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West Kimberley
Location of West Kimberley in Western Australia
Location	Western Australia, Australia
Coordinates	16.1707°S 125.7250°E / -16.1707; 125.7250
Australian National Heritage List
Official name	The West Kimberley
Type	Listed place (Natural)
Designated	31 August 2011
Reference no.	106063

West Kimberley is part of the Kimberley region within Western Australia, a significant portion of which is heritage-listed for its cultural landscape. It is an area with a wide array of fauna and flora. It connects to a long history of Indigenous Australian culture, language and knowledge. There are 127 Indigenous communities in the West Kimberley, with a further 36 communities within the Fitzroy River Valley sub region. The 420,000 square kilometre region was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 31 August 2011. The National Heritage listing of the West Kimberley recognises the natural, historic and Indigenous stories of the region that contribute to history of the nation.

History

West Kimberley has a history of continual occupation and custodianship in excess 50,000 years. Over that time the numerous Kimberley communities have faced many challenges and changes, particularly since European settlement of the region; despite these challenges the cultural traditions survive.

Contemporary scientific explanation assumes that first arrivals made short voyages between islands, mostly remaining in sight of land, before setting off on the longest stretch of the journey. They navigated sea channels up to 100 kilometres wide to reach the Sahul, the conjoined landmass of Australia and New Guinea. Archaeological evidence suggests that by at least 50,000 years ago humans had occupied all, or nearly all, parts of the Australian continent. Scientists identify the Kimberley as one of the most likely entry points for the initial migration of people from Asia to Australia. Archaeological investigations may show the Kimberley to be the first area in Australia to be inhabited by modern humans.

Archaeological finds from rock shelters indicate that early Kimberley people had a varied diet. They ate many different plants, shellfish, fish, tortoises, lizards, rodents, wallabies, possums, bandicoots and goose eggs. Marine remains, including what appear to be decorative pieces of baler shell and sections of dentalium or tusk shells (called barrgayi by Bardi and Nyul Nyul people, who still make necklaces from them), have been found in rock shelter deposits up to 500 kilometres from their source, providing evidence that trade routes linked the inland to the coast from perhaps 30,000 years ago.

Archaeological excavations in the west Kimberley have provided the earliest evidence of the intentional application of ochre onto a rock surface presently known in Australia, and one of the earliest examples anywhere in the world. Sometime before 39,700 BP, ochre was blown onto the roof of a rock shelter in a similar method to that used by Aboriginal people in Australia today.

The most dramatic change to the Kimberley landscape since people arrived began after the Last Glacial Maximum of the late Pleistocene, around 22,000 years ago, Australia remained largely free of permanent ice during this period of global glaciation. The Fitzroy River floodplain, which was to be an important centre of life for many generations of Kimberley people, started to form with sea levels stabilising at around their current levels by about 9,000 years ago.

These changes occurred over a number of human generations, transforming the landscape and resources available to people living in many parts of the Kimberley, much of this is documented in the cultural stories about country.

Indigenous story

Kimberley Aboriginal people believe that their traditional countries have been formed during an era of creation often described in English as the "Dreamtime". During the Dreaming both the natural and human world are formed coterminously by ancestral creator beings who are manifestations of powerful spiritual forces that permeate the cosmos. The Dreaming is not a theory of creation out of nothing: before the Dreaming, the world was already in existence, but it was unformed or "soft" as some Kimberley Aboriginal people explain.

In contrast to ontological views of the West, the Indigenous story of creation is non-linear in the sense that aspects of the present are considered both to affirm and to re-enact the events of the Dreaming. The Dreaming exists in a continuous past-present-future continuum, in what Stanner (1987) calls "the everywhen".

Each Kimberley Aboriginal society has a rich body of religious narratives that concern the Dreaming. While such narratives are distinct for each of these societies, they all contain accounts of creator beings who "gave" them their laws and customs. Importantly, across the Kimberley, these narratives describe how ancestral creator beings have "made" the Indigenous countries that compose the west Kimberley region. During their many travels and other exploits, such beings are said to have carved out the rivers, lifted up mountains and transformed themselves into rock formations and other features of the land, the sea and the sky.

Some of the ways in which these Dreaming-derived laws and beliefs are transmitted from generation to generation are in the form of traditional narratives, art forms, and enactments through dance and song. Aboriginal children are taught these laws through "wudu" or observation and practice. These verbal and visual expressions tell the history or stories of Kimberley Aboriginal people. In the words of one Bardi woman "they are living stories; they are the spirit of us". As integral strands in a broader corpus of Aboriginal being and knowing, stories are forceful social expressions. Explaining this relationship between power and knowledge, a senior Wunambal man stated:

"the story can't be told just anyway, anytime, people can get killed if they have the wrong information, and do not know how to respect the place, the place is still alive". As this traditional owner's comments imply, the reproduction of stories has serious implications and sometimes dangerous consequences."

So while some stories are public, others are more restricted in their use. Kimberley Aboriginal people have carefully considered the kind and nature of the stories they have contributed towards this National Heritage listing of the west Kimberley.

The Wanjina-Wunggurr people of the north-west Kimberley - which includes the language countries of the Worrorra, Ngarinyin, Unggumi, Umida, Unggarrangu, Wunambal, and Gaambera - explain that one of the most important activities of the powerful creator beings, Wanjina (Wandjina) and the Wunggurr Snake, is their role in "making" the country. Like other aspects of their belief system, the Wanjina-Wunggurr people and indeed all Aboriginal people's concept of "country" stands in stark contrast to Western views.

European arrival

Telegram from 1907 requesting that arsenic be sent to Broome to exterminate Aborigines

European settlers saw the Kimberley's vast tropical landscape as the last frontier: a remote place with lush river floodplains ideally suited to pastoralism. To the European eye, this untapped, undeveloped wilderness was rich with opportunity and ready for exploitation. But the Kimberley was already occupied by Aboriginal people who were the country's owners and custodians.

Geography

River in flood through the King Leopold Ranges, 1969

The Kimberley occupies more than 420,000 square kilometres on the north-western margin of the Australian continent. Its rocky coastline edges the Indian Ocean, and off the coast lie thousands of islands, many fringed with coral. In the wet north-west, the Mitchell Plateau (Ngauwudu) rises to nearly 800 metres above sea level at its centre, in places dropping into steep escarpments, and losing altitude as it approaches the sea. Further south, Yampi Peninsula lies in a transitional area between the high-rainfall of tropical north Kimberley and the drier conditions characteristic of central Western Australia. These different environments meet in a complex landscape of plains, dissected sandstone plateaus, and rugged mountains. The central Kimberley, which includes the periphery of north Kimberley plateau country and the King Leopold Ranges, is very rugged; the physical structures here were formed by significant geological events which folded rocks intensely, many thousands of millions of years ago. That such evidence of a distant past can today be seen so clearly in the landscape is due to the region's remarkable geological stability.

This stability has also allowed the much more recent appearance of extensive limestone ranges, built from the remains of an extraordinary reef complex which, over 300 million years ago, rivalled the Great Barrier Reef in size. The ranges have since eroded to form complex networks of caves and tunnels. Dinosaur footprints and tracks are another remarkable remnant of past life in the Kimberley; they are exposed in many places in the Broome Sandstone, along the western length of Dampier Peninsula. This coastline is subject to one of the highest tidal ranges anywhere in the world, and many of the fossil footprints can only be seen for short periods during very low tides. Inland of Dampier Peninsula, south of the broad floodplains of the Fitzroy River, the distinctive red of the pindan country opens onto a vast expanse of desert.

Throughout the Kimberley, where water meets land - in estuaries, mangroves and mudflats, in moist vine thickets, along the banks of rivers and creeks, around waterholes or soaks - there is an abundance of plants and animals, some of which live only in the Kimberley, while others may have travelled from the far side of the world to nest or breed here. Animals rely on these refuges to congregate, feed, rest and reproduce. Such places also sustain Aboriginal people: for millennia these places have had important subsistence and sacred values, and have been the focus of ecological knowledge and traditional practices over seasons and lifetimes, for millennia.

Geologists explain the formation of the Kimberley in terms of physical forces which have shaped present landforms over thousands of millions of years: the movement of continental plates; shifts in climate and sea level; and the action of wind, water and ice on rock. Geologists situate change in geological periods, which are defined with reference to global geological and evolutionary developments. These explanations are published in written form, are sometimes disputed, and may be revised or refined over time on the basis of new evidence, or new methods of interpreting existing evidence.

Geological origins

The geological origins of the Kimberley reach back to a period when life was first evolving in Earth's oceans, before the appearance of multicelled organisms. Geologists believe that the oldest rocks in the west Kimberley, which now lie in the Lennard Hills, were formed between 1,920 and 1,790 million years ago. During much of this time, a significant portion of the west Kimberley was part of a separate, larger continent located to the north of what would become the Australian continent, but drifting towards it.

About 1,880 million years ago, these two continents collided in an event now known as the Hooper Orogeny, causing major upheavals in Earth's crust and forming a mountain range - the King Leopold orogen - not unlike the modern Andes. Today, rocks which were part of the Hooper Orogeny are spectacularly exposed along the Kimberley coastline. The collision produced huge volumes of molten rock (magma). Much of this magma spewed as lava from erupting volcanoes, while some remained within the crust and over time solidified to form granite and gabbro. The tremendous forces created by the collision were enough to buckle rocks into folds and break them along faults. Some rocks were buried deep in the crust, where the intense pressure and temperature transformed them into minerals such as garnet and mica. Where conditions were most intense, the rocks melted. Over time, the mountain range created by this collision was weathered by wind and rain. Huge amounts of sediment washed or blown into the shallow seas and rivers of the Kimberley Basin hardened through temperature and pressure into extensive sedimentary rocks.

Around 1,000 million years ago, the southern edge of the ancient Kimberley landmass (represented by the rocks of the greater Kimberley Plateau) moved south against the Pilbara Craton, heating, folding and faulting rocks. The renewed contact again led to the formation of a series of mountains. Rocks showing evidence of this event can be seen on Yampi Peninsula.

From around 850 to 630 million years ago, during the "Cryogenic" period of the Neoproterozoic era, a series of intense ice ages gripped much of Earth, interspersed with episodes of runaway greenhouse conditions. Glacial deposits from approximately 700 million years ago are well preserved in the Kimberley. About 630 million years ago at the beginning of the Ediacaran period, the glaciers thawed. An array of complex multicelled organisms is preserved in rocks from this period, known as the Ediacara biota. The Ediacara biota bore almost no resemblance to modern organisms; it appears to have been dominated by soft-bodied animals resembling segmented worms, fronds, disks, and immobile bags. The fossil remains of these organisms have been found in all parts of the world. As waves of evolutionary change were washing over life in Earth's oceans, the southern supercontinent Gondwana was also under construction, and was finally assembled by around 520 million years ago.

Between 600 and 500 million years ago, the Halls Creek Fault system formed, which today extends across much of northern Australia, from Darwin to the Great Sandy Desert. Movement on either side of the fault resulted in the spectacular folding of the King Leopold Range. As the range rose, the epicontinental sea in the Kimberley and Pilbara basins to the south deepened.

Around 540 million years ago, the Ediacara biota rapidly disappeared, and was replaced by a new suite of organisms, which may have arisen very suddenly in what is known as the "Cambrian explosion", although there is evidence that a number of Ediacara fauna were ancestral to Cambrian species. During the Cambrian period, life in Earth's oceans seems to have undergone an exceptional increase in diversity and complexity, as seen in the fossilised remains of many different forms of plants and animals which have been preserved from this time. Most of the increase occurred in shallow seas, such as that which filled the Kimberley and Pilbara basins. The Canning Basin formed as a result of intracratonic sagging in these basins during the early Ordovician period. Another series of global extinction events occurred between 448 and 443 million years ago during the Ordovician and Silurian periods, with the loss of more than half of the Cambrian marine genera.

Devonian Period

The Devonian period, from 416 million years ago to around 359 million years ago, was characterised by a great increase in diversity of fish. The first fossils of ray-finned and lobe-finned bony fish are dated to the Devonian. From around 397 million years ago, there is evidence that some fish evolved limb-like structures and began to move onto land. Vascular plants diversified and became more widespread on land. In the late Frasnian to early Famennian stage of the Devonian, around 364 million years ago, many fish species became extinct. A second, strong extinction pulse closed the Famennian, and the Devonian period. These extinctions primarily affected organisms that lived in shallow, warm water marine environments - most significantly, the reef-builders of the great Devonian reef systems. The reasons for these extinctions are not known.

Windjana Gorge, 2005

Even more than an "age of fish", the Devonian was the age of reefs and reef builders. The Lennard Shelf, a tropical carbonate shelf which formed part of the shallow continental sea filling the Canning Basin, was the site of one of the most remarkable, rich and abundant barrier reef systems of the Devonian period. From about 390 million years ago, reefs fringed three sides of the Kimberley Plateau landmass. The main reef may have been as much as 1,400 kilometres long - comparable to today's Great Barrier Reef, which extends for just over 2,000 kilometres. Today, the remains of the Devonian reef are preserved in outcrops up to 50 kilometres wide, which occur for 350 kilometres along the northern margin of the Canning Basin, in the Oscar, Napier, Emmanuel and Pillara ranges. These ranges run parallel to the King Leopold Ranges from near Derby to Fitzroy Crossing, and extend almost as far as Halls Creek. The King Leopold Ranges represent the ancient continental coast. Limestone outcrops, which reach heights of up to 300 metres above sea level, give a sense of the magnitude of the reefs that once occupied this part of the Kimberley. The features they preserve are diverse, and include shores and inlets, islands and archipelagos, platforms and atolls. The Lennard and Fitzroy rivers expose spectacular reef cross sections at Windjana and Geikie gorges. The Proterozoic rocks of the Oscar Range, an outlier of the King Leopolds, was an archipelago during the late Devonian, and preserves many reef features in intricate detail.

As well as providing a sense of the grandeur of the Devonian reef system, fossils also preserve intimate and exact details of the individual organisms that built and occupied these reefs and the shallow seas that supported them. In particular the Gogo Formation, a limestone formation of the Lennard Shelf, contains spectacular and abundant fossils of fish that lived in deeper water, seaward of the reefs. Nearly 50 species have been described so far, and work is ongoing. The fish fossils mostly occur below the surface of the formation within "Gogo nodules" that sometimes become exposed when the surrounding rock is weathered out. The preservation of these fish is exceptional: their fossils are near-complete, with three-dimensional skeletons. Soft tissue features of the fish have been preserved here, intact, for over 300 million years.

Following sea level retreat around the world, between 310 and 270 million years ago glaciers of the Permo-Carboniferous ice age, which covered much of Earth in sheets of ice, buried the remains of the Devonian reef and laid down sedimentary rocks in the Canning Basin. As sub-glacial ice melted, water reacted with the carbonate structures of the reef and began to hollow out the maze of caves and tunnels which now form the extensive karst systems of the Kimberley limestone ranges. The reef was buried under glacial sediments for millions of years, before uplift eventually exposed it once more.

The end of the Permian is defined by a mass extinction of an unprecedented scale, informally known as "the great dying". More than 90 per cent of all marine species disappeared from the fossil record and 70 per cent of terrestrial vertebrate species. However, it ushered in the Mesozoic era, the "age of dinosaurs". By the Triassic period, beginning around 245 million years ago, the grip of cold, arid glacial conditions had given way. From around 200 million years ago, in the early Jurassic period, the Kimberley Plateau once again formed part of a large island landmass, separated from the Northern Australian and Pilbara cratons by an inland sea. During the Cretaceous period, many species of dinosaurs occupied the area. As dinosaurs walked over swampy ground about 130 million years ago, they left tracks, some of which are preserved as fossils in the Broome Sandstone and exposed along the west coast of Dampier Peninsula. Fossilised remains of plants and pollens are found along with the tracks, which allow geologists to estimate their age. Plant remains and depositional features of the sandstone show the range of environments that these dinosaurs inhabited, which included rich lagoonal forests, estuaries, swamps and riverine areas.

The early Cretaceous coastal plain and drainage were roughly parallel to the existing Dampier Peninsula coastline: "on the landward (eastern) side of the coastal plain a few small lakes and swampy areas intervened among groves of ferns, while on higher ground there was open forest dominated by cycads. In a few places there were stretches of flood debris (pebbles and boulders) and sheets of sand blown out from the continental interior. On the seaward (westward) side of the coastal plain there was a series of open lagoons, with very shallow water, intermittently drained free and exposed to the air".

Today's form

Beach at Cape Leveque

Today, the Broome Sandstone is exposed discontinuously for around 200 kilometres on the western coast of Dampier Peninsula, from the bird observatory at Roebuck Bay north to Cape Leveque. At most places where this rock formation has been uncovered, whether by gradual erosion or the pounding of cyclonic seas, dinosaur footprints have been found. At least 15 different types of footprints are recognised, making this one of the most diverse collections of trace fossils in the world. At some sites, short sections of trackways (sequences of prints recording the movement of one or more animals) can be detected.

Sauropods are the most common source of the prints found in this region. Sauropods were four-legged herbivorous dinosaurs, best known in the form of Diplodocus or Brachiosaurus (both found in the western United States). The sauropod prints found at Dampier Peninsula include some of the largest in the world, at 1.75 metres long, as well as some of the smallest. They are the only sauropod tracks known in Australia. The most publicised footprints, however, are the three-toed (tridactyl) prints, which can be seen at low tide in the intertidal zone of the rocky shore at Gantheaume Point, near Broome. Vertebrate palaeontologists and trace fossil experts consider that the range of prints and trackways found along the Kimberley coast, together with their environmental settings, is internationally outstanding. The dinosaur traces and other fossil prints in the area are culturally significant to Aboriginal people. Public statements and scientific access has been restricted due to fear of theft, after a slab containing footprints was stolen in 1996. Study has been limited by the difficulty of reaching the tracks, which are often located in the intertidal zone, and are intermittently buried and uncovered by storm surges shifting large quantities of sand.

Around 160 million years ago, as Gondwana began to break apart, rift valleys formed down the western Australian coast and between Australia and the Indian continent. Sea levels rose, flooding the Great Artesian Basin. As Gondwana fractured over tens of millions of years, rifting opened wide areas of ocean between the previously joined landmasses of India, Antarctica and Australia. The Australian landmass has been a separate island continent since about 55 million years ago.

At the end of the Mesozoic, the non-avian dinosaurs vanished all over the world, along with the winged reptiles and many marine species. Inland seas once again retreated and Australia migrated north to its current position following separation from Antarctica. Despite these changes to Australia and the world, the topography of the Kimberley has remained essentially the same as when it formed part of Gondwana. Geologists believe there has been only limited tectonic movement and deformation in the Kimberley since the Devonian period began, over 400 million years ago, although there has been some uplift. This means that features such as the Devonian reef system, the glaciated landscapes of the late Carboniferous period and the varied environments of the Mesozoic era (including dinosaur trackways recorded in the Broome Sandstone) have been relatively undisturbed in the landscape.

In the absence of any major mountain-building events, water, wind and ice work to wear down the surfaces of a landscape, eventually producing a nearly-flat topography only broken by isolated hills. Geologists refer to this process as "planation". In the Kimberley, the oldest planation surface - the Kimberley High Surface - is thought to have formed around 200 million years ago, though some researchers have argued that this surface predates the Neoproterozoic glaciation, which would make it as much as 700 million years old. The remains of the High Surface can be seen today on the highest mesas of the plateaus of the north Kimberley, such as Mount Hann at 776 metres. Peaks within the King Leopold and Durack ranges, including Mount Ord at 937 metres, were once hills which stood above this surface.

Between 200 and 100 million years ago, uplift and then erosion of the Kimberley High Surface formed a second, lower planation surface - the Kimberley Low Surface. From 70 to 50 million years ago Australia moved into tropical latitudes, and the warmer climate and heavy rain leached the soil of the Kimberley Low Surface and led to the formation of laterite, a hard capping of minerals. Twenty million years ago, as Australia continued its journey north towards Asia, the Kimberley Low Surface was uplifted. Fast-flowing water rushing down these newly created steep slopes cut deep gorges and other features that are visible today in the northern coastal regions of the Kimberley, including the spectacular cliff walls and waterfalls of the lower reaches of the King George and King Edward rivers. The uplifted Kimberley Low Surface has been gradually worn down to form the hills and valleys found in the lower altitude country around the edge of the North Kimberley plateaus, while the original Low Surface is preserved in the vicinity of Halls Creek. A new planation surface has not yet developed.

Features

"we call it a gift, it's all been brought to us from Wanjina. That's the Law, we have always had it. Wanjina gave it in a way for us to appreciate it. The stories can't be put in and out, this is religion. It's the very highest point, what we are, what created us. It's religious country."

Rock art stories

In many parts of the Kimberley, ancestral spirits have transformed themselves into paintings in the numerous caves and rock shelters that dot the region's landscape. These painted images have attracted much interest from the outside world since the arrival of the first European explorers and are considered to be one of the longest and most complex rock art sequences anywhere in the world. For the Wanjina-Wunggurr community these painted images play a crucial role in demarcating social boundaries, connecting individuals and local groups to local countries, which anthropologists call clan estates; and connecting Wanjina-Wunggurr people to their conception sites and language countries. Capricious and harmful spirits whose painted images often occur at these rock art sites are a constant reminder of the disorder that failure to follow traditional laws can bring.

To outsiders the paintings of the Wanjina are most prominent: the large-eyed, mouthless, anthropomorphic beings depicted with a halo-like ring encircling their heads that appear alone or in groups, some of them walking the earth, others floating in the sky. Painted with natural earth pigments often on a white background that is typically a wash of the mineral huntite, some Wanjina are truly monumental, extending up to six metres across the walls and ceilings of rock shelters. The human-like paintings of Wanjina were first brought to the attention of the outside world by Lieutenant (later Sir) George Grey during his explorations in the Kimberley in 1837. A painted figure reproduced by Grey "was to become the most historically significant Aboriginal rock painting recorded by Europeans in the nineteenth century".

Bradshaw rock paintings

Perhaps equally well known are the elegant human-like painted images of the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro, commonly referred to as Bradshaw figures, named after Joseph Bradshaw. For Wanjina-Wunggurr people, the Wanjina and Gwion Gwion paintings are of significance to them in accordance with their practices, observances, customs, traditions, beliefs and history. For Balanggarra people, the Girrigirro painted images are also an important component of their contemporary culture. However, unlike the traditional owners of the Wanjina-Wunggurr country, Balanggarra do not associate Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro with Wanjina. Nor do they consider them to be paintings that were "put there" by spirit beings during the Dreaming. Instead, they believe that these paintings were produced by their own ancestors and that they depict the aspects of their earlier everyday life.

Wanjina and associated paintings found in caves and rock shelters across the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland are ritually repainted in order to ensure the regeneration of country as well as the ongoing continuity of Wanjina-Wunggurr society. Wanjina-Wunggurr and Balanggarra people continue to pass on their traditional knowledge to the next generation through the production of art in community art centres across the region.

Paintings in rock shelters are not the only physical manifestations of creator beings. For Wanjina-Wunggurr people, Wanjina have made their mark all across the country; they have shaped the course of rivers, raised mountain ranges, and changed themselves into other features of the land, sea and sky, where particular events took place. One such event was a battle between a Wanjina known as Namarali and local coastal Wanjina at a place called Langgi. After Namarali arrived on the coast in Worrorra country he established his dominance and the Wanjina with whom he was doing battle transformed themselves into the elongated stone boulders that dot this rocky coastal beach today. Sometimes Wanjinas leave their image on boab trees. Wanjina are also seen as cumulo-nimbus clouds, which are a dramatic presence in the sky during the build-up to the wet season. They also appear in the night sky, for instance as Wallanganda, the Milky Way Wanjina. Like Wanjina, the Wunggurr Snake also appears in the form of numerous rock formations and manifests as islands, reefs, and waves in the sea.

Geikie Gorge

Geikie Gorge, 2015

Many visitors to the region are drawn by the Kimberley's dramatic and beautiful scenery. One place that is well recognised for its aesthetic values is known as Geikie Gorge or Danggu by its Bunuba Aboriginal traditional owners. Danggu lies in the south-west Kimberley, at the junction of the Oscar and Geikie ranges, where limestone that was once a reef is cut by the flow of the Fitzroy River into a 30-metre deep, sheer-walled gorge. This permanent pool on the Fitzroy is an important wetland and refuge area for freshwater and marine fish, especially in times of drought. It is a spectacular place, with colourful cliffs and sculptured rock, its deep waters lined by lush vegetation. The gorge features in many tourist brochures and travel itineraries, and because of its easy accessibility receives over 30,000 visitors each year.

A visitor to Geikie Gorge can gain a sense of the great antiquity of the Kimberley landscape and the complex history of its formation. The limestone ranges, formed from the ancient barrier reef system, wind across the country between 50 and 100 metres above the surrounding plains, in much the same way that the reef would have reared above the ancient Devonian sea floor more than 370 million years ago. From the air, it is easy to imagine that the sea has just withdrawn, leaving the reefs uncovered. Fossils of ancient reef fauna can be seen in the rocky outcrops, showing glimpses of life from the time before reptiles or mammals evolved. In the gorge itself, the reflective surface of the water hides and reveals an abundance of life - fish, turtles, yabbies and freshwater crocodiles swim here, and birds nest in forest alongside the river and take what they need from its pool and banks.

But Geikie Gorge is much more than a beautiful national park. For the Bunuba people, Danggu is a cultural refuge within the catchment of the Fitzroy River, a place of deep spiritual significance created by its resident Rainbow Snake or Wunggurru. The gorge is located in a section of the river known as Bandaralngarri, which extends north from the "Old Crossing" in Fitzroy Crossing to Dimond Gorge. The name is derived from bandaral, the silver-leafed melaleuca which lines the river in this area and was used to construct log rafts for travelling short distances.

Danggu is also the name given to the large limestone boulder (another name is Linyjiya) located in the middle of Geikie Gorge - this is a Dreamtime place associated with a resident Wunggurru, or Rainbow Snake. The boulder is a Malay, an increase place, critical to maintaining the abundance of fish in Geikie Gorge, and is an important ceremonial and fishing spot for Bunuba people. At sand patches within Danggu, Bunuba people camped and held ceremonies with other river people from the surrounding region. Such ceremonies are still held today. Like many places in the Kimberley, Danggu has darker resonances too. A massacre of Bunuba people took place here in the late nineteenth century, and stories of this event are still recalled by the living.

Geikie Gorge is described here not for its undeniable uniqueness and aesthetic appeal, but because it is like so many places in the Kimberley - complex, layered in meaning, valued by different people for different reasons, and associated with many and varied stories.

Throughout the west Kimberley, geological activity and geological stability have spectacularly shaped and preserved the landscape over hundreds of millions of years, and scientists identify significant biodiversity values. While visitors are struck by its ancient beauty, the land, sea and sky of the Kimberley, and the diversity of life there, hold profound spiritual meaning for its traditional owners. Aboriginal law and culture remain strong across the Kimberley, even in the face of a shared history of violent disruption brought by colonisation.

Climate

Tracks of all tropical cyclones in the southeastern Indian Ocean between 1980 and 2005

Each year the West Kimberley is subject to the monsoonal patterns of the tropics which have wet and dry season. The dry season is characterised by clear skies, cool nights and no rain; the wet season is hot and humid with rain, thunderstorms, and cyclones. Where the ground is sandy and porous, water soaks through to recharge underground aquifers, and spreads out forming broad seasonal floodplains, renewing plant and animal life. In the higher, rockier country of the north Kimberley, water masses and pours into mighty rivers that gush to the sea with tremendous force, carrying huge volumes of sediment, reshaping beaches and mudflats. It is not just the visible landscape that changes: during the oppressive build-up to the wet, the volume and variety of bird calls increases, and the piercing drone of cicadas fills the humid air. When the rains start, frogs greet them with raucous song.

Six seasons in Nyikina country

The Nyikina people, whose country encompasses the lower reaches of the Fitzroy River, follow a calendar which describes six seasons. The Nyikina seasons are defined by reference to changes occurring to flora and fauna. (Seasonal timing varies; months are an approximation.)

• Wilakarra (December to February) - Wilakarra, around Christmas time, is the wet season. When it starts to rain, it is spinifex time, moordoon, when all the spinifex turns green and Nyikina people use it to make wax, called limirri, for fixing spearheads and other tools. Koongkara (conkerberry) and magabala (bush banana) start flowering. Around February, when green berries are growing on the koongkara, little orange beetles climb all over the koongkara bush, making the berries ripe. In March or April, when the beetles have done their job, the conkerberries are ripe and people can start to eat them.
• Koolawa (March to May) - "Knockem down rain" comes at the end of the wet season, before it goes into Koolawa time, the start of winter. Yabooloongarra is the name for grass after it is knocked down. During koolawa, the colour of the morning sky changes, so that it looks like the colour of the ground, of the sand. After knockem down rain the smaller birds start nesting: honey birds and little parrots, kinykiny (budgerigar). The bigger birds start to mate, and they look for hollow trees to nest in. Going into May the wind changes, the Seven Sisters start to appear again, and some of the wattle trees begin to flower, going into Jirrbal.
• Jirrbal (May to June) - At this time the Seven Sisters come out early in the morning. The bright pinpoint light of these stars warns that cold weather is on the way.
• Wilbooroo (June to August) - Trees begin to flower. Warimba (bohemia), nganybarl (bush orange) and koolbarn (a kind of wattle) are all in bloom. Some of the flowers tell you it is time for crocodile eggs, and that birds are starting to nest. At the end of July, when koolbarn leaves turn green, the cold weather is coming to an end.
• Barrkana (September) - Warimba flowers dry up, and kardookardoo (whitewood) flowers begins. Kardookardoo flower is the main food for cockatoos while they're nesting. Crocodiles and snakes are laying eggs and soon their young will hatch. The pods on the warimba tree go red, and when they start to dry that's the start of Lalin.
• Lalin (October to December) - This is the buildup to the rainy season. White gums and coolibahs, walarriy (white river gum) and majala (freshwater mangrove) are all in flower.

Biota

Because of its proximity to Broome, Dampier Peninsula is one of the best-researched areas in the west Kimberley for ethnobiology - traditional knowledge about native species and natural systems. Over the past 70 years, researchers have collaborated with elders, particularly Bardi elders who live in and near Broome, to record details such as plant names, and the methods of preparation and use of important species. They have also recorded information about the seasons and seasonal cycles of plant and animal use. On Dampier Peninsula, as throughout the Kimberley, plants have provided Aboriginal people with food and medicine, and the raw materials used to construct weapons, ornaments and shelters.

A range of important food species have been recorded from Dampier Peninsula. Acacia, the most broadly distributed and abundant plant group, is an important and versatile resource. Acacia seeds can be roasted and eaten, or collected dry and ground into flour. Acacias are also a source of medicine, and their branches are used by the Bardi and other groups for making spears, boomerangs and shelters. One species - Acacia wickhami - has strong-smelling leaves that are tied through a hair belt when swimming, and reputedly act as a shark repellent, which people wear when recovering turtles.

A number of Terminalia species are highly prized for their fruit and seeds, and some also have medicinal properties. Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana), known as Arungal, Mador or Gubinge in Bardi and Gabiny in Nyul-Nyul, is thought to have the highest vitamin C of any known food: its fruit contains more than 50 times the vitamin C of oranges. The fruit, seeds and gum are all eaten, and an infusion is made from the bark to treat rheumatism, sores and itchy bites. Another tree called Joolal in Bardi and Jilangen or Joolangen in Nyul-Nyul (Terminalia canescens), produces a highly prized edible gum. Branches are used in constructing shelters, and are a good source of hot-burning firewood. The pindan quondong (Terminalia cunninghami), known as Jamdalngorr by Bardi people and Gumpja by Karrajarri people at Bidyadanga south of Broome, also has an excellent tasting edible seed. This tree has recently been cultivated, along with Kakadu plum, in an orchard south of Broome.

Species of fig, which grow in and around Broome and elsewhere on Dampier Peninsula, provide many useful resources. Shields are made from mature tree trunks, and string is woven from the outer bark of aerial roots. Fruit is eaten raw when ripe. One species (Ficus opposita, the sandpaper fig) shares its Bardi name with the rough-skinned black swordfish, Ranyja. Ranyja has a sweet edible fruit and, as its common name suggests, its leaves can be used as sandpaper.

Some plant species are highly regarded for their medicinal properties. Eucalypt gum is used to treat sore teeth and gums. The bark and wood of Lysiphyllum cunninghamii (Kimberley bauhinia) known as Jooma or Jigal in Bardi, are an antispectic, and a remedy for headache and fever. Owenia reticulata (desert walnut), known as Lambilamb in Bardi and Limbalim in Nyul-Nyul, is reputed to have powerful medicinal qualities, and is used to treat rheumatism, cuts and sores. The Bardi rub their feet with leaves of Wudarr (Gardenia pyriformis) to protect them against cuts from the reef and stonefish stings.

Caring for and regenerating country

There are a number of important rituals regularly performed by Kimberley people that maintain the "brightness" of country, including the "freshening" (repainting) of Wanjina rock art, burning off the bush, cleaning certain places (for example, the graves of deceased relations), and "talking to" resident spirit beings. Kimberley people also regularly visit places in the country so that country does not "get lonely" or, in the case of shelters and caves along estuarine river systems, "hide themself" from traditional owners. Caring for country also requires the asking and giving of permission to access country, as well as rituals that welcome, introduce, or re-introduce people to country. When traditional owners invite outsiders to visit country with them, they smoke their guests. This eliminates foreign scents and allows the country to recognize the visitors. These rituals reflect the sentient nature of country which will protect people it recognizes as belonging to it, or people who have been properly introduced and smoked by the country's traditional owners.

In the Kimberley, the diversity of the biological environment is paralleled by the diversity of the cultural and linguistic environment. Linguists have shown that languages spoken north of the Fitzroy River are different from those classified as the "Pama-Nyungen" languages, spoken everywhere else on the Australian continent. Kimberley Aboriginal people typically have multiple affiliations based on their language groups and their numerous connections to country: ranging from specific sites to large tracts of country. These connections include knowledge of Dreaming stories across the Kimberley that tell of the creation of country and its features, plants, animals and people by ancestral creation beings.

Archaeology

Archaeologists have studied rock shelters which were occupied during this time, and found that people adapted to change in a range of ways, including by altering the species of plants they consumed. Further study of such sites in the Kimberley could assist in better reconstructing how people responded to this environmental transformation, as well as to subsequent cycles of climatic change associated with la Niña and el Niño events, experienced over the past 10,000 years.

Scientists believe that the Kimberley landscape formed both by gradual processes of geological and climate change, and by much more rapid events. Evidence along the north-west coast of Australia suggests that, as recently as the seventeenth century, a powerful tsunami hit the Kimberley coast, generating waves that travelled up to 35 kilometres inland, with water reaching as far as the Great Sandy Desert. This may have been the result of a meteorite falling into the Indian Ocean. The whole Kimberley coastline shows the after effects of being swamped by a catastrophic wave. The tsunami's impact on the many Aboriginal groups who lived along the coast, and even those well inland, must have been immense, and this impact may be reflected in stories that still tell of this terrible event.

A natural and cultural refuge

For the people who live here, whether traditional owners or more recent arrivals, the west Kimberley is home; for scientists, it is largely a tantalising unknown. The Kimberley is vast and remote from southern centres. Travel is difficult during the wet season, and many parts cannot be reached by ordinary means of transport at any time of year. Along the coast, there are saltwater crocodiles and massive, powerful tides. The west Kimberley coast, particularly at King Sound and Roebuck Bay, has the greatest tidal range of any coastal area in Australia, and one of the greatest in the world. Spring tides can reach up to 12 metres, and there are two tidal cycles each day. The west Kimberley is also remarkable for having the most convoluted coastline in Australia: it is composed of an enormous number of islands, bays, coves and inlets, which appear as an impossible tangle of lines on a map.

While most of the region has not yet been studied in detail, what survey work has taken place indicates that the Kimberley is home to a highly diverse range of plants and animals, and includes many species that live nowhere else (endemics), as well as species that are under threat or have now disappeared elsewhere in Australia. Some of the factors that make the Kimberley most challenging to study also make it a refuge - providing greater resilience from introduced species and human actions, from seasonal scarcity, and from longer term changes in climate - allowing unique communities of species to thrive.

Kimberley country ranges from coastal mangroves and eucalypt woodlands, through rugged ranges, flat-topped mesas and deep gorges, to rich pockets of rainforest and savanna grasslands. Rainfall, geology, topography, soil types, and associated plants and animals all vary significantly between the coast and inland, and from north to south. For descriptive purposes, the west Kimberley mainland is divided into four regions, reflecting changes in rainfall and geology: the north Kimberley, including the Mitchell Plateau and the northern and north-western coastline; Yampi Peninsula; central Kimberley, which includes the King Leopold, Napier, Oscar, Pillara and Emmanuel ranges; and the south-west, made up of Dampier Peninsula and the catchment of the Fitzroy River. The multitude of islands and reefs and other outstanding marine features which lie off the coast are also described.

North Kimberley

The north Kimberley is an extensive area of rugged tablelands and distinctive flat-topped mesas stretching from Cape Londonderry in the north to Harding Range in the south, and includes the Carson Escarpment, Mitchell Plateau (Ngauwudu to its Wanjina-Wunggurr traditional owners) and Gardner Plateau. This is the wettest part of the Kimberley: between 1,100 and 1,500 millimetres of rain falls on average each year, mostly in the summer months. The area has high biodiversity values, including the richest mammal populations in the west Kimberley, and is home to many endemic species. The greatest diversity of plant and animal species in the Kimberley is found in the coastal strip from the Mitchell Plateau north-east to Drysdale River.

The geology of the north Kimberley is dominated by sandstones, dolerites and other volcanic rocks. Ancient rocks usually buried deep below Earth's surface are exposed here. In places, these basement strata have been worn through by rivers, showing both the long geological stability of the region which has allowed such features to be retained, and the power unleashed by the annual wet season. Unlike the more porous, sandier country in the southern Kimberley, the rocky landscapes of the north continue to hold surface water during the dry season: pools are common in creeks, and both springs and rivers continue to flow year round. These are important dry season refuges for many animals, particularly birds and fish.

In the north Kimberley, the King George River provides a dramatic corridor of access from the ocean to the foot of the King George Falls, about 12 kilometres upstream from Koolama Bay. The river has cut a deep gorge in the surrounding rock, creating striking orange sandstone cliffs, between 80 and 100 metres tall. Two high waterfalls spill from a rocky plateau down vertical, rocky cliff faces into deep water in the river; in the wet season these falls carry spectacular volumes of water, and the sound of their deluge can be deafening.

The soils of the north Kimberley are sandy and sparse. Where there is enough soil, grassy woodlands grow: woollybutt (Eucalyptus miniata) and Darwin stringybark trees (Eucalyptus tetrodonta) shade high Sorghum and hummock grasses (Plectrachne schnizii). Many large, open, flat pavements are formed from sandstone and laterite, and carry little or no soil. These pavements seem sterile, lifeless places during the long dry season, but the deluge of wet season rains turns the pavements into temporary pools. After the rains, many annual plants grow quickly from seed: ephemeral species such as triggerplants, bladderworts, small sedges and insectivorous sundews appear suddenly and live for only a short time, producing abundant seeds before once more withering under the harsh dry season sun.

Areas with more reliable dry season moisture, such as the edges of creeks and drainage lines, support closed forests of paperbark and spiny, spiral-leafed pandans. In estuaries, sheltered bays and inlets, extensive mangroves occur (referred to as "mangals" when they grow as a group of mixed species). Significant stands of mangroves are found at the head of major rivers of the north Kimberley: the Prince Regent, King Edward and Lawley rivers. On the edge of sea cliffs, a tropical laterite flora dominated by cabbage palm (Livistona eastonii) forms part of a spectacular landscape. While cabbage palm species are found throughout northern and eastern Australia, this particular community is unique to the Kimberley. Cycad species including Cycas basaltica and Cycas lane-poolei are recorded only on the Mitchell Plateau.

Punamii-Unpuu (Mitchell Falls)

Mitchell Falls in the Mitchell River National Park

Punamii-Unpuu is considered by many visitors to the Kimberley to be a place of exceptional beauty, featuring a cascading series of water falls and rocky water pools along a section of the Mitchell River on Ngauwudu (the Mitchell Plateau). Punamii-Unpuu includes four separate waterfalls which cascade into a stepped series of rocky pools. Each pool also has a rugged, rocky setting. The rock walls surrounding the pools increase in height along the line of the water course. The third pool is enclosed on two opposing sides by high, rocky, cliff walls about 24 metres high. The pools are oriented in such a way that afternoon and early morning light enhances the appearance of the pools, and the setting sun brings out the red colour of the rocky cliff faces to dramatic effect.

Punamii-unpuu is a very important place to its Aboriginal traditional owners, the Wanjina-Wunggurr people, who are concerned that tourists, drawn by these well-recognised aesthetic values, must behave correctly while they are there. They say that people visiting Punamii-unpuu need to be very careful, and should be accompanied by a traditional owner:

'Like many water places in our country, Punamii-unpuu is a powerful story place, with great cultural and spiritual significance. For whitefellas, it would be like a big cathedral. Punamii-unpuu is a large sacred site, entire area, not just one place - it includes all of the creeks (eg.Mertens Creek), rivers (eg. Mitchell River), waterfalls (eg. Little Mertens Falls, Mitchell Falls), and surrounding outcrops and woodland."

'Wunggurr, or creation snakes, travelled from different points with Wandjina, the creators, making rivers and creeks, and creating all living things. The snakes meet and show each other (punmii-unpuu) at Punamii-unpuu, travelling from the sea (leaving paintings at Arrun on the tidal stretch of the Mitchell River), and from inland, like Wumbulbrii, the one-eyed snake. Punamii-unpuu is an important part of the Wunggurr travels, and is now one of the main homes for Wunggurr."

"The powers and creation story of Punamii-unpuu are fundamental to our beliefs, and to our life. It is a very important place to all Wandjina-Wunggurr people, for the Worrorra side, the Ngarinyin side, and the Wunambal-Gaambera side.

Punamii-unpuu is an important link for our Wunggurr dreaming tracks. We have a really strong responsibility in our Law to make sure those links are not broken."

Kimberley vine thickets

Scientists have only recently realised that rainforest is an important, if restricted, element of the vegetation of the Kimberley. Rainforest traditionally provided many resources for Aboriginal people in the Kimberley. Until the 1960s, however, the presence of rainforest patches had gone largely unnoticed by non-Indigenous researchers. Unlike the more extensive forests of North Queensland, which blanket mountain ranges and cover coastal lowlands, Kimberley rainforests occur as scattered, isolated vine thickets. While small patches are found as far south as the coastal sand dunes near Broome, they are most extensive in remote and rugged parts of the mainland and islands of the North Kimberley region. Many of these vine thickets are very small - some are less than a hectare in size. The largest, on south-west Osborne Island, is 100 hectares. While only occupying a small portion of the area of the Kimberley, vine thickets are critical to the biodiversity of the region: they contain around a quarter of all recorded Kimberley plant species, many of which do not survive outside the rainforest environment, and are an important refuge for animals in the late dry season. The food and shelter they provide is particularly important after surrounding, drier vegetation has been burned. However, few of the plants found in these vine thickets are endemic to the Kimberley: most also grow in rainforests in other parts of northern Australia. Their seeds are transported long distances by birds and bats, and quickly colonise areas of suitable habitat. This ease of dispersal is crucial for the continuation of small, isolated patches of vine thickets in a vast and largely inhospitable landscape.

Vine thickets in the Kimberley have a precarious existence: they cling to rough scree slopes; grow at the base of sheer rocky cliffs and in narrow gorges; and follow the moisture provided by drainage lines or groundwater seepage. Larger patches with greater structural complexity and species richness are found in high rainfall areas. These thickets are often found alongside mangrove communities. Small patches of vine thicket also occur along the Dampier Peninsula coast amongst Holocene sand dune systems. These coastal thickets, while simpler in structure and possessing fewer plant species, offer important dry season refuge and food resources for birds such as the rose-crowned fruit dove (Ptilinopus regina) and great bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis) . Rainforest plants are more vulnerable to damage from fire than the more abundant savanna woodlands, and as a result they tend to be restricted to fire-protected niches within the landscape. Wunambal people traditionally maintained vine thickets by burning the surrounding grassland early in the dry season, to prevent more damaging, late season fires from taking hold.

While the birds and mammals that occupy or use these areas are easier to observe, vine thickets are also home to many lesser known creatures. The rainforest's moist soil, varied vegetation and regulated temperature are particularly important for land snails, earthworms, leeches, ants, spiders and pseudoscorpions (arachnids that resemble scorpions in body shape). The qualities that make rainforest patches such important invertebrate habitat also prevent invertebrate populations from moving through, or occupying, surrounding non-rainforest areas, which tend to be drier and more open. Because of this, many invertebrate species live only in a single vine thicket patch, and some have evolved as rainforest specialists. Throughout the north Kimberley, many more invertebrate species are found in vine thickets than in any other vegetation type.

North Kimberley: a haven of biodiversity

Golden bandicoot (Isoodon auratus)

The north Kimberley is home to many small to medium-sized mammals that weigh between 50 grams and five kilograms. The weight range is not incidental: mammals within this range (referred to by ecologists as 'critical weight range') have been hardest hit by predation or competition from introduced species, and are now absent or severely reduced from much of the rest of the continent. Fifty seven mammal species have been recorded on the north Kimberley plateaus, including endemics such as the golden bandicoot (Isodon auratus), scaly-tailed possum (Wyulda squamicaudata), monjon (Petrogale burbidgei), nabarlek (Peradorcas concinna), golden-backed tree rat (Mesembriomys macrurus) and the Kimberley rock rat (Zyzomyz woodwardi).

Scientists have also found that the rocky, broken terrain of the north is rich in reptiles and amphibians. Dragon species that are found nowhere else include Diporiphora superba and Diporiphora convergens, which is only known from Crystal Creek. Two cave-dwelling species of geckos (Pseudothecadactylus cavaticus and Pseudothecadactylus lindneri) are restricted to the north Kimberley region, and a velvet gecko (Oedura gracilis) has only been identified from the Mitchell Plateau. The Mitchell Plateau is also the only-known home of the rough-scaled python (Morelia carinata) . Researchers have found that a number of frogs are endemic to the wettest parts of the north Kimberley. Endemic tree frogs include Litoria splendida and Cyclorana vagita; and Litoria cavernicola is found only on the Mitchell Plateau. Endemics from the southern frog family include three very restricted species: Uperoleia minima, Uperoleia micra and Uperoleia marmorata, only known from their original collection site near the mouth of the Prince Regent River. It is highly likely that further survey work would add significantly to the record of unique or unusual species that live in this richly diverse region.

Lavendar-flanked wren (Malurus dulcis)

While scientists lack detailed knowledge of the birds of the north Kimberley, preliminary surveys recorded 69 passerine species (that is, perching birds, many of which are songbirds) and 92 non-passerine species, and ongoing research continues to add to these numbers, with around 220 bird species now listed for Mitchell River National Park alone. Rugged sandstone supports the rare black grass wren (Amytornis housei), white-quilled rock pigeon (Petrophassa albipennis) and lavender-flanked wren (Malurus dulcis) . Vine thickets are important habitat for rainbow pitta (Pitta iris), Torres Strait pigeon (Ducula spilorrhoa), figbird (Sphecotheres flaviventris), cicada bird (Coracina tenvirostris) and koel (Eudynamys scolopacea) . Mangals are also an important bird habitat. North Kimberley mangals support 12 of the 13 bird species that are entirely confined to mangroves in Western Australia, including the chestnut rail (Eulabeornis castaneoventris), great-billed heron (Ardea sumatrana) and brahminy kite (Milvus indus) .

The rivers of the north Kimberley support a range of freshwater fish and turtles found nowhere else. There are endemic or near endemic populations of gudgeons and grunters, as well as of the rare pygmy rainbowfish (Melanotaenia pygmaea). Both the northern river shark (Glyphus sp. C) and freshwater sawfish (Pristis microdon) are found in river mouths and creeks. The freshwater sawfish is listed as vulnerable and has not been seen in Queensland, where it used to also occur, for over 20 years. The north Kimberley is an important region for freshwater turtle research: most populations of the recently described bearded longneck turtle (Macrochelodina walloyarrina) and another turtle species which shares its range, (Macrochelodina kuchlingi), are found in the Mitchell, King Edward and Drysdale river systems. The Kimberley is the only region in Australia where the widely dispersed freshwater crayfish does not occur, a niche occupied there by giant freshwater shrimps known as cherrabun.

Yampi Peninsula

At Yampi Peninsula, the climate shifts from the high rainfall of the northern Kimberley into drier conditions characteristic of central parts of Western Australia. Though Yampi Peninsula is much smaller than the other regions described here, it has unique characteristics as a transitional zone. Yampi Peninsula has not been extensively surveyed, but researchers expect further study to confirm that the area supports very high levels of biological diversity.

Yampi Peninsula houses a unique combination of community types, including ecological communities typical of both northern and southern parts of the Kimberley. Many forms of vegetation occur here at the limit of their range. This is the north-west outpost for acacia woodland and for many pindan and arid-zone species; and it is the furthest south-west that rainforest grows over sandstone. Mallee scrub-heath is found on a rare outcrop of Devonian sandstone, about ten kilometres south of Kimbolton homestead. This unusual rock formation, which is isolated from the King Leopold Range, was probably once an island that developed a distinctive flora before a change in sea level rejoined it to the mainland. Because of the diverse range of ecosystems that are present on Yampi Peninsula, at least a third of the entire Kimberley flora is represented in this relatively small area.

Pindan country

Yampi Peninsula is bounded by Collier Bay to the north, the King Leopold Ranges to the north-east, and King Sound to the south. Aside from the pockets of diverse flora, much of the peninsula is bare rock: surface sediment is largely limited to sandplains, floodplains and tidal flats. Alluvial plains and sandplains occupy the region's centre and south-east, and include areas of pindan, red clay soils and black cracking clays. The north-east is characterised by low, rounded, boulder-strewn hills often referred to as "choc chips" because of their distinctive chocolate brown colour. To the west, near the sea, stands a high, broken, rocky plateau. To the north and south-west of the peninsula, there are mudflats dissected by winding tidal channels and creeks, fringed with mangroves. Yampi Peninsula's rocky coastline is both dramatic and intricate: it is incised by long, narrow inlets, and opens onto broad embayments. Offshore, there are rich and diverse marine and insular environments, which are discussed in greater detail below.

One feature of Yampi Peninsula of particular interest to geologists is the Lillybooroora Conglomerate. This geological structure, which lies approximately 20 kilometres south-east of Talbot Bay, is formed of weakly-cemented rock fragments dating from the Devonian era. The fragments are well-rounded and clearly visible, and range in size from pebbles to boulders. In the area where the Lillybooroora Conglomerate forms the most extensive outcrops, it completely covers the underlying rocks. Some geologists suggest that when the conglomerate is eroded away, it reveals an intact pre-Devonian "fossil" landscape. In some places, it appears the conglomerate formed when a valley was gradually filled with rocky debris, and its presence today suggests an essentially unmodified landscape over some 350 million years. Further research may show the Lillybooroora Conglomerate to be of considerable scientific importance.

Significantly less biological survey work has been undertaken at Yampi Peninsula than in the north Kimberley. However, it is likely that Yampi Peninsula's importance as a biological refuge, a place supporting communities with high levels of diversity and endemism, has been underestimated. Following surveys in 2001, 802 plant species were recorded from Yampi Peninsula, and botanists suggest it is likely that the area contains more than 1000 species, including undescribed, rare, and fire sensitive plants that are declining elsewhere in the Kimberley.

Zoologists have only been able to make opportunistic visits to Yampi Peninsula, and their work there is hampered by the region's remoteness, rugged terrain, and limited access for vehicles. Thirty seven species of mammals have been recorded, with a very high probability that more than 50 species occur, including the restricted scaly-tailed possum (Wyulda squamicaudata). Yampi Peninsula is also rich in reptiles and amphibians, with 77 reptile species known, and at least 17 species of frogs - a richer assemblage of frogs than has been found at Prince Regent Nature Reserve, and the same number as recorded for the Mitchell Plateau. Although the area has not been well surveyed for birds, it is known to support the rare and threatened Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae), red goshawk (Erythrotriorchis radiatus), purple-crowned fairy wren (Malurus coronatus) and partridge pigeon (Geophaps smithii blaauwi).

Kimberley coastline: islands and reefs

Sea country

Before the most recent sea level rise in the Holocene, many of the islands off the Kimberley coast were part of the landmass of mainland mountain ranges, sloping down to river valleys and floodplains. Aboriginal people lived here, fished in the rivers and hunted on the land, before rising seas drowned their country, creating what geologists refer to as a "ria coastline". Only the highest altitude surfaces of the old coast remain, standing above the sea, isolated now from the landmass of which they were part. Where rivers once swelled with fresh water, there are now channels in the seafloor - a lost landscape of the Kimberley clearly visible in the region's underwater topography.

The lives of many Aboriginal people of the west Kimberley were, and continue to be, intimately connected with the sea. Evidence suggests that people lived along the coast, using and trading or exchanging marine resources with inland groups almost 30,000 years ago. A well-developed marine economy had developed by 10,550 BP.

A number of coastal sites in the Kimberley provide evidence of this long history of Aboriginal occupation or visitation. Archaeological evidence indicates that people lived on Koolan Island, in the Buccaneer Archipelago, more than 25,000 years ago during the Pleistocene, with human occupation continuing into the Holocene. Aboriginal people also visited the High Cliffy islands, near Montgomery Reef, more than 6,000 years ago, and have continued to use these islands since that time. Hundreds of stone structures that stand on the largest of the High Cliffy islands, including circles, pathways, standing stones and cairns provide evidence of the islands long term use.

Aboriginal people, often in family groups, travelled along the coast between islands on double log rafts, using the powerful tides and rips to propel them from one place to another. The craft goes by various Aboriginal names, including [g]kalum (by the Worrorra), biel biel (by the Jawi) and [g]kalwa (by the Bardi) . There were different sorts of double log rafts: some rafts were specifically designed for hunting; others were for short trips; while some were made to transport larger groups of people from island to island. Baler shells were used to carry water on long voyages, which were planned around the travellers' comprehensive knowledge of the tides, the currents and the winds. At night people used the stars to navigate. They travelled to hunt and to maintain important relationships with neighbouring groups.

The traditional owners of the land and sea along the north and west Kimberley coast, including the Bardi, Jawi and Worrorra continue to utilise fish and marine products for food, and their linguistic heritage and vocabularies reflect their complex dependence on the sea. Dugongs and turtles were, and still are, important food resources. Stingrays, crocodiles, crabs, sea birds, shell fish and oysters form part of their diet. From October to November, people harvested turtles and their eggs and ate shark and whales which they sang ashore and stranded. Aboriginal people also used traps to capture fish and poisons to stun them. Poisons were made from the roots of three species of pea - Tephrosia crocea, T. aff. flammea and T. aff. rosea - as well as from sea cucumbers, which contain a potent substance called holothurin. The Worrorra built fish traps and lit fires to attract fish into them at night.

Long before the arrival of Europeans, Aboriginal people along the west Kimberley coast collected pearl shell (Pinctada maxima) for use in rituals and ceremonies, and for exchange. The large, luminescent shell was collected from coastal reefs exposed during low equinox tides from Bidyadanga in the south to Cape Londonderry in the far north. In the north Kimberley, the Kwini believe that the area off Cape Londonderry is the source of rinji - pearl shell that is especially brilliant, and is said to have "fallen down, like a star" to this reef system.

From the 1920s, the pearl shell trade became more widespread as the expansion of the pearling industry increased access to shell. Recognisable geometric designs developed, and contemporary events and relationships were incorporated into figurative designs which ranged from symbols to increase luck in card games, to depictions of planes to assist spirit travel.

Kimberley pearl shell is highly valued by Aboriginal people of the west Kimberley and beyond; and it continues to be used in rituals and ceremony. Even in areas such as the Gulf of Carpentaria or East Arnhem Land, where local pearl shell is available, it is the Kimberley pearl shell, which arrives through traditional systems of trade and exchange, which is most highly prized. A Mayala elder says that carving pearl shell is "for my country, for my tribal people and all the Mayala people… the designs are our history". Carved pearl shells are passed on from generation to generation, from father to son. According to a senior Bardi man 'It's part of the family'. He explained that today, when pearl shell is used for ceremony, it is also in remembrance of all the Kimberley Aboriginal people who were forced to dive by European pearlers, and of the many who died working in the pearling industry.

A rich archipelago

Two thousand six hundred and thirty three islands lie off the Kimberley coast, including those forming the Buccaneer Archipelago in the south, and the Bonaparte Archipelago in the north. There are about 8,330 islands within the Australian jurisdiction overall, therefore almost a third of Australia's islands are found in the Kimberley, a very high proportion relative to the length of coastline. Biological and archaeological survey data are available for only a very small fraction of Kimberley islands, and even for those that have been surveyed, findings are not comprehensive. Further surveys will add greatly to the known values of Kimberley islands.

The large number of islands along the Kimberley coastline, as well as their remoteness and the powerful tidal flows around them, mean they are as yet little known to science. Their scientific and conservation significance is becoming increasingly clear as survey work continues. The islands of the Kimberley today support complex communities featuring many mammals, reptiles and invertebrates that are either endemic or largely restricted to the region, and in some cases to the islands themselves. These islands are very important refugial habitat, free of many of the threatening processes which commonly effect mainland communities. In particular, Augustus Island (17,952 hectares) and Bigge Island (17,190 hectares) are large, near-coastal and uninhabited, with no known feral animals, and a diverse, intact terrestrial fauna.

Many seabirds nest on the islands of the Kimberley coast, including the masked booby (Sula dactylatra), brown booby (Sula leucogaster), red-footed booby (Sula sula), great frigatebird (Fregata minor), lesser frigatebird (Fregata ariel), lesser crested tern (Sterna bengalensis) and the common noddy (Anous stolidus). The Adele Islands are home to important colonies of lesser frigatebird, brown booby, and masked booby.

A winter retreat for whales

Each year, in one of the longest known vertebrate migrations, a genetically-distinct population of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) travels from feeding sites in Antarctica along the west coast of Australia to the warm tropical waters of the Kimberley to mate and calve. Researchers who study these whales refer to them as Group IV, and more is being learned about them each year. Humpback whales feed in summer in Antarctic waters, and spend the winter fasting, living off their fat reserves. As they follow the coast, they rest at Shark Bay on their way north and at Exmouth Gulf on their journey south. Most cows and calves are seen in Kimberley calving grounds between mid August and mid September, but the exact timing of the whales' passage varies by as much as three weeks from year to year. This variability is thought to reflect changes in the timing of food availability in the Antarctic.

Until recently, researchers believed that the Kimberley's Camden Sound was Group IV's critical calving destination. However, surveys suggest that whales also calve in other locations along the Kimberley coast between Broome and the Lacepede Islands. Humpback calves have been seen in the waters around Roebuck Bay, and along the coast of Dampier Peninsula.

In 1963, fewer than 600 whales were recorded on the Kimberley coast. In 2008, the estimated number of Group IV whales migrating north was 22,000. This represents a significant recovery since the end of commercial whaling in 1966. In fact, Group IV may currently be the largest population of humpback whales in the world. In a six-week survey from 1 July 2009, 969 whales were sighted between Broome and Camden Sound, and almost a hundred of these were calves.

Populations of several other cetacean species also inhabit Camden Sound and the Buccaneer and Boneparte archipelagos, including the recently described Australian snubfin dolphin (Orcaella heinsohni). Snubfin dolphins have been observed to hunt in groups, working together first to chase fish to the surface of the water, and then to round them up by shooting jets of water from their mouths. This unusual and complex behaviour was first recorded off the Kimberley coast.

Remarkable reefs

Along the west Kimberley coast, remarkable coral communities thrive in extreme conditions, posing researchers many puzzles. South of Camden Sound, Montgomery Reef is a sandstone platform encrusted with coral, which extends for around 300 square kilometres. As the tide drops, water cascades spectacularly from where it is held in lagoons atop the reef, roaring as it pours over the platform's sheer edge. At very low tides, Montgomery Reef is exposed above sea level by as much as four metres. As water is lost from the lagoons, small pools are created, filled with coral and algae. Dugongs, turtles, fish, clams and starfish can be seen in these pools, waiting for the rising tide to release them. Montgomery Reef is one of many places in the Kimberley where coral grows abundantly in an extreme tidal environment, buffeted by strong currents and high water temperatures. The dynamic tidal currents at Montgomery Reef have also made it possible for coralliths and rhodoliths to survive here. These unusual organisms are made of coral or corraline algae, and are rolled around relentlessly by the currents until they form balls of living matter, detached from their original rock substrate. They float free, alive on all sides. Much remains to be learned about Montgomery Reef.

Other submerged and fringing reefs and unusual coral communities occur along the Kimberley coast, including at Cape Bougainville, Cape Londonderry, the Maret Islands, Murrangingi Island and Napier Broome Bay. High water temperatures, strong currents and high nutrient availability from wet season runoff contribute to rapid coral growth. The outer parts of the fringing reefs around the Maret Islands appear to have grown very actively in the past 6,000 years, following the Holocene sea level rise. Corals are present on the platform and edges of the reefs. Beyond the reefs, between 12 and 30 metres below sea level, major filter feeding communities, including sponge gardens, grow.

South-east of Montgomery Reef and north of Derby on Yampi Peninsula, the narrow Yule Entrance links Walcott Inlet to Secure Bay. The tidal range here can be as much as 11 metres, and results in turbulence, strong tidal flows and whirlpools. Beyond Yule Entrance the tide drives straight out into the ocean, carrying silt laden waters some six kilometres into Collier Bay, and creating a cloudy brown river in a brilliant aquamarine sea.

Horizontal Falls

A little south of Yule Entrance, Talbot Bay is virtually enclosed by vertical sandstone cliffs, with only two narrow gaps allowing sea water to enter. Massive tidal movements between the bay and the sea result in what are known as the Horizontal Waterfalls. As the tide rises and as it drops, there can be up to 10 metres difference between the water levels of the bay and of the ocean. Water held back by these narrow gaps rushes through and is spectacularly expelled in a churning, roiling mass.

Central Kimberley

Stretching east from Yampi Peninsula, the landlocked central Kimberley region encompasses the King Leopold Ranges, the rugged limestone country of the Napier, Oscar, Pillara and Emmanuel ranges and the headwaters and upper reaches of the Fitzroy River (although the Fitzroy River catchment as a whole is described below in the context of the south-west Kimberley).

The central Kimberley is drier than the country to its north. Most of the 800 or so millimetres of rain it receives each year falls during the few months of the wet season. While much of the region is mountainous, with scant soils and sparse vegetation, plains and low hills support extensive, varied tropical savanna woodland. Curly spinifex (Plectrachne spp.) grasslands are dotted with low eucalyptus trees; Eucalyptus brevifolia grows on ridges and in drier areas, and Eucalyptus tectifica - Eucalyptus grandifolia in the valleys, and a range of other eucalypt species also occur. Where there is moisture, shrubs such as acacia and grevillea, boabs and Kimberley bauhinia are found. Richer volcanic soils support ribbon grass (Chrysopogon spp.) and scattered trees. Forests of river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and pandans follow drainage lines. In the region's south there is semi desert spinifex steppe, and patches of vine thicket occur in the west, closer to the coast.

Bell Gorge waterfall

The King Leopold Ranges stretch for 300 kilometres along the south-western edge of the Kimberley Plateau. The geology of these ranges is often exposed, and with dramatic rock and landform features. The ranges consist mainly of white to pale brown cross bedded quartz sandstone intruded by dark grey dolerite which provides a marked visual contrast on steep hillsides. Sides of valleys are generally steep and have only sparse vegetation; some are nearly vertical with precipitous bare rock cliffs. As a result, panoramic views of ranges, valleys and plains are obtained from many scarps. In the wet season, water roars through a series of rocky gorges: Silent Grove and the Lennard, Bell, Mt Matthew and Yellowman gorges include waterfalls, pools, rock ledges and palm groves.

The Oscar, Napier and Geikie ranges stretch for 150 kilometres between Napier Downs Station in the north to the Fitzroy River at Fitzroy Crossing. They are the remnants of a barrier reef complex which has stood, largely unaltered by tectonic processes, since it was formed almost 400 million years ago. The upper surfaces and slopes of the ranges are predominantly bare limestone, with scattered grasses and the occasional boab or small tree perched on a rock or clinging to a ledge. What lies below the surface also makes these ranges truly remarkable: water has dissolved the limestone into an intricate network of cliff-foot caves and tunnels, deep narrow gullies, intersecting corridors, narrow fissure caves, and razor-sharp ridges. In the Napier Range, Windjana Gorge is a popular tourist destination. The Gorge is four kilometres long, and its colourful limestone walls rise vertically to a height of 100 metres in some places. The Lennard River flows intermittently through the Gorge and during the wet season sometimes rises metres above its winter levels. In winter, water is confined to deep, clear pools in the main channel.

The limestone karst systems of the central Kimberley are home to a diverse variety of terrestrial and subterranean fauna. The Tunnel Creek cave system, for example, is important for bat colonies, most notably for the ghost bat (Macroderma gigas), Australia's only carnivorous bat, which is listed as vulnerable under Commonwealth legislation. Other subterranean environments support a range of invertebrates which have evolved in isolation over millions of years, and are sometimes unique and restricted to very small areas. While subterranean fauna are amongst the most poorly studied faunal groups worldwide, such organisms can help researchers to understand how evolutionary processes unfold in relation to changes in climate and geology, over geologically significant time scales.

However it is not only the subterranean fauna that is little known: the terrestrial flora and fauna of the central Kimberley region has not yet been systematically surveyed, and data on species is limited. Records indicate that the region supports more than 200 bird species, including small populations of Kimberley endemics, and that it provides moderately important habitat for at least two threatened species - the Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae), one of Australia's rarest birds, and the painted snipe (Rostratula benghalensis australis). At least 37 mammal species are recorded as occurring in the central Kimberley.

The Kimberley's largest permanent natural wetland, Lake Gladstone, also lies in this region, and is listed as a wetland of national significance in the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia. Lake Gladstone provides critical habitat for many species of plants and animals, including threatened species like the red goshawk (Erythrotriorchis radiatus) and Gouldian finch, as well as for listed migratory bird species.

South-west Kimberley

In the south-west, the rugged plateaus and undulating hill country of the north and central Kimberley meet the arid sand ridges and iron-rich soils of the Great Sandy Desert. This area, which includes Dampier Peninsula, is considered by geologists to be part of the Canning Sedimentary Basin. The south-west is the driest region of the west Kimberley, and receives between 300 and 800 millimetres of rain each year, mostly during the two to four months of the wet season. In contrast to the north-west, much of the landscape here consists of sandstones and mudstones, which are porous and seldom hold surface water. Combined with the south-west's drier climate and higher evaporation rate, this reduces even major river courses such as the Fitzroy to an intermittent string of pools in the dry season. Permanent water sources throughout this region, including mound spring and freshwater seepages, have great cultural significance for Aboriginal people, and are important refugia, helping birds and animals survive through the dry. There are significant groundwater aquifers and groundwater dependent ecosystems in the south-west Kimberley, and many of these are associated with the floodplains of the Fitzroy River.

Derby boab

The south-west Kimberley is characterised by distinctive vegetation and landscapes. A key visual feature is the boab (Adansonia gregorii) - an iconic, long-lived tree for which the Kimberley is renowned, though it also occurs in the east Kimberley and western reaches of the Victoria and Daly rivers in the Northern Territory. Related to the baobabs (Adansonia species) of Madagascar and the African mainland, boabs are particularly common in low-lying areas, and often occur on alluvial flats in association with bauhinia (Lysiphyllum cunninghamii) and beefwood (Grevillia striata), above a layer of ribbon grass (Chrysopogon) . The boab has significant cultural value and utility for many Kimberley Aboriginal people. Some trees are also historic memorials to confronting events in early contact history and record the visits of explorers like King (the 'Mermaid Tree'), Hann and Brockman. Like other animals and plants, the boab tree is inextricably linked to Kimberley Aboriginal people's social and spiritual world. Kimberley Aboriginal people carry the boab 'totem'; some are born into the boab tree or boab flower "section".

Boabs have uses ranging from the mundane to the sacred. They are important as a source of water, and also as a material manifestation of the powerful forces of the cosmological world across the whole Kimberley region. Boab trees provide twine, food, medicines and shelter, and may be increase sites for particular resources. Boabs are "a valuable resource for traditional Aboriginal healthcare practices, both in terms of the provision of medicines and as a resource for health-related rituals". Boab nuts are carved in traditional and contemporary designs by Aboriginal people.

Derby Prison Tree

Some trees are believed to harbour extremely severe and potent powers, like Jilapur, a boab on the outskirts of Derby, more commonly known as the Derby Prison Tree. This tree is believed to be about 1,500 years old, and it has an opening into its hollow trunk large enough for a man to enter. There is speculation that prisoners were locked inside, and other accounts recall prisoners being chained around the outside of the tree. This tree is also a camping place for the Nyikina Creation Being Woonynoomboo.

Drosera broomensis

Another distinguishing feature of the south-west Kimberley is the bright red soil of the pindan country. "Pindan" describes both the vivid red sandy soils that are common here, and the seemingly-homogenous low woodlands and shrublands which grow on them. South of Beagle Bay, the pindan is dominated by Acacia tumida, Acacia holosericea and Acacia eriopoda. North of Beagle Bay there is an abrupt change: Acacia eriopoda is almost absent and A. holosericea is reduced in frequency. Taller eucalypt woodlands dominate in the north, particularly Darwin box (Eucalyptus tectifica) and ochre bloodwood (Corymbia dampieri). Carnivorous plants are found on the pindan in damper areas of black soil; white-flowered sundews such as Drosera broomensis are found growing near Broome, and Drosera derbyensis, a similar species, occurs further east.

While pindan may appear homogenous, the coastal and near coastal environments of the south-west are visibly rich and varied. Mangroves, samphire flats, grasslands, coastal dunes, freshwater swamps, monsoon forests, Melaleuca thickets and creekside vegetation are all found in close proximity to one another, clustered near the coast. Outcrops of limestone and sandstone dot the landscape. Vine thickets occur on limestone on the far southern perimeter of Yampi Peninsula, adjoining the south-west region, as well as at the northern tip and western edge of Dampier Peninsula. They do not extend as far inland here as in the wetter areas further north. On the white coastal sands of Dampier Peninsula, the striking green birdflower (Crotolaria cunninghamii), which can grow up to three or four metres tall, is very common; it also occurs far inland on the red sand dunes of the desert.

Biodiversity of the south-west Kimberley

Singing Honeyeater

While the south-west region as a whole is not as rich in amphibians, reptiles or mammals as other parts of the west Kimberley, it nonetheless contains places which support important biological diversity: in particular, Roebuck Bay and the Camballin floodplains provide habitat for significant populations of birds; and the Fitzroy River contains a diverse array of fish.

Across the south-west Kimberley, 69 species of reptiles and amphibians have been recorded, of which at least three are endemics: the skinks Lerista apoda and L. separanda, and the venomous Dampier burrowing snake (Simoselaps minimus) . While Dampier Peninsula's pindan country possesses few resident birds, it is often used by nomads: birds come to nest and breed, and others follow the path of seasonal flowerings. Permanent residents of the pindan woodland include rufous whistlers (Pachycephala rufiventris), grey shrike thrushes (Colluricincla harmonica) and singing honeyeaters (Lichenostomus virescens). Dampier Peninsula vine thicket patches contain many fewer species of plants than vine thickets further north, and also fewer bird species. However, the red-crowned pigeon (Ptilinopus regina), which is confined to vine thickets, is more common here than in other parts of the Kimberley. The mangals which grow on the peninsula's shores are home to 20 species of birds, many of which do not occur outside of mangroves, and some of which, such as the mangrove kingfisher (Halcyon senegaloides), do not live any further south in Western Australia.

Roebuck Bay

Aerial view of Roebuck Bay coastline, taken from the International Space Station, 2015

The greatest attraction for birds in the south-west Kimberley is the extensive coastal mudflat system to the south of Broome at Roebuck Bay. The Roebuck Bay mudflats lie within a large, irregularly curved embayment. The northern shores of the bay are lined with crumbling red pindan cliffs above narrow sandy beaches; to the east and south there are mangroves surrounded by deep, soft mud. Tidal creeks flow into the bay from the east, and divide into the intricate network of smaller streams that wind through the mudflats. A dramatic tidal range (including spring tides reaching between eight and 10.5 metres) alternately exposes and inundates the low gradient mudflats to an extent only recorded elsewhere in Australia at King Sound near Derby. At low tide a flat expanse of mud and sand stretching for kilometres separates the sea from the shore; at high tide seawater covers the mudflats, floods the mangroves which fringe the bay, and rushes into the salt marshes and claypans beyond.

Roebuck Bay is a rare example of a significant intertidal mudflat system which occurs in the tropics - most mudflats are found in temperate regions. The Roebuck Bay mudflats are also unusual because they are not obviously associated with any large river system. They were formed by the early Fitzroy River system, in the time before the river's flow diverted north to its present position at King Sound.

In recent years, surveys have revealed a rich invertebrate fauna living in the mudflats. Every year, as survey work continues, researchers continue to find new species at Roebuck Bay. These invertebrates are an important source of food for the many migratory shorebirds that visit the bay each year.

East Asian-Australasian flyway map (blue)

The Roebuck Bay mudflat system is best known because it is one of the most significant sites for international migratory waders on the Australian continent, and its protection under the Ramsar Convention confirms that status. While each migratory species' population follows its own particular annual migration path, there are nonetheless generalised global migration routes that connect breeding areas in the north, via stopovers in temperate and subtropical zones, to non-breeding areas in the south. These routes are called flyways. The East Asia-Australasian Flyway, of which Roebuck Bay is part, is one of eight major migratory waterbird flyways around the world. From August each year, at the end of the northern summer, shorebirds make a journey across oceans and continents to reach Roebuck Bay, sometimes flying for stretches of up to 8,000 kilometres without landing.

Red-capped Plover (Charadrius ruficapillus)

Roebuck Bay has been known to hold as many as 170,000 birds at one time. Sixty four waterbird species have been recorded here, and 34 of these are listed under international conservation treaties. The site supports more than one percent of the national population for 21 species of wader, including pied oystercatchers (Haematopus longirostris), Mongolian plovers (Charadrius mongolus) and ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres). Australian shorebirds also make Roebuck Bay home for part of the year, and for many it is their main breeding ground. Red-capped plovers (Charadrius ruficapillus) and black-winged stilts (Himantopus himantopus) occur in large numbers; more than one per cent of their flyway populations may spend time at Roebuck Bay each year. Twenty-two of the 24 Australian raptor species also live around the shores of Roebuck Bay.

While the mudflats are spectacular at the height of the wet season, the best time for birds is at the end of the wet, when the ground starts to dry out. As surface water is absorbed and evaporated, mud is exposed and a rich feast begins. Birds feed on the multitude of invertebrate fauna, which have reproduced rapidly during the wet. Because little rain falls during the dry season, for much of the year surface water at the mudflats is restricted to a few permanent or semi-permanent waterholes and streams. Most of these are not supplied directly by rainfall, but are maintained by water seeping from underground aquifers - these in turn are replenished each wet season, when the whole area is once more immersed.

The rivers of the Kimberley: a haven for fish

Researchers have found that a number of fish species in the northern and western rivers and in the Fitzroy system are endemic and have distributions restricted to the Kimberley. This is thought to be the result of a number of factors: the varied habitats throughout the river systems, including areas of extremely rugged topography in the upper catchment; the periodic very high flows which occur, and the large area covered by the Fitzroy catchment. Recent surveys recorded 37 species of fish in the northern and western rivers, including 23 freshwater species and 14 estuarine or marine species. Three of the freshwater species did not have scientific names at the time of the survey, but researchers recorded names of fish, where available, in Bunuba, Gooniyandi, Ngarinyin, Nyikina and Walmajarri. The researchers found that the range of fish species varied significantly between the lower, middle, and upper reaches of each river, and was different again in billabongs, smaller permanent tributaries, and the upper gorges.

Glossamia aprion

Many remarkable fish species are found in the rivers of the Kimberley. An eel (Anguilla bicolor), known in Bunuba as Lanyi, is believed to migrate from the freshwaters of the upper reaches of the Fitzroy, along with other rivers of the Kimberley, to Indonesia to breed and die, with juveniles returning to the Kimberley to continue their lifecycle. This eel was found by researchers hundreds of kilometres inland, above the Margaret River. Another fish has the evocative common name "mouth almighty" (Glossamia aprion) because of its unusual breeding habits: the male fish carries fertilised eggs in his mouth. The mouth almighty's name in Bunuba and Gooniyandi, Thamali/Thamarli, means "little brother of the Barramundi", and the fish is commonly used as bait when Aboriginal people fish for barramundi. The Kimberley archerfish (Toxotes sp.), which is widespread throughout the Fitzroy River catchment, gains its name from its habit of spitting water at insects to knock them into the river, where they make easy prey. The freshwater whipray (Himantura chaophraya) is a rare and elusive ray that reaches up to one metre in width, and has been collected from only a few sites in the Fitzroy catchment, though it is reported to occur in the Fitzroy River above Geikie Gorge. Marine species also use the river - the aggressive bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) occurs in the lower reaches of the river and is anecdotally reported to have been sighted near Fitzroy Crossing, and the ox eye herring (Megalops cyprinoides) has been found up to 400 kilometres upstream. The Fitzroy River and its estuary also support freshwater sawfish (Pristis microdon), and the dwarf sawfish (Pristis clavata) occurs in the river's lower reaches. The Fitzroy River estuary is the only known Western Australian habitat for the critically endangered northern river shark (Glyphis sp. C) .

The Fitzroy River: living waters

Fitzroy River

In Aboriginal Australia, "living water" is the term generally used to describe permanent water sources. As Rose (2004) notes, the term conveys both the sense of water having a life of its own and also its contribution to the life of others — humans, animals and plants. Water sources are often at the centre, or the heart, of a person or group's country and are frequently conception sites. An association with a particular water source provides one of the prime markers of individual identity; and the collective identities of Indigenous groups, and the relationships and links between them.

The Fitzroy River is a centre of life and diversity in the Kimberley. It is a mighty river system with a catchment of over 90,000 square kilometres that collects water and channels it into the longest river in the Kimberley. The Fitzroy stretches 733 kilometres from its headwaters in the central Kimberley to Moorrool Moorrool (the Nyikina name for King Sound), where it reaches the ocean. Along the way, it is fed by 20 tributaries and numerous smaller, ephemeral creeks and waterways.

Water brings with it particular rights and responsibilities under Indigenous law. Most importantly, as noted by McFarlane (2004) water and waterscapes are inseparable from the land on which people live. The cultural systems and languages of ten Aboriginal groups whose traditional country principally falls within the Fitzroy catchment area include the Kija, Wurla, Andajin, Ngarinyin, Gooniyandi, Bunuba, Unggumi, Walmajarri, Nyikina and Warrwa people. The Bunuba people, whose traditional country is located above Fitzroy Crossing on the upper Fitzroy, know the river as Bandrarl Ngadu. The Nyikina people call the river Mardoowarra and themselves Yimardoowarra: "belonging to the river". As one Nyikina traditional owner explains, "The river is a central place in Nyikina cultural belief and spirituality. It is also a place for fishing and hunting, where we gather medicine and bush tucker and take our children to learn cultural stories, language and law". While the permanent pools on the river are very important culturally; they also provide refuges for animals, birds and fish during the dry season.

The river also provides a rare living window into the diversity of the traditions associated with the Rainbow Serpent, a narrative across Aboriginal Australia that was once more pervasive and is recurrent in art, myth, ritual, and social and economic life. Four distinct expressions of the Rainbow Serpent are found within the Fitzroy River's catchment. Each tradition is intrinsically tied to Indigenous interpretations of the different way in which water flows within the one hydrological system, and all four expressions converge into one regional ritual complex, called Warloongarriy Law or "River Law" that serves to unite Aboriginal people and their Rainbow Serpent traditions.

In the jila-kalpurtu domain (the term jila refers to permanent sub-surface water sources and kalpurtu are said said to be the rain-giving snakes occupying these sites) of the Fitzroy catchment on the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert, water flows are principally underground and the Rainbow Serpent is said to exist in the underground structure of the channels, linking excavated waterholes and other water sources of significance. Places like Kurrpurrngu (Cajibut Springs), Mangunampi and Paliyarra are exemplars of this expression of the Rainbow Serpent. The phenomenon of Galaroo (Galeru, Kalaru), on the other hand is linked to flowing surface water, in the form of major rivers, and to long and deep permanent waterholes in broad river channels, like Geikie Gorge (Danggu). In the upper reaches of the catchment, the Rainbow Serpent of the Wanjina-Wunggurr belief system known as Wunggurr or Ungud is linked to discrete pools of water and the movement of the sea, and is often associated with the painted image of Wanjina. While the Woonyoomboo-Yoongoorroonkoo narrative of the lower Fitzroy primarily tells the story of the creation of the lower Fitzroy River and its floodplains and also has links to the sea.

Fitzroy River at Fitzroy Crossing

The Fitzroy River is one of the largest unregulated rivers in Australia, and its flow varies significantly over the course of a year, and between years. Both the river channels and the floodplains, which lie below Fitzroy Crossing, are highly dynamic, shaped by the floods which pour through the system after heavy cyclonic rains. As water flows, the river branches; splitting and rejoining around large alluvial islands. Floods flush the deep permanent pools of the main channel, and water spreads across the plains, creating billabongs and anabranching channels, and renewing groundwater aquifers. The link between the river and the floodplains is vital to the health of floodplain wetlands, which are important habitat for many water birds.

The main channel of the river is fringed by forest, including river red gums, freshwater mangroves, native figs and pandanus. The purple-crowned fairy wren (Malurus coronatus), which is listed as threatened under the WA Wildlife Conservation Act, is restricted to the forest's understorey. Fish, eels, turtles, mussels and cherrabun, or freshwater shrimp (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) live in the river. Freshwater crocodiles bask on the riverbanks and swim in pools. At the river's mouth, brackish water is used by many species of fish, prawns and crabs to spawn. Nearby, areas of healthy vine thicket provide shelter for birds and bats, and waterbirds feed in the mudflats along the river and at the river mouth.

Barramundi

The Fitzroy River is a rich source of food for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people who live in the region. Barramundi (Lates calcarifer), a highly valued eating fish, is found up to 500 kilometres upstream of the river mouth. Another fish which is commonly eaten is the lesser salmon catfish (Arius graeffei), which occurs in both the freshwater reaches and estuarine areas of the river. Black bream (Hephaestus jenkinsi) live throughout the main channel of the Fitzroy and major tributaries, where they like to dwell in deep holes in the riverbed, and congregate around submerged roots, logs and rocks. Spangled perch (Leiopotherapon unicolor) are a small, hardy and aggressive species that are sought-after for eating, and are also often used as bait for catching barramundi and lesser salmon catfish. Turtles, mussels and freshwater shrimp are also eaten.

Cherrabun, or freshwater shrimp, use different parts of the Fitzroy River at different stages of their life cycle. Adults live upstream, hundreds of kilometres from the river's mouth. But while the cherrabun's eggs can last between 3 and 5 days in freshwater, the newly-hatched larvae only survive in the brackish estuary. Some female cherrabun release their eggs into fast-flowing water to try and ensure they will be carried down to the estuary before the larvae hatch; after which the young must make the long return migration upstream. Other adults take the journey themselves, travelling downstream to spawn, and then returning up the river with their young. For cherrabun, as for many other species of fish, birds and invertebrates, the whole of the river and its tributaries form a chain of living connection: the variable patterns of the river's flow are crucially tied to the cycles of these species' lives.

About 100 kilometres south-east of Derby, in Nyikina country, adjoining the Fitzroy River and extending to its north, is Kunjaninguru, the Camballin wetlands. The Camballin wetlands are extensive blacksoil floodplains consisting of two large claypan swamps - Le Lievre and Moulamen - as well as many smaller swamps, creeks and deep billabongs that are important refuges for birds and animals, as they hold water long into the dry season. The area is of great cultural and historical significance to Nyikina people, who continue to visit and utilise Kunjaninguru today.

Plumed whistling duck

Over 38,000 waterbirds have been recorded there, including EPBC listed seabirds: the Australian pratincole (Stiltia isabella), the wood sandpiper (Tringa glareola) and marsh sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis). Of 67 bird species which are known to occur at the Camballin wetlands, 19 are listed migratory species that travel between Australia and Asia. The wetlands are also an important breeding refuge for plumed whistling-duck (Dendrocygna eytoni), wandering whistling-duck (Dendrocygna arcuata), Pacific heron (Ardea pacifica), great egret (Egretta alba), glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) and magpie goose (Anseranas semipalmatus). Two threatened species have been found at Camballin: the yellow chat (Ephthianura crocea) and freckled duck (Stictonetta naevosa). It is also an important breeding area for long neck turtle (Chelodina sp.) and freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnstonii). The wetlands are listed on the Directory of Important Wetlands of Australia.

North of the Fitzroy River, alluvial plains are bounded by the ranges of the Devonian reef. These black soil plains support grasslands, with scattered trees and shrubs. To the south, the floodplain abuts the Great Sandy Desert. The dune vegetation of the Great Sandy Desert is simple in species and structure. The sides of dunes sometimes support thick growth of hummock grass (Plectrachne schinzii) and scattered shrubs, but the crests are kept bare by the harsh climate and the action of the wind. traditional owners relied on their detailed and intimate knowledge of the availability of permanent and seasonal water sources to survive here; these water sources have been used for generations. Freshwater soaks and springs hold intense spiritual significance for desert people, and these water sources also have high biodiversity values. Each place where water can be found is individually named and known, and has many stories associated with it, although some of these stories may be secret or culturally restricted. Permanent water sources are called "jila" and are all connected through the underlying groundwater system, which is known as kurtany, or mother. Through performing their obligations, traditional owners maintain the water levels.

Contact history

Although permanent European settlement occurred later in the Kimberley than in most other parts of Australia, the coastline was the site of sporadic contact between Aboriginal people and outsiders since at least the sixteenth century. The region's recent history has been shaped by the ambitions and fears, curiosity, hope and needs of these diverse newcomers; as well as by the broader political and economic circumstances which led them to the region, and the institutional structures they imported or created. Central to the post-contact history of the Kimberley has been the capacity of Kimberley Aboriginal people to resist, adapt to and survive the changes outsiders have brought.

From the 1870s, Aboriginal people have been coerced or forced into the pastoral and pearling industries, and institutionalized in missions, prisons, hospitals, ration depots and reserves. Colonisation has had a severe impact on the lives of Kimberley Aboriginal people and forced dramatic changes to traditional ways of life - many lost their lives or were dispossessed of their country and homelands. But throughout the intense disruption wrought by colonisation, over time Aboriginal people have devised strategies that have enabled an accommodation with the new regime and which has ensured their long-term survival as a distinct and proud people. The effectiveness of these strategies is demonstrated by the success in the Federal Court of Australia of fourteen applications for the determination of native title throughout the Kimberley since the passage of the Native Title Act in 1993.

The southernmost shore

Before European settlement, Australia's north coast was the southernmost shore of a network of trade and travel which connected south-east Asia with the marketplaces of China. The Kimberley lies within 400 kilometres of the south-eastern limit of the Indonesian Archipelago. For perhaps hundreds of years, Indonesians came to Kayu Jawa, their name for the west Kimberley coast, to harvest its rich marine resources; including pearl and trochus shell, turtle shell, clam meat, shark fin and the valuable beche-de-mer, a delicacy highly sought after by the Chinese.

Beche-de-mer, also known as trepang, sea cucumber, or sea slug, is a large marine invertebrate commonly described by observers as unattractive. Almost 200 species are found in Australia, but the nine or ten which are edible live only in the tropics, along the north and north-western coast. The earliest reference to what the Chinese called hai-sen, or "sea ginseng", is reputedly found in a medicinal treatise from the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth century, beche-de-mer developed a reputation for its culinary use and aphrodisiac properties. It is not clear when it began to be collected from the Kimberley region.

Location

National Heritage boundaries for the West Kimberley, 2011

West Kimberley is about 19,200,000 hectares (192,000 km²), including the following areas:

• The Lacepede Islands extending to the Low Water Mark.
• An area at Lagrange Bay consisting of a circle of 2500 metres radius centred on coordinate point Latitude and Longitude 18.614S 121.752E.
• Bungarun Derby Leprosarium Reserve comprising the whole of Lot P174646.
• An area at Noonkanbah Gate consisting of a circle of 100m radius centred on coordinate point Latitude and Longitude 18.094S 124.751E.
• An area at Paliyarra Springs consisting of an area of 100m radius centred on coordinate point Latitude and Longitude 18.703S 125.810E.
• An area at Kurungal Springs consisting of an area of 100m radius centred on coordinate point Latitude and Longitude 18.887S 125.905E.
• The Roebuck Bay Ramsar Wetland.
• An area bounded by a line commencing at the intersection of the High Water Mark with Latitude 17.953S (approximate coordinate point 17.953S 122.251E), then easterly via the High Water Mark to its intersection with the western boundary of the Roebuck Bay Ramsar Wetland, then southerly via the western boundary of the Roebuck Bay Ramsar Wetland to its intersection with the Low Water Mark, then westerly via the Low Water Mark to its intersection with Latitude 17.953S, then easterly directly to the point of commencement.
• Sacred Heart Church at Beagle Bay.

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Attribution

This Wikipedia article was originally based on The West Kimberley, entry number 106063 in the Australian Heritage Database published by the Commonwealth of Australia 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 13 October 2018.

External links

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