A pilgrimage to a wilderness

This story is part travel diary, part racing and a lot self-indulgent.

The Kimberley, in Australia’s remote and rugged north-west, is a beautiful, formidable, dangerous place. When it’s not bone dry, it’s soaking wet – and it always is hot. It’s a great place to visit, but a tough place to live.

The Kimberley is currently in its full glory. Following the biggest wet in history, the rivers are flowing to the extreme – the mighty Ord River at Kununurra is rushing 10 metres above the spillway. Waterfalls that haven’t trickled for years have thundered into life, provided some of the most spectacular scenery imaginable.

In April, as a guest of Rod “Butcher” Russell, my wife Glynis and I spent 14 days cruising on Russell’s luxury 80ft boat “Phoenix” in the Kimberley. Russell gets his nickname from the fact he owns the biggest meat processing and export business in the west.

The trip was from Wyndham, in the northern Kimberley, south to Broome, and included visits into all the major rivers, estuaries and gorges along the way. This is a trip of a lifetime. As our skipper, Dave, a Kimberley journeyman, declared at the start – “what you are about to see, only 2000 people get to see each year, except this year (due to the wet) you will see things few people ever see.”

The other guests included Russell’s racing manager Michael Walsh and long-time Broome-based bookie, publican and machine-gun joke teller, Mick “Swindle” Windle – aided by Dave, a guide (Greg), chef (Ashley) and maid/waitress (Sarah).

I first met Russell in 1993 after he bought a share in Doriemus and I was working with trainer Lee Freedman. Two years earlier, Russell was introduced to Keith Biggs, the senior part-owner in Doriemus, who had already built an enviable reputation as an owner. After a long lunch, Russell showed Biggs a valuable football signed by the Hawthorn footballers from the 1989 premiership team – Biggs promptly kicked it onto the roof of a nearby building, never to be seen again. Biggs and “The Butch” have been great mates since.

The Doriemus link also includes “Swindle”, who went to school in Gore, southern New Zealand, with John Corcoran, the man who bred the Melbourne and Caulfield Cup winner at his Grangewilliam Stud in Wanganui.

“Swindle” left New Zealand at the age of 20 for Australia and has hardly been back. He was lived in the Kimberley for 30 years, first as a meat inspector in Kununurra, and since as a restaurateur and publican. Racing has remained a big part of his life, as he is a stalwart of the Broome Racing Club. He is a wonderful character and storyteller – “I was the unbeaten arm-wrestling champion of the Kimberley for 10 years until one night a big Maori shattered by upper arm into splinters. It was three days of agony before they could get me to a hospital,” he said.

Fortunately, the good doctors saved his arm, which is now in overuse in the pursuit of a mid-strength beer or 12.

In some ways this Kimberley trip also was a pilgrimage. Following Doriemus’ 1995 Melbourne Cup win, Russell and I bought another horse from New Zealand to try to win the big race – we paid A$220,000 for Mr Millennium after the chestnut finished fourth behind Danske in the 1998 Group 1 2000 Guineas at Riccarton, Christchurch.

Mr Millennium (ch g 1995, His Royal Highness–Little Madge, by Tom’s Shu (USA)), despite a narrow loss at Flemington as a 4YO, was no Doriemus. Russell shipped him to race in Perth, where he won races at Belmont and finished second in the Listed Belmont Cup and York Cup. When his Perth form faltered, the much-travelled chestnut was sent north to race in the Kimberley. He competed for a number of years in all the outback cups from Broome to Darwin.

While Mr Millennium couldn’t hold a candle to Doriemus, he proved himself the cups king of the Kimberley. In 2001, Mr Millennium strung together four wins on end, including the Kununurra Cup, Wyndham Cup and Timber Creek Cup. He trained on to finish second in the 2002 and 2003 Wyndham Cups before he was retired to become a station hack.

Our troupe spent some time in Kununurra and Wydham before we set off for Broome. It was wonderful to reminisce about Mr Millennium – more than one local remembered him fondly.

Kununurra is a place worth visiting. It is the major town on the edge of Australia’s food belt; its expansive irrigation system is fed by the massive Ord River and Lake Argyle – nine times bigger than Sydney Harbour. I am surprised that Kununurra, with all its local agriculture and mining wealth, hasn’t blossomed, but it still might.

Wyndham, on the other hand is a forgettable place in many ways. On average, it is the hottest place in Australia (about 36 degrees), and the only things bigger than the mosquitos are the crocodiles, who grew massive in the Wyndham’s Cambridge Gulf when it was fed by the “blood stream” from the now disused meat works. It’s a tough place for humans let alone horses, but for a few years, a little chestnut from New Zealand was the hero.

So big is the 2011 wet that when we pulled into the outskirts of Wyndham, the flood waters had stretched back many kilometres, completely engulfing the Wyndham racecourse. I missed my chance for a memorable photo – and a headline: “cup winning owner’s pilgrimage to Wyndham”. All you could see was the top of the winning post of the 1400 metres circuit. “I’m not sure they will get it ready for the cup in August,” lamented Windle, who recognises that racecourses are the great gathering places for the locals of these remote, harsh communities.

For the record, the cruise was a wonderful experience. Great fishing, awesome sights, memorable food and side-splitting company. And we beat the bookie. In two days of travelling, out of phone/internet range, “Swindle” swung on the satchel to hold our bets – “Butcher” alone turned over $3500 in $10 minimum bets in a relentless two days wagering on races, dogs and trots – and won $289 off the hapless bookie.

“Don’t tell any of my bookie mates, I will be struck off,” said the bagman from Broome.

Photo: Rod Russell, cruise chef Ashley Parnham and Mick “Swindle” Windle on deck of the Phoenix at the King George twin falls in the Kimberley.