attacked on four occasions by Japanese aircraft. Wyndham's significance as a service centre was crucial for the construction of the Ord River Diversion Dam and the town of Kununurra in the early 1960s. With the rise of Kununurra as a larger population centre the significance of Wyndham as a service centre had diminished by the 1980s. Wyndham has regained significance as the port for the region with new mines shipping ore from the port. Wyndham Meatworks In 1913, the Western Australian government started to construct the Wyndham Meatworks to restart the town's economy. The construction efforts were interrupted by the Nevanas affair and World War I, but the meatworks were completed in 1919 to a design by William Hardwick who later became the Principal Architect of Western Australia. The meatworks were the mainstay of the town's economy until their closure in 1985; the town also supported the Air Beef Scheme which ran from 1947 to 1965. Geography Wyndham is on the eastern side of Cambridge Gulf, an inlet of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in the Timor Sea. It is surrounded by the Durack, Pentecost and King rivers to the south, Forrest River to the west and Ord River to the north. Much of the land around Wyndham is inhospitable, and includes the Bastion Range and the mudflats of the Cambridge Gulf. The Bastion Range is the site of the Wyndham Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because it holds the largest known population of endangered Gouldian finches. Climate Wyndham experiences a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh), being a little too dry to be classified as a tropical savanna climate (Aw), with a wet season from late November to March and a dry season from April to early November. The hottest month is November with an average maximum temperature of , and the coolest month is June with an average maximum of . The annual average maximum temperature is , one of the highest in Australia. In 1946, Wyndham recorded 333 consecutive days of temperatures over . The wet season is very humid with the average dewpoint temperature at 3pm in February being . In the dry season, in August, it is . Large rain events do occur in Wyndham, such as on 4 March 1919 when of rain were recorded over a 24-hour period, followed by another the next day. Facilities Education There are two schools,