09 Karijini and Tom Price/Parraburdoo

 From Port Hedland,  we drove with the mining road trains on the road towards BHP's mine at Newman. Newman sends ore by rail but there are several smaller companies that send ore to Port Hedland by road. Most are road trains with four trailers

We turned off the busy mining road into Karijini National Park. From Dales Campground we visited Fortescue Falls, 275 steps down,

Look carefully at the rocks, stacked like a wall, all natural.

and the beautiful Fern Pool

We moved to a different campsite, the Eco Resort which cost a lot more and the main difference was a restaurant and warm water for showers. Some of you may know Mark and Monica Short, who we met here for dinner.

The nearby Joffrie Falls were in a very deep canyon, and people (not us) climbed downand swam in the water at the base

Some took their own airbeds.

Tom Price and Paraburdoo mines are owned by Rio Tinto and send ore for export to Dampier on their private railway, each train is 2.6 km long. It has 3 engines and 236 ore cars carrying approx 120 tons of ore each. Four trains fill one ore ship.

We did a mine tour, this is just one of several large pits.

A series of large holes are drilled, filled with explosives then the rock is blasted. Trucks carry 240 tons each to a central crusher, where is some dirt is removed and the ore is put into a stockpile, then loaded onto the trains

At Paraburdoo, we met up with David and Priya Morgan and their two gorgeous girls. David is the BCA supported Minister at Paraburdoo/Tom Price, and comes from Engadine.

Next we go back to the coast at Karratha.

08 Port Hedland

From Broome to Port Hedland is 600 km (Derby to Hedland is 762) and the scenery changes greatly. We leave the Kimberly Ranges, drive through some very flat land which reminded me of the Hay Plains, and reach the Pilbera, the centre of Australia's Iron Ore mining and export.

We began at Port Hedland, the largest bulk mineral port in the world. Ships up to 200,000 tonnes are constantly arriving, filling in about 36 hours then departing, usually for China or Korea. 

Can you see two tug boats guiding this ship. You can tell the ship is empty because a full ship will sit low in the water with the red part of the hull all under. 

Two tugs are pushing this ship into its berth. The rope goes to another tug holding the ship back because there is a strong wind this day.

This ship is about 3/4 loaded. It must be loaded carefully a little in each hold or it will tip and break in half.

Some berths have no proper jetty. The shipping companies leave the sailors on board. Each ship has a crew of about 20. Many sailors feel isolated and lonely, missing their families. A volunteer Christian organisation called Seafarers Centre takes a small launch around the harbour, visiting every ship to bring sailors to shore, changes their money and offers any other help needed. The launch also takes tourists (like us) when it picks up the sailors.This helps cover their costs.

The sailors board the launch from a steep ladder at the side of the ship.

BHP brings Iron Ore several hundred km from Mt Newman on a private rail line. Each train is 2.9 km long, and has 4 engines. Ore is stockpiled then sent to the wharf on big conveyor belts.

Next stop, we head to a mining area, via Karijini, one of WA's most spectacular national parks.

07 Broome

Broome has a wet season (summer) population about 16,000 but in the tourist season it swells to 3 times that size. It is famous for many tourist things, particularly Cable Beach and for the pearl industry.

The tidal range is about 8 metres so a lot of beach is dry at low tide and lots of 4wd vehicles drive onto the beach, especially when low tide and sunset coincide.

This sunset gives a sort of stairway appearance.

You can go on camel rides along Cable Beach, they look great at sunset. We didn't have a ride, just enjoyed the view.

Just thought it was time to put the old man's photo in there. This is Town Beach, a lovely shady spot where we went for a picnic lunch. It was very hot in Broome.

Broome has a very mixed population, especially lots of Asians, whose families came here for the pearl industry before WW2. Shady Lane was a great spot in Chinatown.

The Pearl Shells off the Broome coast are the largest in the world. These are harvested by scuba divers and a seed is carefully placed inside. Then they are placed back in the water and carefully checked for about 2 years.

 We took a trip to a Pearl Farm, where the Pearl shells are put in frames and placed in the fast flowing tidal water.

This shell was opened in front of us, this is a medium size cultured pearl.

And we were shown the top of the range in the shop on the Pearl Farm, Lee was selected to model this string worth $80,000. Pearls are valued by shape, colour, lustre, size and lack of imperfections.
This string was flawless. But she did have to give it back.

Broome was the edge of the Kimberleys, next we headed to the mining areas, the Pilbera.

06 Horizontal Waterfall and Buchaneer Archipelago

Derby is located on flat land surrounded by mud flats that can be flooded at very high tides. 

The west Kimberley ranges continue into the sea north of Derby and make up a large group of islands, called the Buccaneer Archipelago. The extreme tidal range, about 10 metres, has created a very fast water flow between some of these islands, and created a tourist feature called the Horizontal Waterfall.

We took a flight in a small Cessna plane from Derby at high tide to look at this horizontal waterfall. 

Cockatoo Island and Koolan Island are in the Archipelago. They were mined by BHP for high grade iron ore. 

Koolan was flooded when the sea wall was collapsed. Mining was well below sea level

There are hundreds of islands and mangroves exposed at low tide

We flew over Cone Bay Barramundi Farm, where the fish were kept in large netted cages and fed by the farmers, but the fish were kept very lean and therefore tasty, because they were always swimming against the moving water from the large tides.

What a great flight, beautiful islands. Next blog, we finally make it to Broome. See you then.