‹ diverse

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Kununurra Western Australia, a few months before the official opening of the Ord River Diversion Dam, landscape designer John Oldham, on contract to the Shire of East Kimberley, was seeking a distinctive focus for the eastern approach to the bridge across the Ord. He discussed ideas with artist Elizabeth Durack who in turn called upon artist friend and teacher Djubbul of the Ivanhoe bush camp. Together they came up with plans for a design that would incorporate aspects of the old Dreaming site of Bandicoot Bar. The Shire approved and work proceeded quickly. Indicative of the cooperation and informality of the times many children contributed to the work after school by collecting small water worn stones of different colours from the bed of the adjacent Ord River.

In retrospect, the Ord River Diversion Dam ground mosaic was in its way groundbreaking. Based on designs that traditionally were ephemeral, it was to be a permanent tribute to Aboriginal culture ... (Since then, and increasingly since the 1990s, magnificent adaptations of traditional Aboriginal designs have been created all over Australia. Think, for example, the granite mosaic pavement in the open forecourt of Parliament House, Canberra, designed by Michael Nelson Tjakamarra.)

In the intervening years since 1963 the harsh environment of Western Australia's Kimberley has taken its toll of the original Diversion Dam design — as evident from photographs taken some 50 years apart. Ideally the old mosaic of water worn stones deserves listing as a heritage site and to receive professional restoration.
#
Included in this section are five splendid photographs by Kevin Richards, an entomologist with the Department of Agriculture, taken when Prime Minister RG Menzies officially opened the Diversion Dam on 20 July 1963.

This website records appreciation for Kevin Richards' photographs which have been made available through the goodwill and generosity of the Kununurra Historical Society.
http://www.kununurra.org.au/