Wyndham

Wyndham, Western Australia

Wyndham, northernmost township and seaport of Western Australia. It lies at the mouth of the King River, on the West Arm of Cambridge Gulf (an inlet of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf of the Timor Sea).

Founded in 1885 as a port for the Kimberley goldfield, it was named for the son of Sir Napier Broome, governor at the time. In 1919 the state government selected Wyndham as the site of a meat-processing plant, which served the cattle stations of Wyndham–East Kimberley shire before its closure in 1985. The local economy, which had depended on the plant, went into decline.

There is some tourism, and the port remains active, serving the regional mining and cattle-raising industries. Some crops are grown on irrigated flats bordering the nearby Ord River. Wyndham is the terminus of the Great Northern Highway from Perth (about 2,000 miles [3,200 km] southwest) and is linked by a dry-season road to the Stuart (transcontinental) Highway at Katherine, Northern Territory. Pop. (2006) urban centre, 669; (2011) urban centre, 787.