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Published: October 25th 2012
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We constantly hear about the mining boom in Western Australia and intellectually we know this is happening, but to actually see and experience the activity makes it incredibly real.
The landscape is distinctly different from that of the Kimberley. Although the red colour still dominates it is more purpley than orange. Ranges topped with a layer of mineral rich rocks can be seen frequently and stabilised sand dunes increase in number as you go south. The vegetation is more sparse and shady trees harder to find. The daily temperatures still hover around the 40 degree mark.
Fluoro orange or yellow shirts with reflective strips could be seen everywhere; on clotheslines, in the supermarkets, at the pubs and walking in the streets. White Toyota Hilux 4x4 with yellow fluoro strips and high-lift safety flags were the vehicle of choice, any other almost look out of place.
Port Hedland 4 dog Road trains ruled the roads approaching and within Port Hedland. It seemed like peak hour on the road even in the middle of the day.
The caravan park seemed to have more dongas than spots for caravans. It was extremely well organised. The manager escorted each new
arrival assisting them to get into a site as quickly and efficiently as possible. Our site overlooked a mangrove estuary which Greg dreamed of having a go at fishing, only the talk of the ‘big salty down there’ put a kybosh on that idea. In the distance we could see and hear ore trains moving slowly as they pulled up and loaded onto ships in the port. The port lights at night were very bright but quite beautiful. There was a constant hum of machinery in the background.
Roebourne Next day we headed for Dampier. It was a long hot drive. Looking forward to morning break, Marian and Joan were joking on the 2 way about stopping at the bakery in Roebourne for a sticky bun. We had apparently missed the stunning bakery in Halls Creek so bakeries had become a standard joke. A truckie, obviously amused by our banter, chipped in, ‘You’ll only get rock cakes there.’
Roebourne is an historic town with a jail famous for its many hangings, as many as 5 in one day. Now it is predominantly an aboriginal community. All but a few buildings were closed or boarded up. We managed
to get an iced coffee before continuing our journey.
Karatha Driving through Karatha was amazing. This ultra-modern mining town is booming. A dual carriage highway was a hive of activity. Trucks, bulldozers, rollers, graders, surveyors, you name it; they were there in multiple numbers creating tens of kilometres of new roads. This makes our road building exercises seem like child’s play.
Where ever you looked new suburbs were popping up. Roads were under construction, street lighting installed and it seemed it was just awaiting the arrival of the inevitable dongas and the miners to fill them.
Dampier The ‘transit’ caravan park had a limit of three days, but that meant that there were spaces for travellers as all the others were taken by miners. Dampier is the original town and was quiet and sleepy, which made it a nice place to stay. We still had a view of a ship loading facility to remind us where we were.
We visited the NW Shelf LNG plant, complete with five “trains” that convert gas to LNG. The plant was huge and there was the constant roar of the many burn-off flames in the background. It was
strange to realise that the huge storage tanks held gas at -161C while the air temp was 40C.
Naturally we just had to visit the “Red Dog” memorial.
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glenda krollig
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cover girl
You look so relaxed, and beautiful.