 GETTING THERE
 The trek into Kunmunya site to check  out the remains of the Cusack residence and photograph the remaining relics is quite arduous. From the anchorage in Augustus Water, dinghy around into the "Gutter" (left) then climb up the steep western side of the gutter (right) before crossing the freshwater creek and heading upstream on foot. Tie the dinghy on a long tether, hoping to return before the tide falls too far.
 Walk along the tranquil banks of  the running creek (left) for the first kilometre or so, while enjoying frequent stops and a dip in the creek. After an hour of easy hiking you are confronted by "Nightmare Alley" which takes another hour or so to pass through. Another few hundred metres of hiking in the creek bed brings you to the dry waterfall (right) which can be scaled with difficulty.
 Just on three hours after leaving the  dinghy, and with ample time for stops, you pass this boab tree (left) that has a crocodile tail sticking out of it. Apparently, the Cusacks had photographed the same boab tree in 1988, when it only had a small crocodile tail sticking out of it (right). Maybe all boabs have crocodiles living in them at Kunmunya? A couple of hundred metres further on you pass the Cusack camp on the left before reaching the Kunmunya Mission site.
KUNMUNYA HISTORY The Presbyterian Church established their first mission in W.A. in the south eastern  corner of Port George IV Inlet in 1912. The Rev. Robert Wilson  and his wife, Frances, built a two-roomed corrugated iron house (left) at the head of the inlet and the Mission was serviced from Broome by the lugger "W.S.Park" (right) which was sailed over from Thursday Island. One of the crew, and later to become the skipper, was Willy Reid, the young aboriginal who established the settlement at Kinganna. After three years of struggle, the Port George mission was transferred to Kunmunya in 1916.  During the latter half of 1915 the "W.S.Park", assisted by the "W.S. Rolland", transferred building materials from the Port George site to Nhorgor Inlet. Additional building materials were brought up from Broome and a rough track was blazed through the hills and across creeks to link the landing at Nhorgor with Kunmunya, some 4 miles to the south-east. The mission house (right) was built at Kunmunya in early 1916, and over the next few years a church, store sheds, other houses, wells, tanks and gardens were established.
The Worora aboriginals, numbering over 300, embraced the mission and within a few years had settled down into a healthy, happy and Christian lifestyle. Willy Reid continued to skipper the "W.S.Park" on her trips to Broome for supplies then moved onto the "W.S.Rolland" in 1918. Willie resigned as skipper after a disagreement in 1919 and was replaced by another aboriginal, Alf Brown, from Mapoon in Qld. The "W.S.Rolland" sank in Pender Bay in 1920 and was eventually replaced by the brand new lugger named "Watt Leggatt" in 1926. The Rev. Bob Love, who had been at Port George for 6 months in 1915, arrived at Kunmunya in August 1927. Bob Love was a devoted linguist, and within 2 years he had learned sufficient of the Worora language to translate the gospel of St Mark into the Worora language. He later translated the gospel of St Luke. In April 1929, Albert Barunga and two other men from Kunmunya were the first to reach Kingsford Smith who had force landed the "Southern Cross" near the mouth of the Glenelg River. Bob Love left Kunmunya in 1940. On 3 March 1942, when Broome was bombed, the "Watt Leggatt" was at anchor in Broome harbour. During the attack, the lugger was abandoned and the skipper, Alf Brown, headed south with thousands of others from Broome. Later in 1942, the "Watt Leggatt" was commandeered by the army , refitted as a war vessel, and renamed the "Watt Nott". Albert Barunga was sought out and appointed as a guide on the boat in the Derby region. In 1943 the lugger was returned to the mission. After the war, and following an outbreak of hookworm, both the Kunmunya mission and the government run Munja  mission in Walcott Inlet were experiencing problems with maintenance, crops and equipment, and most of the cattle had run wild. The Munja mission was formally taken over by the Presbyterian Church in 1949. In order to combine the tribes from Munja and Kunmunya, a new mission site was established at Wotjulum, 2 miles south east of the head of Coppermine Creek in Yampi Sound. Kunmunya was abandoned in 1950 and by late 1951 all persons and buildings, including the church (right), had been relocated to Wotjulum. Relics at KUNMUNYA in 2006 - THE CUSACK CAMP  After trudging 4 km up the creek from the gutter, the first sign of the remains of the Cusack Camp (left) is a  mass of rusty corrugated iron wrapped around a gum tree. This iron and the stone pitched floor was all that remained of the camp in 2006. The iron came from the nearby mission, as did the other remaining metal relics in this area such as the stove, chimney, washtub, bed ends, a wheelbarrow and drums. Moving east towards Kunmunya mission, this plough (right) was found lying idle beside the well-worn track.
KUNMUNYA MISSION relics   Walking further south east across the creek, you may come across a series of posts which formed the supports for the old mission house. Adjacent to these posts are a dunny (left) and a 2.5 m diameter by 6 m deep stone pitched well (right). Relics lying around on the ground included pottery shards, metal pannikins, a drill press and small tools.
 Looking south towards the creek there were a  couple of concrete water tanks including this one (left) and another two tin dunnies. Further to the south, there was still sufficient water in Dune Pool (right) for a cool paddle on a hot day.
Kunmunya is in a remote location well inland from the rarely visited southern part of Augustus Water. However, it is accessible by dinghy then on foot when you have the time and energy to spend getting there and back. Kunmunya can be accessed from "the gutter". This area could also be accessed by a slightly longer, but less arduous, route from Nhorgor. Enjoy you trek into Kunmunya. Acknowledgments This story was pieced together from a number of sources. The major sources were the books "We Won the Victory" written by Ian Crawford, "Our Year in the Wilderness" written by Michael and Susan Cusack and "The Road to Mowanjum" written by Maisie McKenzie. Many hours of personal time were spent ashore trudging through the "gutter", "nightmare alley", climbing over and around the waterfall and passing the amazing boab tree with a tail before browsing the remains of the Cusack camp, observing the relics at the Kunmunya Mission site and strolling around in the long grass to photograph these places and relics. |
