You may recall that on our approach into Kununurra some time ago, we drove past odd looking tree plantations which had me stumped (!!).
Well, today the mystery was solved....they are sandalwood plantations....and what an extraordinary tree they are, and valuable.
Well, today the mystery was solved....they are sandalwood plantations....and what an extraordinary tree they are, and valuable.
We were off on another tour, the third in less than two weeks. And, like that on the Ord River, Keith Wright's tour of the Kununurra irrigation area was just first class. At the end of this day we had learnt much, including all about sandalwood.
We began the jaunt at the Diversion dam, which makes sense. This is where the whole scheme kicked off as we have learnt. I'll not potentially bore you with the details of just how this dam was built, other than to say that the site was not chosen at random.
This dam arose over a line of river bed rocks on the Ord known as Bandicoot Bar.
This provided a good solid foundation for the dam wall seen here partially constructed (thanks to Wikipedia).
A critical requirement of this dam was that of flood control, or more to the point, the ability to release flood waters quickly during the wet from the accumulated waters of Lake Kununurra. And the solution? As you can see from this shot taken from just downstream of the dam,
its retaining wall is actually a series of 'radial arm gates', twenty of them, weighing 96 tonnes each. Just ensuring that these massive lumps of metal could be raised and lowered on their tracks without jamming was a feat in itself. When the volume of water being held back becomes too much, the gates are raised. And then things really begin to happen......for every 100 millimetres a gate is raised, 15,000 litres of water flows into the downstream river bed...per second!
To try to gain some sense of this and the volumes of water involved, I've resorted to the Internet where this photo, courtesy of 'flickr.com' shows an aerial shot of the system in about the same state as we were seeing, gates closed and the downstream area relatively dry.
Now look at what happens when gates are opened and the water spills out (thanks to 'blogs.abc') Now upstream and downstream of the dam look almost the same. These are mind boggling volumes of good old H2O.
One of the real features of this whole system (the interaction between the top and bottom dams) is that the level of Lake Kununurra never falls which means that those living here have a constant aquatic playground. And if I've not provided enough impressive figures already, let me finish the stats with this one. The top dam holds back so much water in Lake Argyle that Lake Kununurra could be completely drained and refilled weekly without the system ever running out of water!
And, before we leave the subject of the Diversion dam, it has provided another local benefit, town access. The Victoria Highway now runs across the top of the dam, as we have seen and experienced.
And, before we leave the subject of the Diversion dam, it has provided another local benefit, town access. The Victoria Highway now runs across the top of the dam, as we have seen and experienced.
But before this, crossing the Ord was a very different proposition, at the Ivanhoe Crossing, a few kilometres downstream.
Here vehicles could plough their way across the river on the cement crossing causeway, but only during the dry. Like the original Fitzroy crossing, fording the Ord River during the wet was a 'no go', as it is now, permanently The local authorities have decided in their wisdom that 4WD adventurers must go elsewhere for their thrills. (apologies for this lack of text alignment...another inexplicable blog hissy fit)
The first commercial crops, cotton and rice, were not sustainable for entirely different reasons. The cotton was highly susceptible to pests, and by the time it was discontinued in 1974, farmers were having to spray every 2-4 days. This was just not viable.
The failure of the rice growing venture could hardly have been foreseen, and would almost comic if not so disastrous. The ORIA rice growers had not reckoned with the local Magpie Geese. These feathered predators would swoop in on the newly planted rice stalks and make a fine meal of them. In fact, at one stage, there were so many geese in the area that the local commuter airline company could not schedule arrivals at the KN airport at sunrise or sunset. It was estimated that between 8-10,000 of these feathered rivals for local airspace were transiting the airport during these times....a recipe for disaster of another kind.
Things were grim for those who had staked so much on the success of these crops. The already meagre population of 1,800 dropped to 1,200 within a very short time. Trials with other plantings finally saw the rise and triumph of the curcubits. Today some 5,000 hectares are under melons of all types, pumpkins, zucchini and squash.
Beans were also successfully introduced. Today the largest grower of stringless bean in WA sends in the order of 120 tonnes of product to Perth weekly. In fact our good mate Greg (from Point Samson days) works here in KN in the bean packing shed for four months each year. We felt some personal affinity with this paddock!
Things were grim for those who had staked so much on the success of these crops. The already meagre population of 1,800 dropped to 1,200 within a very short time. Trials with other plantings finally saw the rise and triumph of the curcubits. Today some 5,000 hectares are under melons of all types, pumpkins, zucchini and squash.
Beans were also successfully introduced. Today the largest grower of stringless bean in WA sends in the order of 120 tonnes of product to Perth weekly. In fact our good mate Greg (from Point Samson days) works here in KN in the bean packing shed for four months each year. We felt some personal affinity with this paddock!
Today, another 'exotic' plant has been introduced to the ORIA area and is thriving. Chia, a mint like plant originally from South America, is grown for its seed which is high in the B vitamin group and in dietary minerals. The ground chia seed is now used in many products, including bread, breakfast cereals, energy bars, smoothies and so on.
In recent years mangoes from nearly a quarter of million trees were exported all over the world from the Kununurra district. But this is changing. The allure of the profits to be made from sandalwood are seeing these trees replace the mangoes on many properties, but before we explore the world of the sandalwood, the local irrigation system is worth looking at (hissy fit no. 2!)
By any other standards of irrigation practice around Australia, where the recent drought in the Murray-Darling basin has finally forced Governments to take action to radically improve methods, the system in place in the ORIA can best be described as primitive.
Water is run through a large, open, gravity feed channel from Lake Kununurra north to the plantations.
Here secondary channels allow individual growers access the flow at metered take off points.
The amount taken is measured by the revolutions of the 'paddle wheels', which I know from my days of water regulation investigations, is a most inefficient system and wide open to rigging.
From here, the water is fed along more open channels and redirected to the crops
through a series of syphon pipes, all of which have to be primed by hand. This really is, as I said, primitive stuff, and wasteful. The amount of loss to evaporation can only be guessed at.
This all goes to show that here in the ORIA there is water to burn (or it would if it could). For those of us from the southern states, where, through sheer necessity, irrigation techniques have been developed to the point where hardly a drop is lost to the atmosphere, this is the stuff of nightmares. But when you think that less than 4% of the enormous volume of water stored in Lake Argyle is used for irrigation, and that more than 70% of the remainder is 'wasted' to the ocean in the Cambridge Gulf to maintain the wetlands of the Ord River, this apparently cavalier attitude to water conservation takes on a different perspective. Nevertheless I was horrified by the waste.
The annual growing season here at the ORIA for most crops is from late March to October, 'the dry'. At first take this seems counter-intuitive. Bananas, sandalwood and mangoes do grow throughout the year, but the soil of the region presents real problems during 'the wet'. Known as 'Cununurra' clay, this wonderfully productive soil becomes an impossible bog when sodden and so the fields remain untouched during the monsoon, and then irrigated when the soil condition allows access. All very strange!
As a delightful aside, the town name of Kununurra stems from the soil name (despite other claims it is a derivation of a local aboriginal word). The 'K' replaced the 'C' at the insistence of some bright spark in Australia Post....there was concern that if this had not been done this town would be confused with the outback Queensland town of Cunnumulla. Oh, dear, the level of intelligence of one person (or could it have been a committee?) imposed on the entire community!
Enough sniping, back to the sandalwood. This is the real emerging star of the ORIA, not that everyone approves of the fact that many other crops are now being given over to this scented timber. This is, in fact, a matter of local contention, but, as usual, the dollar speaks louder than many other things.
Keith took us to a local sandalwood plantation as part of our tour. What an eye-opener this was.
Here we learnt that this tree cannot survive on its own. It is what is formally know as a 'hemiparasitic' plant (something like mistletoe to which it is related). The sandalwood tree feeds by attaching itself to the root systems of host plants. Just to complicate things, not one, but three are needed throughout the fifteen years it takes to bring a tree to harvesting maturity.
In this row, the small, shrubby looking trees are the sandalwood. Their tall companions are
the long (well in this case, short) suffering host plants. I'll not bore you with all the botanical jargon and so on. Suffice to say that within a few years these initial hosts, which outgrow the sandalwood by streaks, have done their job.
This is what things look like after five years or so, when the initial hosts are culled out and others take over. Three hosts plants are used in all.
Eventually the slow growing sandalwood reaches a trunk circumference of approximately 30 cms. They are not a tree of any visual significance, but in dollar terms, they punch well above their weight. It is time to harvest the trees for the oily riches they contain.
The most valuable part of the tree is its aromatic oil, which is a critical component in the manufacture of fine perfumes. For that reason, unlike other trees, the harvesting process for the sandalwood includes the roots from which oil can also be extracted. The heartwood generally yields about 3.5% oil per unit weight. With the heartwood being valued today at between $40,000 and $80,000 per tonne, it is easy to see why these trees, each one of which is worth over $3,000 at harvest, are seen as the way of the future here in the ORIA.
And the timber is not wasted. It is used in the production of small furniture, wood carvings and, above all, joss sticks which burn with the scent of the sandalwood. And the market? When you consider that the use of joss sticks on a daily basis is an essential part of most Asian religions, and that millions upon millions are burnt daily, not to mention the the fact that the Australian sandalwood oil is considered the world's finest, I think the future market is assured.
Our tour concluded with a visit to the Mount Romance Sandalwood factory where, despite the fact that discounts on the offered products were included in our tour fee, we managed to resist any purchases. Mind you, with the prices being charged for this range of goodies, I did give some serious through to an investment in the company which produces them (and still am). With a total of over 3,500 hectares of the ORIA under sandalwood, and much more planned, this has become a major player in this region.
And so to end where I began.......I now knew why the plantations I had seen a few days ago looked so odd with two species obviously purpose planted together. They were rows of the sandalwood trees and their hosts.
Before we leave the ORIA altogether, I should mention that the soils here are ideal for the production of hybrid seed, a fact which was the stimulus for another Kununurra story, that of 'The Hoochery'. It would almost be a step too far to say that this is a rum tale, but there, I've said it!
I cannot tell this story any better than the official Hoochery website:
"Owner, Developer and Farmer Raymond (Spike) Dessert III, fell in love with the Kimberley when he first arrived in 1972 to develop his seed business in the rich and fertile soils of the Ord River Valley. In 1995 with the booming sugar industry in the area, and a trip to the southern wineries of Australia planting a seed in his ever inspiring mind, he found a way to diversify his dream and create Western Australia’s oldest continuously operating, legal distillery. Built on his farm just outside of Kununurra in the heart of the beautiful Ord River Valley is the small pot distillery, which has the capacity to produce over 50,000 bottles of Ord River Rum a year. Our Ord River Rum is thought to be the very first Rum ever produced in Western Australia and is gaining an excellent reputation for being a genuine traditional premium rum."
As for the name, again let me quote fro the website:
"Now if you are wondering about the name Hoochery - well the name was trademarked by Spike from the word Hooch which goes back to the Hutanuwu (later modified to Hoochinoo) Indian tribe of Alaska who made alcoholic liquor - this is until it became the more popular name for the illegal activity of bootlegging! (Source: the Macquarie Dictionary)"
We had been told about this Kununurra landmark before reaching the town. It was time to see for ourselves.
The Hoochery was built in the style of a traditional saloon bar,
and the bat wing entry doors to the bar area were certainly reminiscent of the old west....the USA that is, not Australia......which seems fair enough given the owner's antecedents.
Displays of past distilling triumphs, artifacts of all types and a conglomeration of bits and pieces can be found everywhere.
Some of the earlier bottle labels are quaint and seriously dated to say the least,
and, of course, visitors are invited to spend their hard earned on things other than those which come in liquid form.
But the question remained......what does the end product taste like (irrespective of its fine reputation and many awards)? There was only one way to find out. Sample glasses allow a full range of tasting at a reasonable price (I forget now what it was...but it must have been OK....or had I by now become so used to the prices charged in WA as to be numbed in the hip pocket?)
Our tour concluded with a visit to the Mount Romance Sandalwood factory where, despite the fact that discounts on the offered products were included in our tour fee, we managed to resist any purchases. Mind you, with the prices being charged for this range of goodies, I did give some serious through to an investment in the company which produces them (and still am). With a total of over 3,500 hectares of the ORIA under sandalwood, and much more planned, this has become a major player in this region.
And so to end where I began.......I now knew why the plantations I had seen a few days ago looked so odd with two species obviously purpose planted together. They were rows of the sandalwood trees and their hosts.
Before we leave the ORIA altogether, I should mention that the soils here are ideal for the production of hybrid seed, a fact which was the stimulus for another Kununurra story, that of 'The Hoochery'. It would almost be a step too far to say that this is a rum tale, but there, I've said it!
I cannot tell this story any better than the official Hoochery website:
"Owner, Developer and Farmer Raymond (Spike) Dessert III, fell in love with the Kimberley when he first arrived in 1972 to develop his seed business in the rich and fertile soils of the Ord River Valley. In 1995 with the booming sugar industry in the area, and a trip to the southern wineries of Australia planting a seed in his ever inspiring mind, he found a way to diversify his dream and create Western Australia’s oldest continuously operating, legal distillery. Built on his farm just outside of Kununurra in the heart of the beautiful Ord River Valley is the small pot distillery, which has the capacity to produce over 50,000 bottles of Ord River Rum a year. Our Ord River Rum is thought to be the very first Rum ever produced in Western Australia and is gaining an excellent reputation for being a genuine traditional premium rum."
As for the name, again let me quote fro the website:
"Now if you are wondering about the name Hoochery - well the name was trademarked by Spike from the word Hooch which goes back to the Hutanuwu (later modified to Hoochinoo) Indian tribe of Alaska who made alcoholic liquor - this is until it became the more popular name for the illegal activity of bootlegging! (Source: the Macquarie Dictionary)"
We had been told about this Kununurra landmark before reaching the town. It was time to see for ourselves.
The Hoochery was built in the style of a traditional saloon bar,
and the bat wing entry doors to the bar area were certainly reminiscent of the old west....the USA that is, not Australia......which seems fair enough given the owner's antecedents.
Displays of past distilling triumphs, artifacts of all types and a conglomeration of bits and pieces can be found everywhere.
Some of the earlier bottle labels are quaint and seriously dated to say the least,
and, of course, visitors are invited to spend their hard earned on things other than those which come in liquid form.
The bar opens into the rear dining area
and beyond that, at the rear of the premises, is the only currently remaining sugar cane field in the ORIA. And herein lies another story.
Sugar cane was grown in the ORIA for some years in the initial stages of the development, and a sugar mill was built on Weber Plain Road to process the cut cane and extract the juice. For a number of reasons this segment of the local agronomy failed, and the sugar mill closed. For one who had been reliant on the by-product of the extraction process, molasses, from which he distilled his rum, this presented a real headache for Spike.
But for the ever resourceful Mr Dessert The Third, this was but a challenge to be overcome. In short, he took himself off to Columbia in early 2009, bought and imported a cane crusher, came back and planted out 3 hectares of sugar cane and now this hand cut cane, crushed on site, produces the sugar syrup which is then put through the distillery. Now that's what I call enterprise.
But the question remained......what does the end product taste like (irrespective of its fine reputation and many awards)? There was only one way to find out. Sample glasses allow a full range of tasting at a reasonable price (I forget now what it was...but it must have been OK....or had I by now become so used to the prices charged in WA as to be numbed in the hip pocket?)
This was not a matter to be taken lightly. Serious attention to detail was of the essence.
Liz had volunteered to the 'skipper' for the trip (and before you all break out into rounds of applause for her self-sacrifice, I'll tell you she hates rum), so I had free reign. Whooof! I manfully sipped my way through all six on offer. The big daddy of the group, the Ord River Rum - Single Barrel, boasts 64.9% alcohol/vol. Believe me this is no idle boast. This is rocket fuel. And the weakest.....a mere 28%...fit for a baby's bottle by comparison!
At the end of this session, I remained pleased that rum is not my favourite tipple and that none of the product on offer here had done anything to convert me. With prices for a 750 ml bottle ranging from a lowly (Hoochery style that is) $67 for their Ord River Rum to a whopping $179 for 'Spike's Reserve', the level of alcohol in some of what I tasted was not the only thing which took my breath away.
Having said that however, I must, in all fairness, report that the products of The Hoochery are attracting wide acclaim and many gongs. Rum aficionados are loud in their praise of this Kununurra hooch. And if nothing else, this had been a hoot of an afternoon.
In my next we head north to the genuinely old town of Wyndham, a place I had wanted to visit ever since this trip began. This is another of those places where I was wondering if the reality would match the mental pictures I had developed of it.
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