THE MAGIC FARAWAY LAND

MY INTRODUCTION TO the East Kimberley region is off to a good start — I’m seated beside a young high school student returning home from boarding school in Perth, who animatedly points to landmarks from the aeroplane window as we track north-east from Broome.

“That’s where my grandfather told me stories,” he says, indicating the river carved out of the valley floor below as we approach Kununurra, the largest town and agricultural centre of the region. On the other side of the aircraft, the lapis lazuli mass of Lake Argyle — Western Australia’s largest man-made fresh water reservoir — is visible