A chain of rugged bush airstrips across the Kimberley is helping to open up the extraordinary attractions of Australia’s remote north-west. “Ready for a rollercoaster ride?” asks our pilot, lining up her six-seater Cessna 210 with the Mitchell Plateau’s dirt airstrip. Stomachs flip-flop in reply. There’s nothing for it but to ride out the rising thermals bucking the plane as it buzzes a forest of rare livistona fan palms and lands in what could be the middle of nowhere. See also: Perth dining: The best in the west Appropriately, it’s home to Australia’s oldest family-owned winery, Yalumba (yalumba), as well as iconic wines such as Penfolds Grange, Hill of Grace and Jacob’s Creek, plus Greenock Creek, which influential US wine critic Robert Parker declared Australia’s finest winery. The Mitchell Plateau is 340km northwest of Kununurra in the central Kimberley. We swing off the runway, coming to rest next to the “departure lounge” – a bit of shade cloth over benches – a couple of shipping containers, a drop toilet and marker cones. Despite the lack of infrastructure on the ground, it’s all action in the air. One helicopter buzzes away; another swivels and lands. Business is such that during the dry season, five Slingair Heliwork chopper pilots live out here in tents near the Mitchell Falls camping area. One of those pilots last season was Will Stinson. “Flying out in the bush offers extreme diversity and a really challenging environment, where you’re not shielded with radar and air-traffic control,” says Stinson. Pilots out here alert each other to their location and intentions via the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF). Stinson came to the Kimberley in 2009, went to the Whitsundays for two years, but returned to the north-west last season. “Once you’ve experienced the Kimberley, once you’ve drunk the water, you want to come back,” he says. “I couldn’t wait to get back up here.” Cruise ships plying the Kimberley coast provide much of the airstrip’s business. Chopper pilots scoop passengers off beaches to the north, ferrying them to the plateau for flight connections to Broome or Kununurra, or drop them off at the multi-tiered Mitchell Falls for a daytrip. Others might be heading to an air-access-only property such as Kimberley Coastal Camp on the Admiralty Gulf, a 15-minute helicopter ride to the north-east. The plateau’s strategic location makes it a key link in the Kimberley “aerial highway” – a network of bush airstrips across Australia’s vast north-west. Stretching from Broome to Kununurra, the aerial highway allows visitors to bypass the region’s notorious roads. The prospect of logging plenty of flying hours also attracts young pilots to the region. James McGregor, a pilot with sister companies Broome Aviation and Northwest Regional Airlines, estimates his Kimberley colleagues’ average age to be 22 to 23. “The best jobs for low-time pilots are in remote areas,” he says. Of his placement at Halls Creek, a base for scenic flights to the Bungle Bungles and Wolfe Creek Crater (formed by a meteorite impact two million years ago), he says: “I couldn’t believe how many hours I was putting in the logbook. You can do three or four scenic flights a day and you’ve done six or seven hours’ flying. That’s a pretty productive day. I couldn’t stay in Victoria and further my flying.” Many Kimberley piloting jobs are dry season-only,but McGregor helps service remote communities during the wet. “We’re still relied on to get people in and out, and for freight, so we have to keep a close eye on getting bogged,” he says. Other Kimberley hazards include haze, generated when lightning strikes spark fires that burn vast tracts of land. Pilots also report an assortment of wildlife on remote airstrips: from donkeys at Wyndham and kangaroos at Kalumburu to stray cattle, dingoes, emus and snakes. Some Kimberley pilots don’t need an airstrip at all – not when a patch of smooth water will do. In 2010, Adam Stoker, Leigh Rawlings and their partners got the break they needed to start their Kununurra business, Kimberley Air Tours. After an investor bankrolled their big idea, the young pilots started scenic tours showing off the Argyle diamond mine, the Bungle Bungles and Lake Argyle, where they land the float planes on the water. They also fly guests to Berkeley River Lodge, an hour from Kununurra to the north-west, landing on the river to decant passengers onto a sandy beach. On the return journey, the plane drops to 500 feet to trace the Lower Ord in search of the saltwater crocs fond of basking on its banks. Crocodiles aren’t the only sight worth looking for. The aerial highway offers arguably what is Australia’s best window-gazing: whale migrations, fiery-red pindan plains, waters the colour of Listerine, gnarled coastlines, elegant waterfalls and, of course, that big sky. “The days when the Kimberley was a hard place to access or for intrepid travellers only are gone,” says Glen Chidlow, chief executive officer of Australia’s North West Tourism. While visitor numbers remain relatively static at about 250,000 a year, what has increased are people’s options for exploring the region. Those with limited time and sufficient means are embracing the aerial highway as a way to kick-start their break. Two holidaymakers who took advantage of the aerial highway’s time-saving potential last season were Richard Rahdon, a plastic surgeon from Geelong, and his wife, Katharine, who headed to El Questro for five days to celebrate Richard’s 40th birthday. The couple flew out of Melbourne at 1.45am and took a dawn charter flight from Darwin to El Questro, landing in time for a gourmet breakfast overlooking the homestead lawns. Their diagonal crossing of the continent to the remote luxury destination took them less than eight hours.“We didn’t want to waste time getting there and getting away,” says Rahdon. “The undoing of a short break is poor connections.” On The Hop The Kimberley aerial highway leads to spectacular natural wonders: from Purnululu in the East Kimberley, fly over the striped “beehive” formations of the Bungle Bungle ranges or explore Windjana Gorge, Silent Grove (Bell Creek Gorge) and Fitzroy Crossing (Geikie Gorge). Instead of driving the unsealed Gibb River Road linking Kununurra and Derby, hop between Home Valley Station, working cattle station Mount Elizabeth, Mount Hart Homestead in the King Leopold Ranges Conservation Park and Drysdale River Station. Stay at Faraway Bay, 280km north-west of Kununurra, or Mornington Wilderness Camp in the central Kimberley. Fly to Cape Leveque, 220km north of Broome, for an Indigenous cultural tour, or to take a scenic flight over the Horizontal Waterfalls at Talbot Bay in the Buccaneer Archipelago. A chain of rugged bush airstrips across the Kimberley is helping to open up the extraordinary attractions of Australia’s remote north-west. “Ready for a rollercoaster ride?” asks our pilot, lining up her six-seater Cessna 210 with the Mitchell Plateau’s dirt airstrip. Stomachs flip-flop in reply. There’s nothing for it but to ride out the rising thermals bucking the plane as it buzzes a forest of rare livistona fan palms and lands in what could be the middle of nowhere. See also: Perth dining: The best in the west Appropriately, it’s home to Australia’s oldest family-owned winery, Yalumba (yalumba), as well as iconic wines such as Penfolds Grange, Hill of Grace and Jacob’s Creek, plus Greenock Creek, which influential US wine critic Robert Parker declared Australia’s finest winery. The Mitchell Plateau is 340km northwest of Kununurra in the central Kimberley. We swing off the runway, coming to rest next to the “departure lounge” – a bit of shade cloth over benches – a couple of shipping containers, a drop toilet and marker cones. Despite the lack of infrastructure on the ground, it’s all action in the air. One helicopter buzzes away; another swivels and lands. Business is such that during the dry season, five Slingair Heliwork chopper pilots live out here in tents near the Mitchell Falls camping area. One of those pilots last season was Will Stinson. “Flying out in the bush offers extreme diversity and a really challenging environment, where you’re not shielded with radar and air-traffic control,” says Stinson. Pilots out here alert each other to their location and intentions via the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF). Stinson came to the Kimberley in 2009, went to the Whitsundays for two years, but returned to the north-west last season. “Once you’ve experienced the Kimberley, once you’ve drunk the water, you want to come back,” he says. “I couldn’t wait to get back up here.” Cruise ships plying the Kimberley coast provide much of the airstrip’s business. Chopper pilots scoop passengers off beaches to the north, ferrying them to the plateau for flight connections to Broome or Kununurra, or drop them off at the multi-tiered Mitchell Falls for a daytrip. Others might be heading to an air-access-only property such as Kimberley Coastal Camp on the Admiralty Gulf, a 15-minute helicopter ride to the north-east. The plateau’s strategic location makes it a key link in the Kimberley “aerial highway” – a network of bush airstrips across Australia’s vast north-west. Stretching from Broome to Kununurra, the aerial highway allows visitors to bypass the region’s notorious roads. The prospect of logging plenty of flying hours also attracts young pilots to the region. James McGregor, a pilot with sister companies Broome Aviation and Northwest Regional Airlines, estimates his Kimberley colleagues’ average age to be 22 to 23. “The best jobs for low-time pilots are in remote areas,” he says. Of his placement at Halls Creek, a base for scenic flights to the Bungle Bungles and Wolfe Creek Crater (formed by a meteorite impact two million years ago), he says: “I couldn’t believe how many hours I was putting in the logbook. You can do three or four scenic flights a day and you’ve done six or seven hours’ flying. That’s a pretty productive day. I couldn’t stay in Victoria and further my flying.” Many Kimberley piloting jobs are dry season-only,but McGregor helps service remote communities during the wet. “We’re still relied on to get people in and out, and for freight, so we have to keep a close eye on getting bogged,” he says. Other Kimberley hazards include haze, generated when lightning strikes spark fires that burn vast tracts of land. Pilots also report an assortment of wildlife on remote airstrips: from donkeys at Wyndham and kangaroos at Kalumburu to stray cattle, dingoes, emus and snakes. Some Kimberley pilots don’t need an airstrip at all – not when a patch of smooth water will do. In 2010, Adam Stoker, Leigh Rawlings and their partners got the break they needed to start their Kununurra business, Kimberley Air Tours. After an investor bankrolled their big idea, the young pilots started scenic tours showing off the Argyle diamond mine, the Bungle Bungles and Lake Argyle, where they land the float planes on the water. They also fly guests to Berkeley River Lodge, an hour from Kununurra to the north-west, landing on the river to decant passengers onto a sandy beach. On the return journey, the plane drops to 500 feet to trace the Lower Ord in search of the saltwater crocs fond of basking on its banks. Crocodiles aren’t the only sight worth looking for. The aerial highway offers arguably what is Australia’s best window-gazing: whale migrations, fiery-red pindan plains, waters the colour of Listerine, gnarled coastlines, elegant waterfalls and, of course, that big sky. “The days when the Kimberley was a hard place to access or for intrepid travellers only are gone,” says Glen Chidlow, chief executive officer of Australia’s North West Tourism. While visitor numbers remain relatively static at about 250,000 a year, what has increased are people’s options for exploring the region. Those with limited time and sufficient means are embracing the aerial highway as a way to kick-start their break. Two holidaymakers who took advantage of the aerial highway’s time-saving potential last season were Richard Rahdon, a plastic surgeon from Geelong, and his wife, Katharine, who headed to El Questro for five days to celebrate Richard’s 40th birthday. The couple flew out of Melbourne at 1.45am and took a dawn charter flight from Darwin to El Questro, landing in time for a gourmet breakfast overlooking the homestead lawns. Their diagonal crossing of the continent to the remote luxury destination took them less than eight hours.“We didn’t want to waste time getting there and getting away,” says Rahdon. “The undoing of a short break is poor connections.” On The Hop The Kimberley aerial highway leads to spectacular natural wonders: from Purnululu in the East Kimberley, fly over the striped “beehive” formations of the Bungle Bungle ranges or explore Windjana Gorge, Silent Grove (Bell Creek Gorge) and Fitzroy Crossing (Geikie Gorge). Instead of driving the unsealed Gibb River Road linking Kununurra and Derby, hop between Home Valley Station, working cattle station Mount Elizabeth, Mount Hart Homestead in the King Leopold Ranges Conservation Park and Drysdale River Station. Stay at Faraway Bay, 280km north-west of Kununurra, or Mornington Wilderness Camp in the central Kimberley. Fly to Cape Leveque, 220km north of Broome, for an Indigenous cultural tour, or to take a scenic flight over the Horizontal Waterfalls at Talbot Bay in the Buccaneer Archipelago.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 07:56:55 +0000
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