Characteristics
The 2006 census population includes only people in the townsite area who called the Kununurra town site their "usual place of residence." Kununurra has a transient population; if itinerant residents, the outlying farm areas and communities were included in these population figures, numbers would have exceeded 7,000 for 2006. An influx in the dry season (From April to September), of tourists and itinerant farm workers can push up the population to around 10,000 during the dry season.
Kununurra District High School comprises a primary school and high school teaching up to year 10, and up to year 12 via distance education. It also has a number of additional smaller schools including St Joseph's primary school, the Barramundi School and a Technical and further education (TAFE) college. Kununurra has a local hospital, dentist and leisure centre including a 25 metre pool.
Key farm activities including the growing of melons, mangoes and until recently, sugar cane. Farmers are now turning to a more lucrative (though longer term) crop of Indian Sandalwood. Other crops that have been grown in the Ord are cotton, safflower and rice, which is being trialled once again, having been the first crop planted on the Pilot Farm in 1960. The town has a melon picking season, which attracts migratory farm workers to the area. There is also a thriving tourism industry with most tourist operators capitalising on the scenery of the Ord River, Lake Argyle, Diversion Dam and other local locations, including the relatively nearby Bungle Bungles.
Read more about this topic: Kununurra, Western Australia