Kimberley’s wildnerness is also a land of opportunity: WA Premier
The Western Australian government has sought to facilitate commercial opportunities while ensuring the wilderness and culture remain unspoilt, writes WA Premier Roger Cook.
A striking topography of black and pindan-striped, dome-shaped rocks appears on a digital billboard above New York City’s Times Square.
The sparse Martian landscape could be the set of a new Star Wars film; it’s about as far removed from the dizzying, overcrowded streets of Manhattan as imaginable.
But the scene playing over the crowd is, in fact, the Kimberley’s Bungle Bungles in the opening sequence of Tourism WA’s latest campaign, Walking on a Dream.
At this stage, the Kimberley region is a seasoned veteran of Australian tourism advertising.
The stunning Cathedral Gorge – located in the same Purnululu National Park as the Bungle Bungles – also recently featured in Tourism Australia’s campaign advertisement alongside Hamish Blake and Zoe Foster Blake.
Known by the Traditional Owners for millennia, this isolated wilderness in Australia’s northwest is progressively attracting global interest. And that’s like much of the Kimberley, a hidden treasure for those willing to make the journey. Those who do are invariably rewarded.
Understandably, tourism forms a major plank of the vision for the Kimberley region.
The Western Australian government has sought to facilitate commercial opportunities while ensuring the wilderness and culture – the very elements that make the Kimberley incredible – remain unspoilt.
Our Kimberley tourism focus is on flights, tourism infrastructure and events.
It’s a simple plan to get more people to these remote locations, offer them more accommodation options and give them more reasons to visit.
We recently welcomed the first new airline to establish in regional Western Australia in 20 years.
Nexus Airlines last month started its new service linking Broome, Kununurra and Darwin every day of the week in dry season – a Northern Australia highlights reel.
Ultimately, another airline can only improve the cost of airfares, frequency of services and quality. Such services can ensure tourists get the most out of their visits to the Kimberley, scheduling major events into their schedules and visiting multiple locations.
This month alone has four consecutive events, including A Taste of the Kimberley in Kununurra from August 18 to 20, the Broome Cup on August 19, A Taste of Broome from August 24 to 26, and the Broome annual “Festival of the Pearl”, Shinju Matsuri, from August 26 to September 10.
The vastness of the Kimberley is its main allure, but it’s also a limitation.
Incrementally, different accommodation options are arising, allowing visitors to experience these remote locations. Just as El Questro has done for 30 years.
To accelerate the expansion, my government has created an $18m fund to support development of new, environmentally sensitive accommodation options and experiences in and around national parks.
We envision eco lodges, glamping retreats and other unique accommodation offerings.
There’s immense economic opportunity for the Traditional Owners, who will be closely involved in the development of projects proposed for national parks.
Native title rights have been recognised over 91 per cent of the Kimberley.
Beyond tourism, the Kimberley region is well known for its horticulture, fishing and aquaculture, cattle farming and productive resources industry.
Much of the Kimberley is comprised of pastoral land. These vast swathes for more than a century have been used for grazing livestock. As the world transitions to a green economy, we need to ensure this land can be diversified and leveraged.
Until recently, outdated legislation prevented these remote lands from being used for other purposes. Or to allow leased grazing land to coexist with other uses.
The new legislation provides a more flexible approach to land tenure by introducing “diversification leases”.
These leases enable multiple concurrent land uses, including large scale green energy generation. This could see grazing in between wind turbines, and solar farms on pastoral stations. Or, as has been recently floated, a $3bn green hydrogen project near Kununurra in partnership with local Aboriginal corporations.
We are at a crucial moment in history, when Australia has a once-in-a-generation chance to harness the opportunities presented by the demand for critical minerals and renewable energy,
There is also opportunity for local companies to have a leading role in decarbonising, while simultaneously serving demand for low-emission commodities.
The Kimberley, with its proximity to Asia, has the potential to be a key region in this change, opening up more opportunities for local people.
Take cotton as an example. North of Kununurra, construction has started on a $60m hydroelectricity-powered cotton gin that will leverage the value of the burgeoning cotton industry. The gin will create on-farm, freight, logistics and processing jobs to supply the cotton market with lint produced by renewable energy.
There remain challenges in the Kimberley. It faces a range of social issues that have been generations in the making and will take concerted efforts of the whole region to overcome.
But there is a great deal to look forward to.
Donny Woolagoodja was the Kimberley artist behind the giant wandjina – the wide-eyed, mouthless figure that rose from the stadium at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Billions of viewers across the globe were enthralled by this excerpt of Wanjina Wunggurr culture they’d previously never heard about.
The world is once again knocking on the door of the Kimberley. We look forward to welcoming it.
Roger Cook is the Premier of Western Australia.
