This is a recording of an interview which Dad gave with the ABC when he was in Kunnunurra 2006. He went up there with my brother John to witness the swimming the Ord River dam Lake Argyle with his mates from the Balmoral Beach Club in Sydney. John still swims regularly - not sure if still daily at Bondi.
(Hope the ABC don’t knobble me as this was an ABC broadcast. Think long enough ago now that they would have lost any interest.)
I was inspired to get this out after listening again to Dad's speech 1998. Dad was a wonderful speaker.
Dad is recounting events which are now getting to be a fair while ago the 1940s- the establishment in effect of the town of Kunnunurra and irrigation in the Kimberly. Follow the link for comprehensive history of the era that Dad was there. Ord River Irrigation Area History. This history covers the interesting proposal to establish a Jewish state in WA.
In the late 1930s all of the Connor, Doherty & Durack (CD&D) properties, Argyle, Ivanhoe, Newry and Auvergne stations were up for sale. Isaac Nachmann Steinberg of the Freeland League was in search of a homeland for the Jewish people saw the properties for sale in England. The Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonisation, founded in 1935, had aims "to create a Jewish settlement in some unoccupied area for those who seek a new home and who cannot or will not go to Israel."
Thanks, Andrew - Kununurra Historical Society
The 1940s were very difficult times and Dad’s motivations for being on the Reaearch Station were complex. Read his letter of 1941 in my Substack.
Took me some time to pin down the date and locate the photos which must have been taken by John or Matthew or Jenny as I was not there. I had volunteered to stay with Mother in Toowoomba for the week or so while Dad was away. Turned out to be rather sad realisation for me of how Mother’s mental health was failing and how much Dad was supporting her. The legendary story that Mother decided she might go before Dad and how would he cope - he barely knew how to shop. He was dispatched to do the shopping and Mother never shopped again. Desperate anxiety and inability to understand any future plans. Asking every few minutes where Dad was and when he would be back. It was a sad and difficult time.
Some photos - thanks to whoever took them.
Perpetua thinks this might be Parry’s Lagoon?
An addition from Perpetua.
The expeditioner’s are photographed on the Five Rivers Lookout — a site on 'The Bastion' that looms over the tiny town of Wyndham — a site accessed via a steep, rugged, risky road — the kind of road that well might make the boldest hold their breath . . . the sort that your brother, John, would swing his 4WD round and give a cheer . . . Anyway, this Lookout is where the 5 Great Rivers of North Kimberley: the King, the Ord, the Durack, the Forrest, the Pentecost, flow into Cambridge Gulf.
Dad did tell stories of really big crocodiles sunning on the Bandicoot Bar at Carlton Reach.
Check out more recent events - Durack Family Tree. And or have a look at the current version.
Another addition from Perpetua:
The ‘Curator' is Michael Byers — loyal (+ known to be cranky) Manager of the Museum for almost 20 years. Very knowledgeable about Duracks. Claimed to be related. Details hazy but possibly via the Durack who went to South Africa around the same time as our great-great grandfather Michael D (1808–1853) came to Australia.
A far cry from the stories I can remember Dad telling of swimming the river in the wet season. You pick a wide bend in the river and watch for a big log floating down. Catch it and hang on till the current sweeps you to the opposite bank. The downside - the log invariably infested with green ants if you are lucky - snakes if unlucky. Then you were up for the 50 mile walk into Wyndham to get the mail walk back and swim again to the eastern bank.
I think that they visited the Parlement House in Darwin to visit Ted Egan who was at the time Administrator of the Northern Territory. Ted was a good friend of Mary Durack. He once gave us the makings - in Alice Springs - of a damper for our trip (Gibb River road - before it was a superhighway) with Mum and Dad about 1985. It was the full kit including ingredients packed in a small camp oven as I remember.
A great adventure for Dad about 88 years at the time.
If anybody can fill in any other details of this story add them to the comments, and they will become part of the record.
Do subscribe (free) and any new stories will be emailed to you, and I will get the satisfaction of seeing my subscriber base growing…. Otherwise “follow” and it will be easier to find TheOneAbout stories in the Substack Notes.
Share this post