http://andosontherun.blogspot.com/
MAY 2007
Greetings from Port Hedland
From Carnarvon we only had a relatively short drive to Coral Bay where we had booked for 3 nights.
We had been advised it was a very busy place and it is wise to book first and that info turned out to be accurate for once.
Coral Bay is a beautiful little resort town, a bit of a magnet for backpackers from all over the world, a bit like Airlie Beach in Qld.
The village and all the infrastructure (except water) is privately owned by only 3 families, 2 of them each own a caravan park and shopping centre and the third group own the pub and between them they appear to also own all the boats and tours they offer for diving, coral viewing and fishing etc. plus 4WD quad bikes which are everywhere and available for hire…. For some reason no one can buy property here and officially, no one lives here either. (I don’t understand that but it seems to be true as we were told the story twice)
We decided to give the whale sharks a miss and instead went on a snorkelling trip to the reef which is only about 1k from the shore. Unfortunately the water wasn’t as flat as it could be but, as you would know by now, it’s always windy over here and we didn’t have much time to pick & choose, however once under the water I suppose it doesn’t make a lot of difference. The only danger was getting blown away from the boat but we managed to avoid any problems in that regard and had a great time for a couple of hours.
The coral over here is not as colourful as the Barrier Reef but it is very pretty just the same and some of the growths are huge, the highlight for us was swimming with a large school of snapper and spangled emperor to about 50cm. Being within the Ningaloo Marine Sanctuary the fish are quite tame, they know they are safe and if you’re careful and don’t make any sudden moves, you can actually reach out and touch them under the water as they swim by.
(Who said fish have no brains?)
Day 2 we did a bit of 4W driving into the sand hills and on to the beach away from the town, like most of the W.A. coast the water is a beautiful turquoise colour and the sand is almost pure white, it really is lovely and perfectly safe for swimming with no swells or rips anywhere.
Many years ago, before tourism became popular, this area was known as either Maud’s Landing or Bills Bay (depending on who you listen to) and was an export point for the wool industry, the only reminder of that era today are 2 piers left from the old jetty which has long been derelict. (Probably blown away by a cyclone or two)
The weather is starting to warm up now that we’ve crossed into the tropics, most days are a very pleasant
27 - 30 degrees and nights get down to around 18 and as we’ve turned more into the North East since turning the corner at Carnarvon the winds appear to be lessening as well……Let’s hope so.
We only had about 180k’s to travel the next day to Exmouth so we had a late start for a change as the weather forecast predicted a tail wind from the S.E. we had no need to get away before the wind came up.
Exmouth is a small town of about 2500 currently, but obviously about to go into an enormous growth period, not unlike the rest of W.A.
About 1k south of the town there is a huge canal housing development under construction near a very new harbour and marina precinct which is full of very big boats and prawn trawlers, there are literally hundreds of blocks being created, most with deep canal frontages, all over 900sq mtrs and very expensive. The cheapest we saw in the sales office in town was $440k up to a maximum of $550k and apparently they are selling like hot cakes…….This is obviously going to be a much bigger town in the very near future.
We spent most of the time here on washing & housework plus stocking the pantry and fridge as we intend heading inland for the next week or so, to Tom Price and Newman to have a look at what’s causing this mining boom we keep hearing about.
The road on this sector passed through some of the prettiest and most varied country we have seen on this trip, firstly we drove through miles of bright red sand hill country with patches of brilliant green as a result of recent rains, then it changed almost instantly as we got into the range country and started to see some of the huge rocky outcrops which obviously contain the ores and minerals for which this area is well known.
Some people actually say driving over here is boring but we certainly haven’t felt that at all.
First night out of Exmouth we had a stopover at the Nanutarra Roadhouse where we found the caravan park area quite clean and spacious.
We decided as it was only a quick stopover we would have tea in the cafe attached to the roadhouse…… not a good decision……..due to the isolation everything here is super expensive……..anyway we enjoyed our $19.75 hamburgers, checked out the petrol price (175.9c/ltr) and decided we had enough to get us to Tom Price.
A couple of people we spoke to explained that the power generators at the roadhouse cost about $1000 per day to run so that’s why everything is so expensive. (Makes sense)
Next morning we set out for Tom Price and again drove through some very pretty country, as we approached the Hammersley Ranges the hills became bigger and more colourful and the compass went haywire so there must be mineral everywhere.
Tom Price was a very interesting place, the only caravan park was a little bit out of town and full of workers from the local mine, with a few sites kept for the tourists. You don’t need an alarm clock here as all the diesel utes in the park fire up between 5.30 and 6.00 every morning to go to work.
Tom Price is the highest town in W.A. only 500 plus metres above sea level and in the shadow of Mt. Nameless the highest accessible mountain in W.A.
We stayed for 3 nights, went on a tour of the iron ore mine which is owned by Rio Tinto and is a huge open cut operation 5.5km long, 1.5km wide and about 500m deep right down into the centre of what used to be Mt. Tom Price. Not quite as big as the “Super Pit” in Kalgoorlie but they haven’t been digging here quite as long yet. (Pic’s on the Blog if you‘re interested) They bring the ore up from the bottom of the pit to the processing plant in huge dump trucks each carrying about 180 tonnes, the tyres alone stand 3.7mtrs high and cost about $100k each, up till now they have taken about 1billion tonnes out of the mine and it still has about 8 years left before it runs out.
We were told if we come back here in 10 years we will probably see “Lake Tom price” from the same lookout, as the underground water keeps flowing in continually and the pumps operate 24 hours a day to keep it under control and when the ore runs out it will just be left to fill.
The company will then move on to the next mine…they currently have another 6 sites ready to go at sometime in the future.
We saw the ore being loaded on to the trains which consist of 230 cars, each carrying over 100 tonnes and measuring a total length of 2.4k’s for the trip down to the port at Dampier some 400k’s away on the coast to be shipped to China or Korea.
The whole loading operation for a train that size takes less than 2 hours.
The interesting thing is, as Tom Price is the highest town in W.A. the trains use less fuel travelling down hill to Dampier fully loaded than they use on the return journey empty.
The other interesting bit of info we were told was that the largest single shareholder in Rio Tinto is the queen so I guess their future is assured well into the future.
(There’s a bit of trivia for you)
Next day we went for a drive out to Hammersley Gorge and Mount Sheila, a little bit rough in parts but well worth the drive as both are quite spectacular in their own way, the rock formations at Hammersley Gorge are different to anything we have seen previously, …..not having the faintest idea what type of rock or what the curved formation would be called, I’ve put a Pic on the blog, you can see for yourself.
On the way back to the park we drove up to the top of Mount Nameless via a very ordinary 4WD track with lots of signs advising us if we got into trouble no one else cared, anyway we got to the top and back down in one piece and again, it was well worth the effort, the view is spectacular.
We decided not to go to Newman as it involves another 165k and return to the same point before making any further progress north and as we had seen the mine at Tom Price, we could see no value in another mine, even though the BHP mine at Newman is supposedly the largest open cut operation in the world…..This is certainly the world of “BIG” over here, everyone claims to be bigger than someone else, there is currently a debate going on about which of Dampier or Port Hedland can claim the title of the biggest exporter by tonnage.
We skipped Port Dampier and Karratha as we have heard there’s no accommodation there anyway, all the caravan parks are full of workers and their families.
We are currently in Port Hedland where we’ve seen more big trains, big trucks & even bigger ships and will leave here tomorrow (Saturday) for 80 Mile Beach (about half way to Broome) …we will probably stay there for 6 or 7 days, apparently the beach fishing is really good at the moment and we have been told it is a great park. (Will let you know next time)
It’s getting late in the day and I’m sure you’ll be thinking I’ve waffled on long enough, so hopefully this finds everyone healthy & well.
Till next time
Love to all
D & J.
