Ord Valley Muster ends on a high note with Lime Cordiale

After 10 days of art, food, laughter and first-class Aussie music, it’s time to shake out the picnic blankets and fold up the camping chairs as the sun sets on another successful Boab Metals Ord Valley Muster.

The seminal cultural festival for the East Kimberley dry season wrapped up with an electric Kimberley Moon Experience concert on Saturday night headlined by Spotify chart-toppers Lime Cordiale, Thelma Plum and Aussie music legend Mark Seymour and his band The Undertow.

It seemed the biggest fans of the Muster were those on stage, with Oli Limebach from Lime Cordiale saying his trip to the East Kimberley had been epic.

“We’ve had a chopper flight to a secluded waterfall and swum in water so clear you can see fish, we’ve been hiking and trekking, and we’ve only been here two days, but it feels so much longer. I want to come back and stay for six months,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mark Seymour said his Aviair scenic flight to Purnululu National Park was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“The Bungle Bungles are some of the strangest land formations I’ve ever seen,” he said.

“They look like stone mountains millions of years old, and horizontally striped with different coloured rock, like beehives, rising out of the desert, something like science fiction, incredible, miraculous landforms you won’t see anywhere else. If you only do one thing, visit the Bungle Bungles.”

Thousands of people attended events throughout Kununurra and its surrounds for the Ord Valley Muster which attracts 1,500 tourists and raises $6 million for the local economy each year.

Festival favourites such as Art In The Park, the rodeo, Corroborree Under The Stars and the free event, Party In The Park were all well attended.

There were also new events by local tourism operators including the Lake Argyle Cliffside Dinner, Bottomless Brunch at Emma Gorge, Cultural Tour at El Questro, Explore with Lamparangana Fishing Adventures, and Art, Culture and Cuisine by Blak Tapas.

Organised by not-for-profit Ord Valley Events Inc, the muster is in its 24th year. Ord Valley Events Inc chair Sophie Cooke said the festival has been built on big decisions.

“Recent years gave us a glimpse of what life without events looks like, the emptiness, a gap in the cultural rhythm of our community because moments of connection, celebration and shared experience are what stitches us together, giving us pride of place and a feeling of honour to be able to share with those that visit,” she said.

COVID caused the festival to be cancelled in 2021 and 2022. The 2023 Fitzroy River flood also created challenges when a major bridge was destroyed, cutting off the East Kimberley from the rest of the State.

Last year ticket sales from the Kimberley Moon Experience were down 60 per cent, putting the future of the festival in jeopardy.

But with funding support from Tourism WA, the muster appears to have bounced back. Dates for next year’s festival are set to be announced soon.