So after a 3 hour flight up to Kununurra I was picked up from the towns airport by one of the girls who worked at the restaurant, who then dropped me off at the accommodation which the owners had which was provided for the staff at the restaurant.
After having a chat with my new house mate who gave me directions on how to get to the restaurant I decided to walk out the place which at last I had found out was called ‘The Pump House Restaurant‘. Slight mistake in walking to the place as it turned out that it was actually about 3-4 km outside of town, was not described as that far to me.
Met the owners who were very nice and gave me all the paper work which I needed to fill in and asked if I would be able to start work the next day on Sunday. Which was of course no problem as I need to get earning money.
The following day which I was actually called and asked if I would be able to come in early as they were very busy for lunch, (looking good I thought), then at about 2pm most of the staff left for their couple of hours break before coming back for the evening which was actually pizza and live music from a local band, this actually happens every Sunday throughout the year and is a very popular event with the locals and tourists alike.
The history behind the Pump House makes it one of importance to the town as this was the first part of the Irrigation Scheme in that after the Diversion Dam was built just a bit further down river this enabled then to start building up the water by Kununurra and then pumping it into the M1 channel in order to get water out to the farms which required the water. It was stopped being used about 5 years after it opened with the completion of the dam at Lake Argyle as then the water channels could be gravity fed by the Dam. The Pump House then was used for a variety of different things for the next 10 years before being decommissioned. When back in 1998 the owners of the restaurant saw the place and thought it would be a great location for a restaurant, it would take the next 10 years for them to get planning permission from all the different government departments. Before finally opening in August 2008.
Tags: Diversion Dam, Kununurra, Lake Argyle, Ord River Irrigation Scheme, Pump House, statravel
