It's sweet home Kununurra

PINK diamonds, indigenous art, catfish, crocodiles and bad karaoke at the local boozer - Brian Crisp experiences the best of the outback town.

Kununurra WA Escape

WELCOME to the Hotel Kununurra. Wednesday night is karaoke night here and Pete has just made an awful mistake.

Unless you can carry a tune, there are certain songs you should never attempt. Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer is one.

Pete doesn't look as if he has a great voice. I know, neither did Susan Boyle. But there's something about the way he shuffles, rather than swaggers, to the microphone, beer in hand, that tells me this is going to be a road-train wreck.

He starts. "Tommy used to work on the docks." Not too bad in the low range. Perhaps I'd misjudged him.

But then. "Whooah, we're halfway there." And he only got halfway towards hitting the high notes. His mates at the bar roared with mischievous delight, urging him on. "Take my hand and we'll make it  - I swear." The room winced in unison. It was all good fun, but while Pete might cause Seal, Joel, Delta and Keith to turn in their graves, he'd never get them to turn their chairs.

Next it was my turn.

Hotel Kununurra is a typical country pub. The main bar spills into the beer garden. Two bouncers guard the door. The place has that well-lived-in feeling about it. Nothing is new.

I knew it would be a hard crowd to win over. At a guesstimate, there are about 100 people here tonight and dress standards vary from shorts, singlets and thongs to the well-dressed local PR people who brought me here because I wanted to get a taste of the town's nightlife.

The karaoke is held in the main bar and when the DJ announces that I'm going to be singing the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic Sweet Home Alabama the crowd cheers and one woman jumps on stage and tells me she is going to be my dancer. And dance she did. Arms, legs, everything bouncing at once to the song's iconic country rock beat.

She thankfully managed to distract the crowd enough for them to forgive my singing indiscretions. I got through the song without any major disasters and as I left the stage, a group of Aborigines leaning on the pool table gave me the thumbs-up and commented "deadly brother", which is high praise in these parts.

The night belonged to me until Monday, one of the Aborigines, got up and rocked the place with a Brooks and Dunn classic. There was nothing left to do but finish my beer and retreat into the warm July night air.

On the way back to the Freshwater East Kimberley Apartments, Kununurra's best and newest accommodation, our driver points to the local service station to let us know that that's where we can pick up the best late night Chiko Roll in town if we are still hungry.

Kununurra is 3228km north of Perth. It is 3621km from Brisbane, more than 4175km from Sydney and 3950km from Melbourne.

Despite its obvious isolation, Kununurra is the gateway to the stunningly beautiful East Kimberley region and, at this time of the year, it is likely that you will find the "house full" sign out when you arrive. It is a main stop-off for Grey Nomads. These travellers spend about $500 a person during their stay in Kununurra, so provide a welcome boost to the outback economy.

Kununurra is the perfect place to base yourself if you want to explore the rugged Bungle Bungle Ranges, Lake Argyle, Purnululu National Park or the Ord River.

It is also home to some of the world's best pink diamonds and people fly into Kununurra just to shop at the Kimberley Fine Diamonds store. The pink diamonds here are without equal in the gem world and had I had a spare $250,000 I swear I would have bought those earrings as a gift.

If your budget doesn't stretch that far - and you like indigenous art - then a visit to the Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Centre should be on the agenda. The centre, in Miriwoong Country, was established by local artists in the 1980s.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard had visited Kununurra the day before and to illustrate that the town has a sense of humour, they asked her to plant a scarlet gum (it produces bright red flowers) in the town's Celebrity Tree Park. The joke was not lost on the PM. "When someone wants to plant a tree in your honour that's described as scarlet, tough and slender, you've got to go with that, don't you?" she told ABC radio.

Kununurra might not be as famous for rum as Bundaberg, but it does produce a good drop at the state's only licensed distillery, the Hoochery. The Ord River Rum, at 70.2 per cent alcohol, almost knocked my hat off, but the Cane Royal Liqueur (chocolate-flavoured rum) proved very popular sitting around the campfire a few nights later.

After the distillery, we made quick stops at Ivanhoe Crossing (made famous in the Baz Luhrmann film Australia) and Kelly's Knob to watch the sun go down, before heading 3km out of town to the PumpHouse Restaurant on the Ord River. The PumpHouse food and wine offerings were great, but it was what I saw as we left that stunned me.

One of my hosts tossed some bread close to the bank into the Ord River below. Catfish swarmed. I'd say hundreds of them. And they were big. The water bubbled as they feasted on the bread. And then a couple of crocs moved in and had themselves a catfish supper. Now that's something you don't get to see every day in the city. 

-- Brian Crisp is News Limited's National Travel Editor.

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KUNUNURRA

Getting there

Qantas flies to Broome, with Airnorth connections to Kununurra. See qantas.com.au

Staying there

The Freshwater East Kimberley Apartments offer studio, one, two and three-bedroom self-contained open-plan apartments.

Ph 1300 729 267 or see freshwaterapartments.net.au

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