The Kimberley

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

The Kimberley is a region located in the northern part of Western Australia, bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, and on the east by the Northern Territory. It covers an area of about 421,000 square kilometres.

The region has only three towns with a population of more than 2,000 (Broome, Derby and Kununurra), and the total population is around 25,000.

The Kimberley was one of the earliest settled parts of Australia, with the first arrivals landing about 20,000 years ago from the islands of what is now Indonesia. European settlement started around 1885, when cattle were driven across Australia from the eastern states in search of good pasture lands. Many other Europeans arrived soon after, when gold was discovered around Halls Creek.

Other industries have included pearling, diamond mining (including the Argyle Diamond mine which produces about one third of the world's diamonds), agriculture (more recently centred on the Ord River Irrigation Area near Lake Argyle) and tourism.