Tom Price 09-10 October 203

Gee, this is a cold place! Woke up Thursday morning after a night under the doona (yep, a bloody doona - all night - and pyjamas!!!!) and had to go searching for a jacket to fend off the chill. It must have got down to at least 18C overnight! We had definitely acclimatised to Marble Bar which was well over 40 every day we were there (it was already 39.5 when we drove out of town at 10:35 in the morning).
SHOES! We had to squeeze our feet into shoes so we could go on the Rio Tinto mine tour. Really felt weird and uncomfortable after two months in thongs and sandals. OH&S running riot once again - even though the only place you get off the bus is in the car park at the lookout over the original main mine pit, closed footwear, hard hats and safety glasses must be worn! Perhaps they are worried that one of the planes carrying the FIFO people in will crash on someone who is not adequately protected.....
The tour was good value tough. Cheaper and longer than the one in Port Headland, but soooooo much better. Baz, the guy driving the bus, had a really dry sense of humour and actually knew a lot about the mining operation, the specs of the various machines, and the costs involved.
So, since I haven't really tried to bore anyone senseless with numbers 'til now, here are some stats:
Rio Tinto have 14 iron ore mines in the Pilbra and expect to be able to continue mining here for anywhere between 24 and 150 years;
They have 36 large dump trucks at Tom Price that can carry 240 tonnes of ore at a time. They have a 2500hp diesel/electric engine, have a 4920 lt fuel tank, have a working life of four years and cost $4.5 milion dollars each. There are also 6 smaller trucks which can 'only' carry 100 tonne at a time, but no-one talks about them much;
There are over 1 million bearings supporting the conveyor belt systems used to transport the ore from stock piles to crushers, washers, trains and ships etc. One section is over twenty kilometers long and runs a single continuous rubber belt (that's one big lakka band!);
There is 1600km of heavy duty standard gauge railway track;
There are 48 trains running on the tracks every day, each one consisting of three 4500hp locos hauling 236 wagons, with a total length of 2.5km (a bit shorter than the BHP Biliton 3.2km ones, but still pretty impressive) and a total load of 27,376 tonne per train with an average of 4 trains from the Tom Price site alone a day. The trains take approximately 90 minutes to unload, which is done by turning two wagons at a time upside down over a hopper.
Everything is simply massive, costs huge amounts of money, and is covered in red dust, but I hear the profits are pretty good....

 

Drove up Mount Nameless (You can walk, or even run, but c'mon now!) to get a bird's eye view of the mine site, town and surrounds. It is a really steep rough 4x4 track, which takes around 30 minutes from bottom to top. To give some idea of how tough a drive is, it takes around two hours to go up the walking trail, but the record for running up (yes there are people stupid and/or fit enough to do that) is a shade over 16 minutes. Anyhow, we made it to the top and the views were pretty good I have to say. It is the highest point in WA you can drive to at 1016m, and you can see for miles and miles and miles. In fact I could see our place from there. You know, the one in the caravan park at the foot of the mountain.

Karijini National Park 05-08 October 2013

Well if we didn't know it already, we are now well and truly in the Pilbra (there is a bumper sticker here that sums a lot of it up - Pilbra: Fly In, Fly Out, Fit In or F**k Off) and EVERYTHING is covered in red dust. Thought the Kimberleys were dusty, but this takes the cake. The dust just sticks to everything. You can see your tan getting darker even when you are not in the sun - just by accumulating layer upon layer of new dust. In fact, I've put on half a kilo while typing this. It will wash off in the shower, but then it will soon be back again. The place is ruggedly beautiful though, and Karijini National Park is simply fantastic.
You can camp at Dales Gorge ($18 a night with nice clean drop toilets and communal BBQs, but no water, power or showers) or at the Eco Retreat which I think is managed by the traditional owners ($38 a night and still no power). Happily we have our own power, water supply and shower, so we stayed at Dales. Set up camp and headed straight to Fern Pool for a well deserved swim. Only problem as usual, is that nature tends to put the swimming holes at the bottom of the gorges, so you climb down the side of the gorge getting hot and sweaty, enjoy a refreshing swim, then get all hot and sweaty again climbing back out. Still worth it though. Next day was same same but different swimming holes. We went to the other end of the gorge and climbed down to Circular Pool. Still can't get over the clarity of the water. Fabulous. Then we walked the bottom of the gorge back to Fortescue Falls where another swimming session ensued before the unavoidable climb out again. Did it all again on Tuesday but this time at Kalamina Falls/Gorge, then on to Weano Gorge. There is just no end to the number of gorges, and everyone different. This is one special place.

Fortescue Falls

Fern Pool

Circular Pool

Mountain Goat track down to Dales Gorge floor

Kalamina Gorge

Kalamina Gorge

Kalamina Gorge

Kalamina Gorge

Plane wreck

We found this wrecked plane just outside the Ranger Station. The story is that a couple of local cockies got too drunk to drive one night, so they stole a plane (as you do) and tried to fly home. To no-one's surprise, they crashed. To cover up their trail, the two farmers then proceeded to break the wreck down into smaller pieces and hide them all over the park. Now as new bits are found, they are being pieced back together at the Ranger Station. That's the story anyway.

Marble Bar continued

OK, so I left some stuff out in the last entry because I wrote it all before dinner. Anyway, we had such a good time at the Ironclad on Friday night that we decided to see what Saturday nights were like as well... Basically it was a case of same, same, not very different, which was a good thing. We had several good chats with Bill the holiday relief nurse. He is in his late fifties ans is the only medical person in town and is on call 24x7 as well as running the Nursing Station on week days. This is the fourth year he has worked the holiday season here, and he loves it. He said that while the pay wasn't great, the stress to dollar ratio was one of the best he has experienced. Not very many after hours calls, which explains why he has time to do the Guardian cryptic crossword while sitting at the bar. Matildie the 24 year old french barmaid (she calls herself Matilda as the locals remember that better for some reason) turned out to be a manager for a private aged care provider back in France, so Hazel and her bonded very quickly. The rodeo champion was there again as well, and we got to learn more of his story. "Windmill Jack" Brennan is well into his eighties, and is one of natures true gentlemen. He seems to have a story for everything, and kept us enthralled for ages. Originally from Queensland, he has been working around the Marble Bar area for five or so years installing and repairing windmills for some of the remote aboriginal communities. Repairing them can run from fixing the pump or greasing some bearings, right up to taking a twisted pile of steel spaghetti lying on the ground where a cyclone left it, and straightening every piece out by hand over a fire, repainting it, and reassembling it. The result being virtually indistinguihble from a brand new one (he showed us the pictures). The rodeo champion bit occurred in 2009 when Jack was already and OBE (Over Bloody Eighty). He just decided that he wanted to give rodeo riding a go as he had done his share of breaking horses in the past, but never riden one in a rodeo. Anyway, he climbed onto a bronco at the Onslow rodeo and they surged out of the gate. Two seconds later Jack is laying in the dirt after the horse fell over backwards. Offered a re-ride Jack mounted up again and did so well that he won the event!!!! Thinking this was a good lark, he entered the next rodeo at the next town along the coast but did no good at all, so he fronted up to the next one, but Rio Tinto (who were running the show) said that there was a new regulation that stated that once you are past retirement age (i.e. sixty four) you could not ride due to OH&S concerns. In other words, they didn't want to get sued when the old bones started to snap. So, rodeo career over, Jack went back to his windmills. Once this tale was told, Jack suddenly noticed the music playing on the jukebox and insisted on a dance with Matildie, as long as they put on Credence's Bad Moon Rising. Soon the bar was turned into a dance hall, with Jack & Matildie, the two French cooks, and the two of us waltzing, jiving and rocking up a storm. Where else but Marble Bar? He also hand makes stock whips, and we went round to visit him at home on our way out of town in the morning for a cup of tea and a look at some of his amazing work. Well the stories lasted until past 10:30 when we finally headed off towards Karijini.

Marble Bar 03-05 October 2013

Marble Bar was always one of those places that we thought we might as well go to since we were in the neighborhood - what's another couple of hundred k's? Not knowing much about the place, we planned to stay overnight and be on our way the next day. Well, colour us surprised! Turns out there is a bit to see around the town: Marble Bar and Chinaman Pools; The Comet Mine museum; The Solar power farm; The Ironclad Hotel (and no, the reason we stayed the extra day was not because of the size of the hangovers we had after spending some quality time with the local bar flies...); The old WW2 secret airbase at Corunna Downs. The list goes on and on, but most of all it is a nice, friendly, quiet sleepy little place which proved a nice change after Port Headland. It is HOT though, which is hardly surprising when it holds the record as the hottest town in Australia with 160 consecutive days above 37.8 degrees C (100 F) in 1923/24. It has been over 40 C each day we have been here.
Had dinner and a few (then a few more) drinks at the Ironclad Hotel which has not changed much since it first opened in 1889. A great pub, with good food (the current chefs are two French backpackers (well they have a caravan) marooned here until they can afford to get their broken Hi-

ace fixed, and icy cold beer. The duty manager/barkeep is a young Danish girl doing here second stint in Marble Bar - she hopes to see the rest of the country one day... The other bar flies included the day shift barmaid (not much other nightlife for yet another French backpacker); a past grand champion rodeo rider; a couple of farriers; various indigenous locals and travelers (who were all very nice to talk to); and two brothers who were collecting seeds from native trees to sell to the mining companies for use in re-vegetation of old mine sites. A very ecclectic and interesting lot, one and all.
The old air base was also interesting. No buildings remain. Just some of the cement slabs and bits and pieces of rubbish, but the landing strips, taxiways and aircraft dispersal revetments are all still there and appear to be being regularly maintained. It's just a pity that there are no signs to indicate what is what. You do still get a good sense of the isolation and harsh conditions the RAAF and USAAF people stationed here had to cope with.
Off to Karajini National Park tomorrow for some more gorge walks and swimming :-)
Prado Spotto scores are now Len 221, Hazel 219.

Terminers?

Who said miners had no sense of humor?

Did I mention it's hot here?

 

Corruna Downs WW2 Airbase main strip

Ironclad Hotel

Port Headland 01-03 October

Please forgive me Broome. You are not the most expensive place in the WA. That honor definitely belongs to Port Headland- $54 a night!!!
That's FIFTY FOUR DOLLARS real Aussie money, and there are no real options. Sure there is a caravan park in South Headland, but that is full to the gunwales (and looks pretty ordinary for the $48 they wanted), and there is the Golf Club which only charges $25 a night, but that is pretty steep for somewhere that looks like the town dump - not appealing at all if you are planning to spend a few days. So it was Cooke Point all the way to the money lenders.... I now officially hate Gina R and the BHP Biliton board for driving up the prices around here. Your basic three bedroom fibro humpie is renting for $1300 a week, and anything remotely decent is $1800+, so in comparison the caravan park is pretty reasonable. Still don't like paying it though. At least the diesel is cheap (relatively) here.
Port Headland is basically a support town for the loading of BHP iron ore and Rio Tinto Salt onto vast cargo ships. There is the Nelson Point facility where the ore trains from Newman are unloaded; the port, where the unloaded ore is picked up again (by a huge dredge type machine called a reclaimer) and then conveyored to the waiting ships; two pubs (one of which is four and a half stars); four banks; two cafes (two more are being renovated); three museums (all closed); an op shop; three servos and a Woolies, and that about sums up the town. Even the banks are planning to move to South Headland, so soon all that will be left is the trains, the conveyor belts and the docks. Oh, and the houses which are rented out for exorbitant sums to the mining company staff and contractors. And all covered in Pilbra Snow a.k.a. red iron ore dust.
I shouldn't be too harsh though as some of the streets in the few blocks of suburbia look very nice, with well maintained houses and lots of palm trees. You could almost forget where you were. Almost.
Still, an interesting place.
Met Cadel Evans European Father at the pool the other night. He is a wiry little Swiss guy who rode his bicycle from Darwin to Melbourne eight years ago and is now taking his wife around in a motor home to show here where he had been. Apparently he has spent time with Cadel in Oz and trains with him when he is in Switzerland. It must all be true - he had a Team BMC hat an everything.
Hazel was chatting to a bloke at the clothesline this morning (as you do) and he told her how his misses was now taking turns to empty the port-a-pottie cassette in the dump point. Apparently he is now in trouble with the other blokes as he has let her "Cross the Blue Line" and do a boy job. Good on him I reckon.

Stan's new Motor Home?

It's not all dingy dirty mining town.

Those little smudges on the horizon are ships lined up, as far as the eye can see, to come into harbor.

The Little Tug Boat who Could

Lots of salt!

Reclaimer

Cape Kerauden - 30 September 2013

The plan on leaving Barn Hill was to head for Eighty Mile Beach, but that seemed just too close so we pushed on to the very start of the beach at Cape Kerauden, which is a Coastal Recreation Reserve with some camping areas right on the beach. These have drop toilets but no showers or drinking water so the price is consequently quite low. The camp sites used to be behind a sand dune, but the cyclone of 2010 blew and washed that all away.
Nature is not the only thing which is changing things here though, as the council is busy paving the access road and intends to grant leases for tourist accommodation, so if you want to see this place in it's present pristine state you had better hurry!
Cape Kerauden is the official start of salt water croc teritory, so the Ranger advised against swimming as there had been a recent siting. That plus the cloudy water which was likely to conceal stone fish and stingrays were reason enough to stay high and dry - way too far from civilization for any Steve Irwin antics.
So what's it like? Well it just doesn't measure up to Ninety Mile Beach on the Prom - Ba Boom :)
What's it really like?
WINDY. BLOODY WINDY. So bloody windy that we had to take the awning off the camper, all the while struggling to stop it becoming a kite and flying away! Even then, we had to pile stuff onto the floor to weigh it down to stop it being lifted by the wind howling underneath.
Apart from that though, it is a beautiful part of the world so it is a pity to think that they are going to prostitute it before the altar of commercial tourism, like so many other places which were so special back in the day before they were completely overrun. (I'm starting to sound like a rabbid greenie.) There are long, long, long white sandy beaches littered with shells of all designs colours and sizes. There are rocky outcrops covered in barnacles. There are crocodile tracks. There are sand crabs and hermit crabs galore. The hermit crabs are especially active at night. There were literally thousands of them scuttling across the sand. They even came as far as the camp area and were crawling between our camp chairs and feet. Where were they all going and why????? There are sqillions of birds, and even a fox which sat itself down in the dark looking at us eat diner, no more than two metres away. Amazing! Shining a torch on it made it move off a little, but it kept coming back. Only the flash of the camera scared it off until after we went to bed. There were prints in the sand outside our door the next morning - cheeky bugger.
There was a relatively recently retired couple camped next door who had been traveling for a year (well three days short of a year but close enough for jazz) and had ony made it as far as here from Perth in all that time. How they were going to get to Broome by the 14th for their daughter's wedding I just don't know.

 

The Ranger's Dog???