Ruth & I were back in Kununurra by 9 am and the diamond tour wasn’t until the next day.  We had time to go to Mirima National Park, which was only about a mile east of town.  The United States has 58 National Parks. Australia has more than 500.  There are almost 60 in Western Australia alone including Mirima, which was created in 1982 to both conserve the area and honor local Aboriginals, the Miriuwung.

The most unusual mountains in The Kimberley are called The Bungle Bungles.  They’re in Purnululu National Park 123 miles south of Kununurra.  Ruth & I thoroughly explored the Bungle Bungles when we visited The Kimberley the first time.  Probably the main reason why tourists go to Kununurra is to fly over the Bungle Bungles.  There are a number of packages available through companies like Slingair that can also include Lake Argyle, the Argyle Diamond Mine, etc, and use transportation combos including Cessna Caravans, Robinson R44 helicopters with the doors removed, etc.  These excursions vary in price and duration.

The formations in Mirima National Park, also called Hidden Valley, give it a nickname, the mini Bungle Bungles.  Lonely Planet mentions Mirima deep gorges and great views and recommends half a day to explore it.  We lasted less than 2 hours because, even though it was still morning, it was unbelievably hot.

There were 4 trails to follow.  Derbde-Gerring Banan, or Lookout Walk, took us up to the top of the Park for a spectacular view of the cultivated Ord Valley–chia, Borlotti Beans, Indian Sandalwood.  The trail was designated moderate to difficult, but it was definitely difficult that day due to the heat. A 2nd hike was a fairly level, lower altitude loop called “Looking at Plants”. It was fairly interesting to see what the Miriuwung consider food, medicine, etc.  The gap trail walk provided an overview of Kununurra through a big gap in the natural sandstone formations.  The 4th crossed woodland.  Some of the facilities in the Park had not been kept up and looked a bit derelict. There were places where people had partied and littered, etc.  I’d give Mirima 3 compasses.  The Bungle Bungles are unquestionably a 5.

The other tourist magnets in Kununura are a sandalwood factory, the Hoochery Distillery, and the Zebra Rock Gallery.  It’s pronounced zeb ra, rhyming with Debra, not zee bra, like the animal.  The locals favorite restaurant is The Pump House, where you can have a drink, watch crocs, and then dine among industrial-size irrigation pumps.    Kununurra, Western Australia, is definitely nothing like Kokomo, Indiana.

Hank

Ruth will not be getting a pink diamond for Valentine’s Day.   However, she got to tour their source in The Kimberley because we just happened to be in Kununurra at the time of the year when a few tours happen.

The past.  The Ord River Dam was completed in 1972 and Lake Argyle began to fill behind it.  In 1979 a woman named Maureen Muggeridge discovered diamond samples in the floodplain of a small creek flowing into Lake Argyle.  She traced the source of the diamonds to the headwaters of Smoke Creek.  The Argyle pipe was discovered.  The mine that resulted, the most productive and probably remotest in the world, cost $465 million to build.

The present.  Reportedly, only 5% of diamonds mined at Argyle are of gem quality.  Diamonds come in all colors–blue, green, rosé.  Argyle is the world’s largest producer of colored diamonds.  Pink diamonds are exceedingly rare and far more valuable than the common clear white.  You can figure, roughly, $1 million per carat for top quality pinks.  A year’s Argyle production over 1/2 carat would fit into the palm of an average-sized hand.  The entire year’s pink production might fill a champagne class.  The Argyle Diamond Mine in East Kimberley that resulted from Maureen’s discovery supplies about 90% of the world’s pinks.  About 80% of its current output is champagne colored diamonds.  Pinks account for less than 1/10th of Argyle’s total production.

The future.  In 2020 the mostly played-out Argyle Diamond Mine will return to Aboriginal control.  What they will do with it is yet to be determined.  More on this later.

Experts don’t know why diamonds turn pink instead of brown, but I know that Ruth & I can’t afford to buy them.  Two stores in Kununurra sell Argyle diamonds.  While I was asking to see a blue one, Ruth was pricing pinks. Australian blues, the result of nickel or hydrogen level, were no longer available at the store we were in.  “We no longer carry them because people like you ask to see them but never buy,” the salesperson told me frankly but with a smile.   I went to see what Ruth was finding out.  She was lustfully looking at a pair of really tiny, perfectly matched pink diamonds that was available for the price of a loaded, new Honda CRV.   We walked out of the store without a diamond souvenir.

Hank