The view from Five Rivers Lookout

Boab tree in Wyndham

Marlgu Billabong
Big Crocodile

Wyndham is the oldest and northernmost town. It was established in 1885 as a result of a gold rush at Halls Creek, and it is now a port and service centre for the East Kimberley.

Where is it?: Western Australia: Kimberley. On the Great Northern Highway, 3,224 kilometres northeast of Perth

Things to see and do:

Singh's Garden - Located off the King river road are the remains of a vegetable garden grown by an Afghan Chinaman in the early 1900's. The vegetables were sold at the marketplace near the Wyndham Meatworks.

Moochalabra Dam- This dam was originally constructed in 1971 to supply water to the Wyndham area. This construction is unique to Australia, having been designed to allow a water overflow to pass through the rock on the crest of the hill. The dam was reconstructed in 1999 and the spillway provides a spectacular waterfall in the wet season.

Aboriginal Rock Paintings are located off the king river road, these paintings of Wandina spirit ancestors and animals have been done with natural ochre.

Prison Tree - Located off the King River road, this large boab tree was used by the early police patrols as an over night lock-up.

Lookouts: Take a walk up the Bastion to catch a magnificent view at the Five Rivers Lookout

Surrounding area:

From Wyndham you can explore El Questro Station, Parry's Creek Wildlife Reserve and Diggers Rest station overland or the Cambridge Gulf by boat.

El Questro Wilderness Park is Accessible from either the King River Road, or the Gibb River Road. Offers various forms of accommodation: luxury homestead, bungalows, tented cabins and camping. Meals, stores, fuel, gorge walks, thermal spring, gorge cruise, heli-flights, horse riding, bush walks, and Wandjina Aboriginal Art are also available.

Marlgu Billabong - a billabong in the Parry Lagoons Nature Reserve. A boardwalk and shaded bird hide have been constructed for visitors to enjoy watching the birds without them seeing you. Many species of waterbirds, migratory waders, birds of the grasslands, birds of the sandstone country can be sighted here.

The main access road in the Parry Lagoon Nature reserve leads to Telegraph Hill. Here you can enjoy the wide vistas of the floodplain and distant hills, explore the ruins of the old wireless station built in 1914, which assisted ships entering Wyndham Port and was used for naval intelligence to intercept radio traffic during World War 1.

Trivia:

About Wyndham

Wyndham is split into two areas. The original town site of Wyndham Port is situated on Cambridge Gulf, while Wyndham Three Mile (also known as Wyndham East) is the residential and shopping area of the town. Wyndham is part of the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley.
The first European to visit the area was Phillip Parker King in 1819. He was instructed to find a river 'likely to lead to an interior navigation into the great continent'. He sailed in to Cambridge Gulf, which he named after the Duke of Cambridge, and then sailed down a river which was subsequently named after him. Finding no fresh water on the mudflats, he departed.
The town of Wyndham was established by John Forrest in 1885 as the major port and trading station of the East Kimberley, after finds of gold in Halls Creek a year earlier. By 1886, the town was booming. There were six pubs, one of which was a two-storey building. Ships brought in at least five thousand miners who headed off to the Halls Creek goldfields. It is known that during this boom there were times when up to 16 vessels were moored in Cambridge Gulf.
However, by 1888, the gold rush at Halls Creek had ended and the fortunes of Wyndham declined. Wyndham became a tiny settlement serving the pastoral interests in the East Kimberley. By 1912, money had virtually disappeared from the Wyndham economy, and purchases were paid for using promissory notes known as "shin plasters".
In 1913, the Western Australian government started to construct the Wyndham Meatworks to restart the town's economy. The construction efforts were interrupted by the Nevanas affair and World War I, but the meatworks were completed in 1919.
During World War II, the town was attacked several times by Japanese aircraft. Wyndham's significance as a service centre was also reduced by the construction of the town of Kununurra in the early 1960s. The meatworks continued to be the mainstay of the town's economy until their closure in 1985.
Wyndham is located at the west arm of Cambridge Gulf, an inlet of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf of the Timor Sea. It is surrounded by the Durack, Pentecost and King rivers to the south, Forrest River to the west and Ord River to the north. Much of the land around Wyndham is inhospitable, and includes the jagged hills of the Bastion Range and the mudflats of the Cambridge Gulf.
Wyndham is also the home of the Big Crocodile, a papier-mâché statue of a crocodile around 18 metres long.

Climate: Despite being in the tropics, Wyndham experiences a steppe climate, with the wet season from late November to March and the dry season from April to early November. The hottest month is November with an average maximum temperature of 39.5°C, and the coolest month is June with an average maximum of 31.0°C. The annual average maximum temperature is 35.6°C, one of the highest in Australia. In 1946, Wyndham recorded 333 consecutive days of temperatures over 32°C.