The Kimberley: Black Soil, Pindan and Machine Work Around the Wet
Broome's red pindan, the Fitzroy and Ord black soil, a wet season that closes the roads and a dry that bakes the ground. When and how a compact machine works in the far north of WA.
The Kimberley is the size of Victoria and Tasmania together, with a population that would fit in a suburb. It has two seasons, two soils that matter and a great many jobs for a compact machine that can get there.
Pindan
The red sand of Broome, the Dampier Peninsula and the coast: fine, free-draining, easy to dig and quick to slump. Footings are wide and shallow, soakage works, and the sand blows into everything in the dry. A wide mud bucket and a tilt bucket cover most pindan work; teeth are for the occasional ironstone band.
Black soil
The cracking clay of the Fitzroy River plain, the Ord irrigation area at Kununurra and every floodplain between. Fertile and difficult: bottomless when wet, cracked and hard when dry, and it moves everything built on it. Dig in the dry when the soil is moist but firm (April to June is best), keep the machine on firm ground, and expect the cracks to swallow backfill.
The wet
December to April: monsoonal rain, flooded rivers, closed highways and communities cut off for weeks. Deep excavation stops. What still works is drainage repair, clean-up with a grapple, and jobs on gravel and hard-standing. The machine goes to high ground before the first big system, boom and blade down, locked and chained.
The dry
May to October: clear, hot and dusty, with the ground firming through May and baking by September. Everything gets done in these months: station water, fencing, irrigation, community infrastructure and the tourism construction of Broome and Kununurra.
Irrigation at Kununurra
The Ord scheme grows sandalwood, mangoes, chia and cotton on laser-levelled black soil. Channel maintenance, drain cleaning, pipe trenching and headland work suit a 2 to 3 tonne excavator and a skid steer with a trencher; the black soil wants weight and a wide bucket.
Distance and spares
Broome is 2,200 kilometres from Perth and Kununurra 3,200. Engine parts for Kubota, Briggs & Stratton and Yanmar are held in Broome and Kununurra; everything Rippa-specific comes by air. Order a spares kit with the machine: filters, teeth, hoses, belt, track.
Machines
The R22 PRO for blocks, farms and communities, the R32 PRO with a cab for the heat and for contractors, and an RS10 skid steer for the Ord and station yards. See the Kimberley region page and the running cost estimator with a Kimberley diesel price.