Kununurra Museum run by the Kununurra Historical Society

20/03/2024

Wirraway A20-62 Day (March 20th today) Hard to believe in 2024 it will be twenty years since the remains of A20-62 were found out on the far north WA-NT border coastal saltmarsh, where Dwyer and Carmody force-landed after engine failure on March 20th (today) back in 1942. Later the remnants salvaged were brought into the Kununurra Museum run by the Kununurra Historical Society and opened by the pilot, Lew Dwyer as a new display in an almost empty new museum on March 20th 2005 - See "Opening Wirraway-Challenge Display" on our YouTube - Links in the Album Description) https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3957120307648778&type=3

Read this description for information. For "Wirraway-Challenge Day" at Kununurra Museum, on March 20th 2023 we have created a new web page with all of KHS & Kununurra Museum's Online Resources...
https://www.kununurra.org.au/research/wirraway-challenge (for All KHS "Wirraway-Challenge" Online Resources :^)

Photographs here in this album are from finding the site of the March 20th 1942 forced-landing of RAAF 12 Squadron Wirraway A20-62 in 2004, the salvage of the remains (Oct. 2004), as well as from research and photos donated by Warwick John "Flash" Carmody and Lex Cameron "Lew" Dwyer from their personal records. At the time I interviewed Lew Dwyer (within weeks of finding the remains of his aeroplane :^) and used that in some of the 8 Parts of the DVD (DVs on the Kununurra Museum YouTube Channel :^) See them all embedded in a single page on our (new platform in March 2023 for original website we started in 2010) website.
https://www.kununurra.org.au/social/kununurra-museum-on-youtube

As well as the photographs of the site of the forced-landing of CAC Wirraway A20-62 on coastal saltmarsh near WA-NT border and displays at Kununurra Museum, new research and photographs are being added on the 2023 "Wirraway-Challenge Day" (Annually at Kununurra Museum on March 20th each year :^) to share on the day.

Arthur James "Chum" Marsh - Likely the only "Australian" to ever die by a Vickers .303 GO machine gun, this one had been salvaged from Wirraway A20-62, after the airmen had flown back to Batchelor

New photographs in connection with the gunning down of poor old Arthur James "Chum" Marsh, who had looked after Lew Dwyer and is pictured in two photographs with Warwick Carmody.

After their rescue, Carmody and Dwyer stayed for several days at the Ninbing homestead, being looked after by caretaker for the station, AJ Marsh, while the Manager, Jack Martin was away.

According to Lew Dwyer Chum Marsh, the cook and general hand, was caretaker while the Manager, Jack Martin, was away on business.

After their stay at Ningbing, and creeks had subsided, the airmen were then driven across to Carlton Hill station homestead, where Manager, Charlie Pretlove, looked after them for almost a week, before, "three Wirraways from the squadron" made the first ever landing at Carlton Hill, with two empty seats for Carmody and Dwyer, who were then flown back to Batchelor,

Arthur James Marsh was gunned down by one of the Vickers .303 Gas Operated (G.O. @ "Go Gun") machine guns, likely the rear gun, as he walked from behind the "Wirraway Machine Gun Boab."

Marsh had been behind the boab tree, and the story goes, that when the Manager returned after the airmen had been flown off, Chum Marsh had been back out with the Aboriginal stockmen, retrieving the guns, all ammunition, the parachutes, and anything else they deemed useful, including the salvage Toolkit, Lew Dwyer remembered they took with them for their mission, which was, "to salvage any parts we could get off, a Wirraway that had pranged at Drysdale - Hit a tree on take-off, not injured, not sure who?"

It turned out Lew DID know who, as he had a photo of Cliff Lenton in his collection. We found the lid of a metal toolbox out at Ninbing that we believe could well have been the RAAF toolbox, we now display with the cockpit canopy and other parts.

Watch the DV's on the Kununurra Museum YouTube Channel to find out more about A20-62 and Wirraways in general.
https://www.kununurra.org.au/social/kununurra-museum-on-youtube

17/03/2024

Today - our fB Album from - 1963 March 17th, when The Royal Family first visited Kununurra to see the brand new Ord Scheme of National Development in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. From RY Britannia in Port Darwin harbor they flew down for a 40 minute visit that turned into an hour and a half. This was 4 months before Menzies officially opened the scheme. It was on Saint Patrick's Day so the Queen was in green and they were landed on a dirt strip runway (reputedly for the 1st time?), in one of two RAAF (not RAF! :^) Convair (for VIP transport 1963). Also see our Albums on Flickr and our YouTube channel DVs https://www.kununurra.org.au/research/1963-royal-tour-dvs (from this page on our website).

An album to commemorate 60 years since the Royal Tour to Kununurra of photos from one of our Roy Hamilton collection. Roy was the Resident Engineer during construction of the Ord River Diversion Dam between 1960 and 1963. He came back and settled in Kununurra and was one of the early stalwarts of the Kununurra Historical Society. Roy and Rosalie Hamilton left Kununurra in the early 2000s.

20/02/2024

1959 Ord River (Top) Dam Catchment. John Lewis Collections. John was the Public Works Department (PWD) Engineer, who designed the Ord River Diversion Dam. Some of the rains from ex TC Lincoln will be heading into this catchment to fill Lake Argyle a bit more.

1959-ca - Fig. Ord River Catchment & Rainfall Stations photo by John G Lewis John G Lewis 35mm Slide Collection (207 Slides) KHS Archive No. KHS-2022-52-h-H46-P10-D_095 John Lewis was the design-engineer, effectively the designer of the Ord River Diversion Dam. In the early 1960s John Leis was in ch...

15/02/2024

An update on the Timber Creek Police Museum flood cleanup has finally hit mainstream media. Will the Timber Creek Museum ever open again?

Memories of a "frontier" town risk fading from the page in the damp wreckage of Timber Creek's Police Museum.

08/02/2024

New album of the January 2024 flood (to roof height) and aftermath at the Timber Creek Museum. Photos sent to KHS by Bazza Burrowes, some from a day or two ago show the aftermath of mud and the cleanup that he has been facing. He says there will be no power for up to a month (switches to be replaced?), so no fans to help dry out items. Is there anybody (Electrician? or gen. set/fans in TC?) who might want to go and help out? Any Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material - AICCM experts in the region?

An album of photos sent to KHS by Bazza Burrowes, who needs help to clean up (has no power for a month to run fans to help dry out to avoid mould and no helpers) by the looks of these photos, some taken yesterday (Feb 7th 2024) of the aftermath of the flood. Earlier photographs document the flood wa...

06/02/2024

"Back Roads" episode at Timber Creek - Tonight on ABC Australia (ABC TV HD) at 8pm (AWST for those in WA or later on iView) - Filmed a few months ago Bazza Burrowes was recorded at the Timber Creek Museum. See other posts on the Kununurra Museum run by the Kununurra Historical Society fB page to see the museum after flooding in January 2024. Here is an album added to our Flickr collections a few days ago with photos from a KHS field trip to visit the Timber Creek Museum about ten years ago.

Photos from the Kununurra Historical Society (KHS) Archives, most of these being from a 2014 field trip to Timber Creek. So this was Timber Creek Police Museum as it was ten years ago. From KHS Canon camera.

31/01/2024

See other posts on the Kununurra Museum run by the Kununurra Historical Society fB page about the Timber Creek Museum being flooded last week (January 22nd to 30th 2024) - On the Kununurra Museum website under "Preservation Tips" we have a page with links to videos about how to deal with "Water Damaged Documents & Photographs."
https://www.kununurra.org.au/collection-preservation-tips/water-damage [Placed online after the 2011 Brisbane Floods by the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material
See all flood resources here https://aiccm.org.au/disaster/flood/ or fB Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material - AICCM]

27/01/2024

"About" Kununurra Museum - Kununurra Historical Society (KHS) on Flickr (...online photo collections). https://www.flickr.com/people/khs-museum/ (3,000+ KHS collection images online)

Visit the Kununurra Museum Located in The Ord River Irrigation Area, Kununurra, East Kimberley, ~40km from the WA/NT border, by road, 3300km from Perth and 800 km from Darwin. Visit our Main Website www.kununurra.org.au/ first or here on Flickr best way is to view the 'Albums' (to see images in sets...

26/01/2024

2023-01-24 - Sturt Creek in flood & Timber Creek Museum Flooded - Bazza Burrowes interview on ABC NT Country Hour - Matt Brann - See more photos on Kununurra Museum run by the Kununurra Historical Society fB page (in several posts near top of page - scroll down :^)

Starts - Sturt Creek in flood Birrindudu Homestead surrounded (Photo supplied by Grace Perry)

Timber Creek museum damaged by flooding - Bazza Burrowes Interviewed by Matt Brann for NT Country Hour

Wouldn't it be great to have a National museum flood emergency response group? Waters going down now from last reports. [See photos of museum on our main fB page]
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory ABC Darwin - ABC News Australian Museums and Galleries Association Library & Archives NT Historical Society of the Northern Territory The NT Police Museum and Historical Society Inc. Group The Katherine Museum The Northern Territory Police Museum and Historical Society Inc.

Birrindudu homestead surrounded by floodwater. Tropical low moves west drenching Kimberley cattle country.

25/01/2024

Our "next door neighbour" museum over the border, Timber Creek Museum flooded over roof height the past few days - much will be lost. Without immediate action, mould will set in.

Wouldn't it be great to have a National museum flood emergency response group? Waters going down now from last reports. [See photos of museum on our main fB page]

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory ABC Darwin - ABC News Australian Museums and Galleries Association Library & Archives NT Historical Society of the Northern Territory The NT Police Museum and Historical Society Inc. Group The Katherine Museum Wyndham Museum The Northern Territory Police Museum and Historical Society Inc.