls area.

When I saw our destination on the tourist map, my well-developed Australian place names deductive powers gave me a pretty good idea that I’d be seeing some combination of black, rocks and waterfalls.

I was right!

MORE about Black Rock Falls

 4 Yellow Water, Northern Territory

I’m not sure what colour the water is at midday or in the dark of night.  But I DO know what colour it was at sunrise as we clambered aboard the boat for Kakadu’s world famous Yellow Water sunrise cruise.

All the better to see the crocodiles with, the glow of the sunrise turned the lagoon into a shimmering sheet of gold, perfectly captured by Pilchard before the serious business of birdwatching began.

MORE about Kakadu National Park

5 Snowy River, New South Wales

OK, Ok, ok … this photo doesn’t REALLY prove my point!

But that’s because it was taken in autumn before the winter snow started. With its headwaters just below the summit of Mt Kosciuszko, Australia’s highest peak, and above Charlotte Pass, where Australia’s coldest temperature was recorded, the Snowy River is an Aussie icon. As is classic Aussie poem ‘The Man from Snowy River’!

I bet I don’t have to tell you how that got its name!

MORE about Mt Kosciuszko

6 The Pyramid, Queensland

I blame the Egyptians.

Their astounding ability to build massive and perfectly symmetrical three dimensional triangular objects from gigantic pieces of rock has given the rest of the world a ready-made name for any three-sided rock formation.

Even when the landscape in which the formations concerned are set bears absolutely NO resemblance to anything in Egypt.

I’m not sure whether or not the Pyramid at the bottom of OutBack Queensland’s Porcupine Gorge is a dead ringer for its Egyptian counterpart, but it really doesn’t matter.

I’m sure you can spot their similarities!

MORE about Porcupine Gorge

7 Circular Pool, Western Australia

To be fair, there’s a number of obvious names for a small body of water that’s pretty much round when viewed from above. So Circular Pool, in Karijini National Park could just as easily have been called Round Lake. Or Spherical Pond. Or Almost-Ovoid Baths.

HHHMMMmmm… maybe Circular Pool was the best choice after all!

MORE about Circular Pool, Karijini National Park

8 Rhino Head, South Australia

It doesn’t take much imagination to work out how Rhino Head got its name. At the eastern end of Stenhouse Bay and part of the spectacular scenery in Innes National Park, the Head is best viewed from the excellent Stenhouse Bay lookout walking trail.

And I can’t actually think of a better name for it. Can you?

MORE about Innes National Park

9 The Horn, Victoria

Victoria’s Mount Buffalo is a great hunk of rock like a landlocked island rising 1723 metres above the sea of the surrounding plain. While the climb (actually ‘drive’) up the Buffalo’s flank is steep, the plateau at the top belies its height above sea-level.

Mt Buffalo’s highest point is, of course, the Horn – a short but steep climb to a 360°view of the Victorian Alps.

And for an Acrophobic like me, the newly installed handrails, stairs and fence around the domed rocky summit made the whole thing a bit of a doddle. Well, almost!

MORE about Mt Buffalo

10 Pink Lake, Western Australia

The name of any lake in Australia that has a slightly different colour to normal is pretty much a foregone conclusion. But unlike other pink lakes in Australia coloured by salt, this Western Australian wonder’s unique colour is caused by beta-carotene!

Just south of Kalbarri near holiday town Port Gregory, the unusual and unnatural colour of the lake looks like a set from a B-grade science fiction movie.  But there’s no doubting the colour.  And hence the name …

MORE about Pink Lake

11 Redbank Gorge, Northern Territory

A dastardly combination of Australia’s ubiquitous RED Rock and our inability to think outside the square with our place names, Redbank Gorge’s name should come as no surprise.

Because yes, the rocky banks of this gorge are RED.

No secrets here! And the red is also a sobering reminder of fatal clashes between the local Aboriginal people and the early settlers.

While Redbank Gorge would fit the description of almost any of the several gorges along the Western MacDonnell Ranges from Alice Springs, it’s perhaps more surprising that it only describes this one.

Redbank Gorge, however, isn’t to be confused with South Australia’s Redbanks Conservation Park.

While this name doesn’t accurately describe the conservation park’s palaeontological wonderland, it DOES describe one of its main features!

See if you can work out which one from this photo … and see if you can tell which of these Australian place names is which!

MORE about Redbank Gorge, NT

and

Redbanks Conservation Park, SA

12 Five Rivers Lookout, Western Australia

Yes, there really ARE Five Rivers visible from this lookout on the Bastion (wonder why they called it that?!) high above Cambridge Gulf near Wyndham in the Western Australian Kimberley. The Ord, Pentecost, Forrest, Durack and King rivers all flow into the gulf but my camera wasn’t wide enough to capture all of them. Not even by stitching photos.

And even if it could, it wouldn’t do the staggering view justice. Or capture the view from what must be one of Australia’s most scenic public toilets.

So don’t take MY word for it – head up Wyndham’s Bastion and count those five rivers for yourself!

MORE about Five Rivers Lookout

13 Boulder Beach, New South Wales

What else would you call a beach covered with small boulders? At least it makes a change from the plethora of Sandy, Shelly, Rocky and Stony beaches along the Australian coastline.

And this fine beach, between Skennars and Lennox Head near Northern New South Wales town Ballina also lifts those coastal photographs out of the cliché category.

MORE about Ballina

Even though this is a long post, it’s really just a teaser! There are WAY more Australian place names that perfectly describe what you see, so YOU tell ME! Which ones have I missed??

The post 13 Australian Place Names that WON’T keep you guessing … appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

Western view from Five Rivers Lookout, Wyndham, Western Australia

Southern View – Five Rivers Lookout, Wyndham, Western Australia

And being lookouted-out is a known syndrome.  Well … ALMOST!

Northern View, Five Rivers Lookout, Wyndham, Western Australia

And with not one, but TWO scenic public toilets, Western Australia’s northernmost town Wyndham immediately scoots to the top of Australia’s most scenic public toilets list.

Set amongst some of most spectacular and unusual scenery in Australia, Wyndham’s vista includes the magnificent escarpments of the Cockburn and Bastion ranges, vast river floodplains, tidal salt flats, wetlands, billabongs, mangrove swamps and two 7-9 metre tides per day.

Five Rivers Lookout Amenities, The Bastion Summit

And despite being ~100 km from the coast, the Gulf’s killer combination of tropical waters, incoming river flows, massive tides and remote location makes it ideal for fishing.

Perhaps it’s fitting that the meeting place of the Ord, Pentecost, Forrest, Durack and King rivers offers a choice of two amenities blocks – the view is so extensive it’s impossible to fit into one photograph.


Red Circle marks Jetty Loo Location, Cambridge Gulf, Wyndham

Mix business with pleasure at the unobtrusive lookout loo, in the barbecue area behind the lookout carpark, with one of the best outlooks in Australia; or at the jetty loo slap-bang in the middle of the Five Rivers Lookout panorama.


• Five Rivers Lookout
• Wyndham
• Western Australia’s Kimberley Region

Sunset over Cambridge Gulf, Five Rivers Lookout, Wyndham, Western Australia

The post Australia’s Scenic Public Toilets #26 – Five Rivers Lookout, Wyndham, Western Australia appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.