Surrounding areas
The outlying areas hide many interesting sights that emerge fleetingly during the wet season, when water flows and brings waterfalls, waterholes and creeks to the normally arid landscape. Only a 4WD will get you to most places and access to some may even be cut off by floods. A visit might be less of a hassle in the dry, but you won't be seeing them in their full splendour.
Black Rock Falls
Well hidden in the hills northwest of town is a deep waterhole at the base of a 30m waterfall popular with locals in the know. The waterfall only comes to life in the wet season, when monsoon rains flush out the waterhole and temporarily creates a cool place to swim between the sheer rock faces. It's not the easiest spot to find or get to, but if you have the means and get a long enough gap in the wet season rain, its a worthwhile visit.
Middle Springs
Partly shaded by overhanging trees is a large sandy bottomed pool fed by a small waterfall gently tumbling down the rock face. A climb up the side of the falls will bring you to smaller secluded swimming holes and a great view over the valley.
Close to town
Ivanhoe Crossing
Permanently submerged crossing over or under the Ord River. Popular with locals fishing for Barramundi, it's also a nice spot to have a BBQ or explore along the waters edge. As inviting at the water looks, taking a dip isn't advisable as freshwater crocs got in first, and they don't like to share. Crossing in a 4WD is possible when water levels are low, but during the wet season, the river swells to a torrent and makes the way impassable for all but the most foolhardy.
Lake Argyle
Literally the reason Kununurra is on the map; this enormous man made lake is about 70km out of town. Any superlative you care to think of fails to do justice to the size and beauty of what is here, but the odd four letter word usually enters the mind of most on arrival. Besides being dumbstruck with the spectacular landscape, you can also swim, hike or fish around the myriad of islands, bays and beaches. Cruise and fishing charter boats ply the waters and are a good way to explore the less easily accessible parts of the lake.
Lake Kununurra
The smaller brother to lake Argyle. The middle of the lake is littered with the ghostly drowned trees poking their limbs above the water, but the outer edge wet lands support a huge range of plants, birds, fish and other animals. There are a few picnic spots some with barbecues where you can swim, off Victoria Hwy. A cruise boat does a tour around the lake and up to the Ord Dam.
Mirima National Park
Though the park itself is huge, a small area close to town has been developed with walkways, information boards and a viewing platform. Often described as the mini Bungle-Bungles by marketing types in tourist brochures, it offers more diversity than just striped domes. Itâs worth visiting at sunrise or sunset when the orange colour of the rock is at its most intense. An entry fee is payable into an often out of order ticket machine, but can be avoided by either walking in from town or parking out front next to the cemetery and walking the 500m into the park.
Celebrity Tree Park
Established in 1984, the park displays different species of trees planted by famous people during their visit to Kununurra. Despite the eminent provenance of the trees' placement here, they are really just trees in a park.
Diversion Dam
This antiquated looking dam holds back Lake Kununurra on one side and feeds a steady trickle into the irrigation channels on the other. All kinds of massive iron pulleys, levers and mechanical doodads from an erstwhile grand engineering age can be seen as you drive slowly over the wall. A spray on white water continuously surges through one of its 20 gates next to a shady picnic area and boat ramp. A good place to cast a fishing line into the churning water during the dry season, but is sometimes submerged in the wet.
Kelly's Knob
Visible from anywhere in town, Kelly's knob is the highest point 191m for miles, making it the ideal place to get a wide view of the valley and surrounding ranges. A railed lookout area next to the carpark is a suitable vantage point to see all the main features. Those itching to see further can hop over the pitiful fence uphill from the carpark and follow a well worn trail along the hill face to the service stairs that lead to TV tower and the knob's peak. Sunset is the best time to visit.
Sleeping Buddha/Elephant Rock
Named Carlton Ridge on maps, but fancifully called the Sleeping Buddha by locals, this meandering outcrop is said to resemble a slumbering Buddha or an elephant depending on your viewpoint. Kelly's Knob lookout or Celebrity Tree Park are ideal spots for a good view of the Buddha, and the elephant with its trunk dipped into the water is best seen from Packsaddle Rd or a boat on the river.
Many visitors will wonder how much there is to see in a town this small. The answer is — not much. Aside from two dams and a couple of lakes, there are few man made attractions of interest unless you count the distillery. But why would you travel this far to such an isolated place to see the same straight lines that surround you at home? Kununurra's real draw is the undulating tangle of rivers, valleys, waterholes, flood plains and gorges scattered in the surrounding landscape that stretches out for many hundreds of kilometres uninterrupted by anything boxy.
A few well known areas, such as Lake Argyle, appear on well worn itineraries, but casting off in any direction will lead to less traversed but no less interesting spots. While some spots are not easily reached without a 4WD or boat, Kelly's Knob and the Mirima National Park are reachable on foot or bicycle and equal anything found at the end of a corrugated dirt road.
Sunset and sunrise are the best times to get out and look at rocky things. Not only are the temperatures cooler, but the quality of light ignites the stone with a luminous orange tone. You're also more likely to see animals that have been hiding from the mid day heat venturing out to feed.