When we left Katherine last Monday we had every intention of driving to Timber Creek and stopping there for the night. However because it was only 11am when we got there we made the decision to drive on to Lake Argyle. The drive from Katherine passes through more of Australia’s massive cattle stations, as well as beautiful national parks. We can now say that we have seen a cattle muster by chopper. 120kms south west of Katherine is the 422,550 acre Willeroo Station which is (unless recently sold) owned by the Sultan of Brunei, and is home to around 18,000 head of Brahman cattle. Those chopper pilots are amazing (or have a death wish), they fly so close to the ground during the muster. Another 75kms and we came into the Victoria River and Gregory National Park area. When driving 500+kms it makes such a difference to drive through magnificent scenery of escarpment ranges and strong flowing rivers. We really enjoyed this section of our trip. After refuelling at Timber Creek on we went, passing through the WA border crossing and on to Australia’s largest artificial lake by volume, Lake Argyle. With the time difference, we were set up and ready to investigate by 12.30pm.

The camp ground at Lake Argyle sits up high on 5 acres overlooking the lake. Incredibly the view from the camp ground only takes in 1% of the Lake, and one of the best spots to enjoy that view is from the infinity pool sitting on the edge of the escarpment.

Looking onto Lake Argyle from the infinity pool

The Lake itself was formed in 1971 as part of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme. Millions of acres of farmland were flooded to hold a surface volume of 1,000 square kilometres in normal times. To put this in perspective it is 21 times the volume of Sydney Harbour (or 5.8 million megalitres) in the dry season and up to 88 times in the wet season.

Looking across the Lake you simply cannot see land because of its size

It makes for a beautiful vista, and the lake has become an important wetland area for bird life, as well as being the home to an estimated 35,000 fresh water crocodiles. Whilst at the lake we enjoyed a delightful sunset cruise that took us around various islands to see rock wallabies and kangaroos, feed various types of fish that inhabit the lake, see crocodiles basking in the sun, swim (fresh water crocodiles don’t find we humans at all appetising) and see the stunning colours of the evening sunset. At one stage when we couldn’t see land in the distance the skipper shared with us that the lake went another 35kms in one direction and 40 in the other.

Enjoying the sunset cruise

Because we stayed three nights at lake Argyle, we also went on all the different walks from the camp ground. The most interesting was across the range to the Durak family homestead. The Durak family, originally from Ireland were real pastoral pioneers of the west, having come to Australia, initially settled in Queensland and then, traveling overland for 2 years in 1882-83 with 5000 head of cattle they established Argyle Downs station. Over the next 50 years their property totalled 6000 square miles, and it was their farmland that was flooded to form Lake Argyle. The old homestead was preserved and relocated a short distance from the camp ground. The history behind this family is preserved and shared at the homestead.

The Durak family homestead

After three days it was time to head to Kununurra, a snip of journey, just 75kms from the lake. We have been based at the Discovery Holiday Park for 6 days, both because there is a lot to see here, and, we are parked right at the end of the campground, 3 metres from the side of Lake Kununurra, enjoying a beautiful and peaceful outlook and surely someone has to smell the roses!

The view at 7.30am this morning from the breakfast table