Pilbara - 2nd September 2007

Today we took the relatively short journey (about 290km) from Port Hedland to Karratha but since we were there early we decided to go into Dampier and have a look there as well. As we left Port Hedland we had a quick look at the port and also stopped to take some photos of the salt fields just as we were leaving town. The area up here in the Pilbara is rich in natural resources and much of the wealth in the area comes from iron ore, the Onshore Gas Plant in Karratha and salt which is produced in Dampier Solar Salt Fields by Rio Tinto Minerals. The Pilbara is ideal for salt production due to its hot, dry climate and the area is rich in iron ore, nickel, copper and ammonia and the Pilbara Coast contributes over 15 % of Australia’s national economy through exports, taxes and royalties. A pamphlet we picked up on Port Hedland is titled: Port Hedland – Economic Heartbeat of Australia. It also says: “Red dirt = iron ore = steel = your car, your house, your caravan, even the kitchen sink! The Pilbara supplies 34% of the world’s sea-borne iron ore trade. Was your car born in the Pilbara WA?” We attempted to visit the Visitor’s Centre for the North West Shelf Venture so we could learn more about natural gas industry but it is not open on Sundays. As well as all these resources, the Pilbara’s fishing industry plays an important part in the local economy.

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We did go to Hearson’s Cove which is a nice swimming beach with a shore completely made up of crushed shells. I walked down to the water’s edge and felt the water and it was quite warm and would have been nice to swim in but we wanted to go and look for the aboriginal carvings that are in the area as well so had to forgo that opportunity this time. The carvings are in a place called Deep Gorge on the Burrup Peninsula, Dampier and it is a lovely little area between two rocky hills with some vegetation and a little water further in. We could see how it would have been a good place for early aborigines to live being close to the sea and with what was probably fresh water available to drink as well as plenty of marsupials for food as well judging by the droppings all around. We had to look hard at first to find any carvings but once we saw one or two we saw lots; the first ones were on the rocks on the hill that was more exposed to the open plain but then we went down into the gorge part and found many more. It was exciting finding them ourselves with no-one to tell us where to look and imagining the early inhabitants of the area doing them and why. For instance, the kangaroo featured and so did emu footprints and these would have been important animals for food. The area was quite a way by foot from the beach but there were a lot of shells and shell fragments around on the ground so we assumed these were left by the aboriginals who brought the shellfish back to the shelter of the gorge to eat and share with the mob. It was really very interesting and fun to explore down the gorge and not many tourists seem to do so, I guess because they have to look themselves and there are to definite signs or viewing points like many other tourist attractions. Actually, two guys came wandering down the gorge behind us and I don’t think they had seen one carving; I pointed out some emu footprints and explained that you need to look hard because they are everywhere but some are hard to see since the rocks have probably fallen over time. They looked at the ones I showed them and one guy followed on to look for more but the other guy went back to their campervan. I think he was probably too hot and since neither of them was wearing a shirt, they probably got sunburnt as well!
On the way back up the dirt road I yelled in excitement because there was Sturt’s Desert Pea growing along the edge. Fin stopped at the next lot we saw, I took some photos and noticed that some of them had a red centre instead of the usual black one. I read in one of the tourist brochures that it is unique to this area. Further on, along the asphalt road up to the North West Shelf Visitors Centre, there was a carpet of them in places along the roadside. Just beautiful!
After this we went up a dirt road to a lookout mentioned in the tourist guide also. It was quite a drive up being a much deteriorated rocky track but going down was much more of a challenge! Fin did a great job of it using the manual override function in the car to control it better. I have put up photo I took through the window during the bumpy ride (lousy photo) to show what it was like. The view is 360 degree around but there was another lookout showing Dampier town and harbour as well that we went to.
So we had a busy day before we booked into our accommodation then basically settled in, cleaned up and went out to the pub for dinner. What we found out there is that you don’t order your entree and mains at the same time or you get them at the same time! Very strange way of doing things and they didn’t tell us when we ordered or we would have only ordered entree and gone back of course. We saw another guy with the same problem – someone needs to tell them how to do it I think! So, that was Father’s day 2007.