Today was a very interesting day, as we headed out to Lake Argyle to do a cruise around the Lake. Like yesterday’s cruise up the Ord River, today’s cruise was just as inspiring. The size of the lake is hard to imagine and really none of the photos we took give it justice. The Lake was dammed in the early 70’s and now provides all Hydro power for the towns in the region and also supplies all water for the Ord River Irrigation scheme. In fact the Lake is so big they are looking to treble the amount of agriculture in the region.

The Lake is called Argyle because the founding family of the area had named their station Argyle Station after their home county in Ireland. The “Durack” family pioneered and then settled in the East Kimberley region in the mid 1800’s, after driving 7,000 head of cattle from the Queensland Channel Country to the Ord River area, around 4,500 km’s.

The actual Argyle Station is now deep underwater in the middle of the Lake and one of the station houses was disassembled and then re-assembled as a museum not far from the lake. The lake when full holds about 21 times the amount of water as Sydney Harbour. Back in 2011 after a number of heavy wet season’s it held 40 times Sydney Harbour and it has a maximum flood level of about 80 times Sydney Harbour. Currently its at about 18 times, as its in the middle of the dry season.

After lunch at the resort we headed off for the cruise. It was an interesting cruise as I got to swim in the lake with some of the local inhabitants of the lake (see photos below). At sunset we all had a drink and like all sunsets we’ve seen, this was just as unique as all the others. Our two days cruising the Ord River and Lake Argyle have been very enjoyable but also informative as well. Off to see Wyndham tomorrow before we pack up and cross the border into the Norther Territory on Sunday.