Kununurra

Take a straight line out of Darwin airport on 208 degrees magnetic, fly 475 km and you will arrive at Kununurra airport. Along the way this flight traverses vast areas of tidal wet-lands bordering the Timor Sea. Beneath the Timor Sea lie considerable reserves of oil and gas. Gas from the fields is pumped up to 500 km to the worlds largest LPG refinery at Wickham Point in Darwin. The Bazflyers have been told this giant construction project currently employes something like 10,000 people.

Meanwhile, down at ground level the vast expanse of wet lands is a virtual haven for Barramundi and crocodile; but flying along at 4,500 feet and viewing it from the relative comfort of BAZ's cockpit, the tidal landscape assumes the appearance of a great artwork painted on a primeval canvas. 

Tidal wet-land landscape

Kununurra is the furtherest west the Bazflyers have yet been in their Comanche ZK-BAZ. It's an interesting small rural town born from the giant Ord River dam, associated irrigation farming and of all things, diamonds!

Approach into Kununurra 

Fertile farmlands

The great Ord Dam project ensures the region has water-a-plenty in the dry season which is amply replenished with every annual 'wet'.

These signs are definitely for real