East Kimberley: See
1 Big Crocodile greets your arrival into town. It's 18 m long, one of Australia's big things; take a geeky photo and you're all done here.
2 Afghan Cemetery is on Kapundra St 1 km east of town. It's the resting place of 11 camel drivers, brought in along with their camels from Afghanistan in the 1890s to provide heavy goods transport between the port and Halls Creek goldfields. The graves are large plots with unnamed tombstones facing west towards Mecca; their size is because the lead camel was buried along with its owner.
3 Pioneer Cemetery was in use 1886-1929. How many lives should it cost to build a meat-packing factory? Here lie 12 of them.
4 Wyndham Museum, 1 Macphee St, ☏ +61 476 019 903. Apr-Oct daily 10AM-2PM. Housed in the old Courthouse building, the volunteer-run museum has a range of historical artefacts, documents and photos. Opening hours are erratic. (updated Jul 2024)
Fisherman's Jetty is just west of the museum. It's a good place for saltwater crocs to relax and people-watch, especially any people that look tempted to risk a swim.
5 Five Rivers Lookout is reached at the end of Hugo Austla Drive (sealed) from the hospital. It's atop the 360 m Bastion Range that looms over Wyndham, with a wide view of town, the mud flats and the five rivers draining into Cambridge Gulf. It's a popular spot for a sunset barbecue.
6 Koolama shipwreck lies in the mud 40 m north of the wharf. This 4000 ton merchant ship plied the coasts of Western Australia until requisitioned as a wartime troop ship. On 20 Feb 1942 it was attacked by Japanese Kawanishi flying boats, causing serious damage so it was beached, about 150 km west of town. There was an argument between the captain, who reckoned it could be refloated long enough to reach port, and the first officer who thought that unrealistic; meanwhile the passengers and crew camped in the croc-infested mangroves. Later accounts built up this story into something between Mutiny on the Bounty and Lord of the Flies but no-one got lynched or cannibalised. After five days a lugger arrived from Drysdale River, nowadays Kununurra, and took off the wounded while many of the others were guided to walk there - one man died on the trek. The ship was patched up and limped into Wyndham, staying afloat long enough to offload most of the military cargo, before rolling over in the shallows. The hulk created an obstacle in the harbour so in 1948 it was dragged to its present position, visible at low tide. …