July 13 ... Port Hedland

It was quite a nice day today so we decided to investigate Port Hedland further albeit with pretty low expectations. On our drive in we passed the same run down houses but they looked a bit better in the sunshine, and we did see some much nicer ones as well. Most of the new homes are made of steel and colourbond while the old ones tend to be fibro with protective steel grates in front of all glass.

Neater than many!

Steel grids are cyclone protection

Love the landscaping!

A new home

There are also a number of sculptures around the town which are nice. The one of "Three Palms" was commissioned by BHP after the very destructive Cyclone George in 2007. And the ones of the indigenous people commemorate their 1946 Strike here at Port Hedland when more than 1000 indigenous pastoral workers held out successfully for better pay and working conditions.

 "Three Palms"

"Paper Planes" ... crashed!

Sculpture commemorating the 1946 Strike

"Indigenous Stockmen"

 There are not many old or historic places in town and the reasons given for this were the cyclones, of which they get on average 4 a year, and the white ants.  We did manage to find a couple though which were very interesting.
The first was the Medical Staff Quarters of the Royal Flying Doctors. John Flynn, the founder of the service, set up his first base and hospital in Port Hedland in 1935.
We also visited Dalgetty House which has been fully restored by the Historical Society, and it was excellent. The Dalgetty Pastoral Company influenced the way of life for most of the settlers in this region. It was the source of all their supplies; it loaned money;and it took produce to markets which were often as far afield as London. The manager was courted and bribed because he was such a powerful figure. As well as lots of interesting material we did find one amusing photo of the Indigenous Polo Team. Note their steeds which I am sure were very different from those ridden by the pastoralists team!
There was also a small Pearler's Cottage to commemorate a past industry of the area.

Medical Staff Quarters ... early architecture

Pearler's Cottage

Dagetty Pastoral Company

The Indigenous Polo Team

We decided on an early lunch in this interesting "train carriage" cafe before going across to the Art Gallery. The carriage was part of a train donated by an American company and it did a weekly passenger run from Newman to Port Hedland. On a deck out the back was a shaded eating area and we had a nice coffee and baguette.

The "Whistle Stop" Cafe

I have been very impressed with the indigenous art we have seen on this trip, and this exhibition was no exception. The colours in the paintings were so bright and attractive ... but they were expensive, mostly over $2000. I am sure they are worth the money but they are out of our range!

"Bush Tucker"

"Wild Onions"

"Mulla Mulla Country"

"Emu Dreaming"

We then went for a walk as close to the port as we were allowed to go. It was interesting, if not particularly attractive. A large part of the docks are not visible but we could still see the stockpiles of iron ore and much of the loading machinery.

Trees showing cyclone damage in front of stockpile.

Ore carrier ready for loading

Small ore ship entering port

The massive BHP Iron Ore Loading Facility extends almost the whole length of the town and dominates the skyline ... and it is ugly. Together with the railway, the skyline is just a mass of machines, cranes and power poles, all, of which are covered in red dust.

Ore Loader

BHP Building

The Port Hedland skyline

Just at the entrance to town is the Redbank Bridge, an elevated road bridge that goes over the railway line. On the side of it they have built an observation platform from which you can see the ore trains as they pass underneath and you have an excellent view of the Salt Works. These are owned by Rio Tinto and are solar powered.

The Salt Mine

Salt Drying Lakes

An Ore Train

It took a while, and we had to wait patiently, but eventually an ore train came into view. It was smaller than expected but still impressive in its length, which was about 1.5 kms.




Given what a great day we had I guess we have to revise our first impression of the town. It does have some lovely areas and a real effort has been made to improve its image. At high tide the water has the beautiful colours that we like and the beaches look nice.There is really quite a lot to see and do here and we will have no trouble filling in our two days!

July 12 ... Port Hedland

The Hamersley Ranges

The green and gold of the Pilbara

Garry and I were again really surprised today by the beauty of the landscape we travelled through. In our ignorance we had imagined the Pilbara to be a flat, dry, rather uninteresting area, when in reality, it is none of those. Leaving Tom Price we drove through the Hamersley Ranges and then we entered the Chichester Range, so we actually drove around or alongside mountains for almost the whole trip. There was always something new and interesting to see as we went through passes and across undulating foothills.

One of the many ridges we drove beside

Chichester Range

It was just over 400 kms to Port Hedland and our only "civilization" was the Munjina Roadhouse which was the best we have experienced this trip. We stopped for a delicious cappuccino and sandwich with many other travellers and mine workers. We were now on the Great Northern Highway, coming up from the south through Newman, and there was plenty of traffic ... mostly massive road trains and mine vehicles, sprinkled with caravaners.

Hillsides of spinifex

 The dominant vegetation was clumps of spinifex and when you looked at it on the hillsides it was just like the dot paintings of the aboriginal people. I like to think there is a connection there because I always wondered why they use dots so much.
And there were masses of purple mulla mulla everywhere, not just beside the road but stretching away onto the hillsides. My first "wild flower" experience, and it was beautiful. I took heaps of photos which Garry very nicely stopped for.

Mulla Mulla Wildflowers

It was pretty much a straight run into Port Hedland then, across some relatively flat land and wide sandy riverbeds, until we joined onto the North West Coastal Highway just south of here. Again on our drive we saw many stacks of huge rocks that were the end result of much weathering, more eagles and flocks of budgerigars, but no other stock despite excellent grasslands.

Port Hedland was another surprise. The weather was bleak and overcast so our first impressions were affected by this but the original township looked pretty bad. Due to the regular cyclones in the wet season and the penetrating sticky red dust that is constantly in the air because of the massive stock piles of iron ore right in the centre of town, they have built a new township 20 kms inland called South Hedland and this is where most of the 15000 people live. But we knew none of this and happily booked into the Park at Cooke Point which we soon came to think of as the most attractive part of the whole town.
On our way in we drove alongside the rail line (no long trains today though) and passed the salt works. The huge BHP ship loading centre is right in the middle of town (very ugly) as are the docks. We drove around town and I was quite shocked by the air of neglect and the poor standard of housing. Everything looked dirty and a lot of the trees were still damaged from the last cyclone. There were no shops but we did see some nice parks and sculptures. Quite honestly though, it looked like a real dump, but hopefully this image will be improved on tomorrow.
As usual, our first stop was the Tourist Office where we were disappointed to learn of all the things we could no longer do, which left us wondering how we would fill in our 2 days here! We decided to spend the first few hours of that time watching some big ore carriers come into port through a ridiculously narrow harbour entrance. And we have booked on a tour of the BHP site, so now we just have to spot one of the legendary ore trains!

July 11 ... Karijini National Park

Heading into Karijini National Park

Our bus under a "snappy" gum

Early start today ... the bus was here at 7.30 and it was cold, and very grey, and windy, but after raining ALL night, we had none during the day. We only had a a top temperature of about 15 degrees though, easily our coldest day this trip.

Our driver was Chris from Lestok Tours and he was excellent. He was interesting and informative all day and he was just a nice, friendly, genuine bloke. He was able to tell us that the name "Pilbara" actually comes from "Pil Bara" and translates from the local indigenous language as" little fish".

As soon as we hit the first dirt road Garry and I were very glad we had spent the money on a tour ($145 each) as it was badly corrugated and we rattled and bumped and slid along for about 150 kms during the day.

Karijini is in the Hamersley Ranges and our first stop was at Hancock and Weano Gorges. The Karijini area is so ancient that it predates fossils, at least 2500 million years old. The only life forms around when the Karijini rocks were formed were stromatolites and algae.

Also in the park are three gorges from which they used to mine blue asbestos and the town of Wittenoom is only about 30 kms away. The roads into this ex-town (it has been ungazetted) have been dug up to prevent access and no-one is allowed into these particular gorges.

Hancock Gorge

Weano Gorge

There is water in many of the gorges and the waterfalls are flowing due to the unusually wet winter. During other times of the year, we would have been swimming, and while some people were, we left it for the more hardy folk. From Oxer Lookout we could also see Red Gorge and Joffre Gorge.

Red Gorge

Joffre Gorge

We did not see much fauna during the day, lots of birds though, but we stopped at some huge termite nests for a better look. The park is riddled with these mounds but this was one of the biggest.

We did walk down into a couple of the gorges and there is a track into almost all of them if you are keen. Some walks / climbs are a category 5, even a category 6, so it is best if you are experienced. After numerous rescues, a few of these have been put onto the list that says "with an experienced abseiler only"!  Fortunately, the walks we did were not too challenging.

Termite Mound

Joffre Falls

Kalimina Gorge

From the bottom of the gorges it was possible to see the rock strata which was highly layered, similar to slate, but on a massive scale. Much of it was blue ironstone, but there was also a bright red layer that was jasper. The folding process that had taken place over many millions of years also became obvious, as did the evidence of volcanic activity.

The Jasper layer(plum red)

Kalimina Gorge

After an excellent lunch and a walk along the gorge at Kalamina Falls, we drove on to the Visitors Centre. Here they had lots of great information about the formation and upkeep of the park in which the local indigenous people play a key role. They run a very lucrative business in the Eco Retreat which is luxury accommodation within the park. The Visitors Centre has been constructed out of untreated steel and is in the shape of a lizard.

Window scene from the Visitors Centre

From here we went on to Fortesque Falls, Circular Pool, Dales Gorge and Fern Pool. By this stage it was early afternoon and really cold on the top of the gorges. Garry and I still rate The Bungles as the best ever National Park, but this has to be a very close second. There was so much variety in the landforms as well as the vegetation, and much of it was very dramatic. To stand on top and look down into some of these gorges really does take your breath away. The contrasting colours are so strong that they create an amazingly beautiful scene.

Fortesque Falls

Fern Pool

Circular pool

We may not have seen any animals but we did see lots of wild flowers and Chris was able to tell us a bit about them.
The "snappy" gum is so called because in times of severe drought, it sheds a limb or two and then heals over the wound in such a way that it looks like an amputees stump. A bit weird!
There were also many different forms of Mulla Mulla and wattles, and together with many other plants, these were all in flower.

Wattle

Mulla Mulla with Kangaroo Grass

The Custard Bush

Holly Grevillea

On the way home Chris was still pointing out various landforms to us and he also spotted numerous flocks of budgies that flashed an iridescent green in the sunlight. It was a fabulous day that we thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend. We felt we had seen the very best of the park and it was completely stress free despite some taxing conditions.