The Inaugural Swim in 2006
What sticks most in my mind is that it was a unique experience. The first swim in Lake Argyle is something that I never expected to do. It was one of the most amazing things that we did. Just being out there was a wonderful experience.
When I got to Kununurra I was surprised to see how much awareness there was about what we were about to do. We had no idea that anyone other than the local organisers of the swim had any idea of what we were going to do. It had become so public. Most of the shops had posters in their front windows with the details of the swim and photographs of the six of us. It was a surprise. People would pull us up in the street and say, “Are you one of the swimmers?”
We were in town for a couple of days before the swim, engaged in last minute organisation. The public interest came not just from the locals but some people had travelled a long way to be there. They saw it as something significant. We thought it was a significant challenge but underestimated the local response.
One couple came up to me and asked, “Are you one of the swimmers?” When I said yes they enquired where we were starting from.
“Right down the southern end of the lake. It’s about 60 km from the dam wall.”
“Oh wow, ok. How do you get there?” They asked.
When I told them we were going by boat they said they wanted to travel to the start by car. I informed them that it was not accessible by road.
“Gosh, we’ve come all the way from Adelaide to watch this.” “That’s wonderful. How about hanging around for three more days and you can watch us finish,” I said. They seemed quite happy with that.
The hospitality of the locals was amazing. We had invitations to various places after we had done the swim. It was all very lovely.
There was a lot of support in Kununurra. The crocodile cage was ferried down by road train from Darwin and then returned after the event at no cost to us. The cage was a huge metal thing. It’s a long way from Darwin to Kununurra and back and it would have been very expensive. This trucking company, Kimberley Industries, did it for nothing which was very generous.
A lot of the shops provided us with provisions—fruit, snacks, etc. We never ran out of biscuits.
On the first morning a speedboat took us to the starting point near Flying Fox Knoll. It was a long way for the speedboat driver, 60km return. The barge went down there a couple of days prior because it was much slower. It travelled at about a swimming speed. Jim Hughes, who had been instrumental in organising the swim, drove the barge to the starting point with a couple of his Kununurra mates.
A helicopter company, Slingair, offered to send a helicopter should anyone need evacuating. And helicopters aren’t cheap.
Jim Hughes had fitted out the barge with steel attachments so it could link to the crocodile cage. Again, quite a business.
I remember the ABC loaned us satellite phones which aided communication. We were finally good to go. We wanted to do this swim but there was a lot that had to happen in the background to enable us to do it. Without all the meticulous preparation it would never have happened.
When we got to the bottom the lake, we walked up onto a hill called Flying Fox Knoll just above where we were going to start. We got to the top of the hill and placed on a rock an engraved bronze plaque that Kieran had donated. We looked around us and there was nothing there; it was a very remote part of Australia. Other than a few birds, a freshwater crocodile and ourselves nothing stirred. It was a magnificent view looking back up the lake.
We swam for two full days before we saw anyone or anything. No power boats or sailing boats, no fishermen, no nothing. We were going north, and to the east the vastness of the lake was visible. Water stretched to the horizon. Looking left we had the marvellous red of the Carr Boyd Range. It was inspiring.
The mornings were always windy. The water was quite rough at times but the wind seemed to ease up about midday. Through the afternoon the water became silky smooth as the wind dropped. It was just delicious. Wonderful. The water was clean and we drank it all the way.
As we swam past little islands, freshwater crocodiles slid into the water. We knew these weren’t particularly dangerous but they were quite big, not little tiddlers, which was a bit unnerving. They looked like something that would eat you in a flash. It was a peculiar feeling.
At one point we swam over an area that was relatively shallow and we could see towards the bottom where there was a forest of trees. No leaves, just the skeletons of this forest that flooded years ago after the dam was built. That was a bit eerie too. Very picturesque in a funny sort of way.
We camped on a couple of islands where we had campfires and cooked a feed. I remember lying in my swag trying not to go to sleep because of the wonderful view of the Milky Way. It reminded me of Clancy of the Overflow by Banjo Patterson.
One of the lines goes:
At night the wonderous glory of the everlasting stars.
And wonderous it was. It was really special. All the while the crocodiles slept on the beach with us. You could get up during the night and shine your torch down to the beach and see this row of beady little eyes looking at you from less than 100 metres away. They just lay on the beach, they didn’t come near us. It was quite odd. The crocodiles only seem to go into the water when looking for something to eat. Most of the time they just lie on the sand.
The first island, Lagoon Island, was tiny. There were no animals but lots of spiders. Probably the crocodiles had eaten all the animals.
On the second night, a helicopter arrived with a film crew. Qantas had been very generous in their donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS). They gave us the money on the understanding that we would make a movie for them, so we did. The helicopter company flew the film crew across to the island. They arrived late in the afternoon and interviewed us. The next day they filmed from the barge as well as from the air. The documentary they produced about the swim can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eK2p_IBqkI&t=10s
On the third day we made a deviation so we could take a photograph of us treading water above the site of the original Durack homestead.
We hadn’t seen another boat for days but on the last day a flotilla of boats appeared and followed us all the way to the finish. A group of kids from the Kununurra Swimming Club joined us for the last few hundred metres for the final stretch to the boat ramp.
It was an amazing sight. A crowd of people assembled on the dam wall and the cliff area to watch as we swam to the boat ramp. There were hundreds of them. When we stood up in the water at the end the crowd clapped and cheered and cameras were flashing. It was an extraordinary experience. Overwhelming. It really was.
We finished at about 1 pm. The Lions Club of Kununurra hosted a great barbecue for anyone who wanted to turn up. It was held in a park near the dam wall and the public came out in force. There was a big loudspeaker system set up and everyone wanted to speak. The lady from the RFDS came from Perth to thank us for what we did and the donation of $110,000. Also, Patsy Durack’s last surviving grandson, then in his eighties, came from Perth and spoke, thanking us for our efforts. He was accompanied by two of his sons, one of whom was a barrister from Sydney and the other a Queensland farmer. They came all the way to Kununurra to be there for the occasion and thought it was wonderful.
Back Again for the Public Swim 2007
The year after our first swim, Lake Argyle hosted its first public swim. The organising committee asked us to help support this swim and we agreed to come back and participate. The event was held as either a 1 km, 10 km or 20 km swim. There were just four of us from the original swim this time and our team won the 20 km quad relay.
Never satisfied, in 2013, five or six teams from the Balmoral Beach Club (BBC), our Sydney swimming club, came to Lake Argyle to compete. By that stage there were many accomplished swimmers competing in the event and we did not reach the podium. Still it was a wonderful event.
A bus collected the BBC swimmers and supporters in Kununurra before dawn and took us to the lake. The lakeside barbecue at the end of the event had transformed into a large dinner for swimmers and support crew. The swim had become a big event.
There are now so many people who want to enter the event that a ballot is held to limit numbers. In the first few years the website would open for entries at midnight and it would be full by breakfast time. Now it is full in seven minutes. This is amazing. Lake Argyle is not the easiest place to get to and it’s expensive to get there. People come from all over the place to join the local entrants.
We didn’t see anyone swim in the lake recreationally. Nobody seems to swim in it at all except once a year when they put this race on. It’s such a lovely place. You have to see it to appreciate it. It’s spectacular.
Some of these things are indelible in my mind. This experience is something I’ll never forget.