On Week 5 of Freshwater’s 52 Weeks of Adventure Challenge we threw ourselves into all the festivities of the 2015 Ord Valley Muster. Kununurra’s Ord Valley Muster is a major highlight on the Western Australian events calendar with everything from guided Kimberley bushwalks right through to a lavish gala dinner on the banks of Kununurra’s Ord River.
I’ll be featuring the 2015 Ord Valley Muster over two weeks on the blog as there’s simply too much to cram into one post!
Firstly, check out the action packed 2015 program!
- Wild Walk
- Carlton Hill Station Tour
- Paint with Pete
- Muster Rodeo
- Argyle Diamond Mine Tour
- Parks for People – Unlocking Mirima National Park
- St Johns Town vs Country Rugby League
- The Gibb Challenge Commences
- Kununurra Metrogaine
- Kununurra Moon Fair
- Kimberley Kids in the Kitchen
- Argyle Diamond Dig
- Flickerfest Film Festival – Kununurra Picture Gardens
- Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow
- Graves in the long grass
- Kimberley Kitchen with Matt Moran
- Durack Homestead Dinner with Matt Moran
- Waringarri Corroboree under the stars
- Carlton Hill Station Tour
- The Gibb Challenge – Arrives at El Questro
- Sassy Jazz for Kimberley hipsters – Artopia Gallery Kununurra
- Sponsors Cocktail Party – Kununurra Country Club Resort
- Muster Idol – Final
- Kimberley Moon Experience and Kimberley Fine Diamonds Corporate Circle
The Ord Valley Muster originated way back in 2001 as a simple one-night dinner in the beautiful outback as a chance for local business people to meet and network. The night was a huge success and from there grew at lightning speed to become what it is today, a massive 10 day festival celebrating everything East Kimberley, while also showcasing some of Australia’s most acclaimed musicians and culinary personalities.
In between work commitments (managing Kununurra’s premier accommodation house during the busiest fortnight of the year can get a little crazy!) I was able to get out and about and participate in a few of the muster activities.
I lay on the lawn of the Kununurra Picture Gardens with a picnic and bottle of red wine and enjoyed the Flickerfest, a prestigious Australian short film festival, at Kununurra’s open air cinema.
I horseteethed (a comedic descriptive term for laughing your heart out) at the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow which was held at Kununurra’s iconic Hoochery Rum Distillery.
I walked through the 300 million year old Mirima National Park which is also known as Hidden Valley National Park with a local guide from the Department of Parks and Wildlife as part of the ‘Parks for People – Unlocking Mirima National Park’ tour. Sean our guide had us tasting local bush tuckers, snake handling and playing with beautiful native Agile wallabies. Lucky us!
The next day I dropped a friend off to the Wild Walks tour which covered the far end of Mirima National Park over a 5km walk. This walk was hosted by Kununurra local Wendy Carter who has a wealth of knowledge on the region and also hosts the fascinating Graves in the Long Grass tour, on top of volunteering with many community groups including the Kununurra historical society.
I met celebrity chef Matt Moran and learnt some of his tricks of the trade at the Kimberley Kitchen at Celebrity Tree Park, just opposite Freshwater Apartments. Matt served up delicious sample plates of the classic Prawn Cocktail with huge Shark Bay prawns, BBQ’d Cone Bay Barramundi in banana leaves with curry sauce, and profiteroles with cepes ganache! Matt had taken a few days to soak up everything Kununurra has to offer and had been helifishing with HeliSpirit just a few days before, landing himself a beautiful Barramundi! Matt also prepared and hosted the sell-out Durack Homestead Dinner on Thursday night which is a popular long table dinner event.
I missed out on tickets to the Durack Homestead Dinner but was fortunate enough to make it to the Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Corroboree.
Click here for Part 2 of the 10 day Ord Valley Muster
For more information on Kununurra’s epic Ord Valley Muster visit www.ordvalleymuster.com.au
Kimberley Moon Experience. Image courtesy B Visual Media
Parks for People - Unlocking Mirima National Park
Ord Valley Muster Sponsors cocktail image courtesy B Visual Media
Parks for People - Unlocking Mirima National Park
Image courtesy www.benbroady.com
Parks for People - Unlocking Mirima National Park
The Whitlams. Image courtesy B Visual Media
Kimberley Moon Experience. Image courtesy B Visual Media
Dan Sultan. Image courtesy B Visual Media
Parks for People - Unlocking Mirima National Park
Flickerfest Image courtesy B Visual Media
Parks for People - Unlocking Mirima National Park
Durack Homestead Dinner Image courtesy B Visual Media
Parks for People - Unlocking Mirima National Park
Kimberley Moon Experience. Image courtesy B Visual Media
Kimberley Kitchen image courtesy B Visual Media
Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow Image Courtesy B Visual Media
Kununurra's signature event - The Kimberley Moon Experience. Image courtesy B Visual Media
Image courtesy B Visual Media
Image courtesy B Visual Media
Image courtesy B Visual Media
Sassy Jazz image courtesy B VIsual Media
Kimberley Moon Experience image B Visual Media
Kimberley Moon Experience. Image courtesy B Visual Media
Kimberley Kids in the Kitchen image courtesy B Visual Media
Indigenous Hip Hop. Image courtesy B Visual Media
Parks for People image courtesy B Visual Media
The Living End. Image courtesy B Visual Media
Kimberley Moon Experience. Image courtesy B Visual Media
Parks for People image courtesy B Visual Media
This image captures perfectly everything I love about witnessing an Aboriginal corroboree. The passing down of culture to a future generation of leaders.
Kununurra is a beautiful outback town in the heart of the iconic Kimberley Region of Western Australia. An adventure holiday-makers dream, Kununurra offers a host of incredible things to see and do, and quality accommodation including self-contained apartment accommodation and hotel accommodation. Qantas and Virgin Australia fly to Kununurra daily from Perth, Broome and Darwin. Connecting flights to Kununurra from Sydney, Melbourne, or most other states are possible on some days during our busy season of May to October.
Freshwater East Kimberley Apartments is Kununurra’s newest and only 4.5 star accommodation, and winner of WA Tourism Awards Deluxe Accommodation in 2014 and finalist in the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards 2014.
Offering Studio, One, Two and Three Bedroom apartments with kitchenette or full kitchen facilities, we also offer Deluxe apartments with outdoor stone baths, Nespresso machines, and tropical outdoor showers. Our stunning free-form pool has been designed to compliment the Kimberley landscape with it’s own Kimberley waterfall feature and use of local Kimberley stone.
All accommodation at ‘Freshwater’ includes complimentary wifi, Foxtel, guest laundry facilities, BBQ facilities, secure undercover parking, and all guests receive am exclusive 10% discount with HeliSpirit – The Spirit of Australia’s North West. HeliSpirit have 8 bases positioned at iconic locations throughout the Kimberley and Northern Territory.. Offering a range of Kimberley scenic flights to locations such as the Bungle Bungle and Mitchell Plateau.
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About Freshwater’s 52 Weeks of Adventure Challenge
Freshwater East Kimberley Apartments is based in the picturesque town of Kununurra in The Kimberley region of Western Australia and is managed by Kimberley local, Ebony Muirson and her fresh enthusiastic team.
Over 12 months Ebony and her team will be venturing out into their pristine backyard to experience and chronicle 52 different Kimberley adventure experiences. That’s a new adventure every single week for an entire year!
We’re inviting you to come along for the ride by following the blog and joining us on Facebook and Instagram. We will also be announcing an exceptional competition during 2015 so sign up today for your chance to WIN.
On top of this we’re also running a #FresherAdventure photo contest which you can enter or vote on here.
We look forward to seeing you on our journey!
About the Author
Ebony is a Kimberley local and avid adventurer, who moved to Kununurra with her family as wide-eyed 8 year old on a hot and humid April day in 1992. Ebony’s adventures as a child growing up in one of the world’s last remaining frontiers inspired her to pursue a career in tourism where she would be able to share her love of the region she calls home with people from across the globe. Ebony has spent years working on the remote Kimberley Coast before returning to Kununurra to manage Freshwater Apartments. In 2012 Ebony was selected as a North West Ambassador through Australia’s North West’s Characters of the Kimberley campaign.
Ebony loves nothing more than helping create a once in a lifetime holiday for visitors to the Kimberley and looks forward to sharing her own Kimberley Adventures throughout the following 12 months.
Please JOIN THE ADVENTURE by following our blog, as Ebony and her team chronicle 52 weeks of unbelievable Kimberley adventure experiences.
Freshwater East Kimberley Apartments is located only 2.5km from Kununurra Airport and two minutes from the town centre (by car).
