Week 11 - Purposeful Meandering Around Oz

Eighty Mile Beach – Port Hedland – Dampier – Emu Creek Station

Kilometres          13592 – 14954 km

We began our week at a relaxingly pace, Eighty Mile Beach had such a laid back feel to it that it was contagious. We had an early morning leisurely stroll along the beach where the kids collected a mountain of various shells, sea sponge and coral. As the tide was heading out we returned to the van and grabbed the 4x4 and headed for a drive along the beach. Heading south we found a nice secluded spot on the beach where we spent a lovely few hours lazing on the sand, the kids did some schoolwork with the best classroom views ever…. By late afternoon and with the tide coming in we headed back to the van with all of us getting a bit too much sun.

80 Mile Beach - Classroom views

Tuesday had us heading to Port Hedland and into the heart of Pilbara country. This area of WA is renowned for its mining with Port Hedland being one of Australia’s busiest shipping ports. We were amazed by the size of everything. The best way to describe Port Hedland is “a big boys meccano set”.  There are as many 4-trailer road-trains as there are cars on the road. The trains are the longest I’ve ever seen, with most of them having 2 engines up front, 2 in the middle and sometimes some at the rear. We counted one train having 200 carriages, all fully laden. There are the countless conveyor systems, crusher plants and port loading facilities. The harbour, while seeming to run like clock-work is a constant stream of bulk carriers coming and going. The tug boats play chess with the huge ships in the harbour while a helicopter constantly buzz’s the air ferrying the marine pilots out to the some 30 ships that sat offshore….. There was always something to look at.

Salt pans @ Port Hedland

We ended up staying 2 nights in Port Hedland, the accommodation wasn’t flash but since most of the town’s accommodation is taken up with fly-in fly-out people or demountable style accommodation we were happy to put the van in the golf course carpark for 2 nights. On Wednesday we checked out a few of the other sites around town. Salt mining is another industry which thrives in town and over a large area of land you can see saltwater lakes at various stages of evaporation, all waiting to be farmer and shipped offshore. The other notable thing in Port Hedland is the orangey-brown iron ore stain that covers everything. Some companies paint their equipment orangey-brown in attempt to reduce the stained appearance.

The kids are loving their fishing

By Thursday we’d had enough of the big meccano set and were on the road heading south. Once again mining sites littered the landscape and every couple of kilometres they’d be another turn-off to yet another mine. We’re not greenies but we both commented on what the Pilbara landscape will look like in X amount of years when there’s no more minerals left in the ground….. By mid-afternoon we were in Karratha which is a hub for much of the heavy industry which occupies this area of the coast. We opted to stay at the nearby coastal town of Dampier as the kids were keen to see n stay in the town made famous by the Red-Dog movie. Our niaveness to the area was evident when we seen how big a shipping port Dampier is, there are numerous ships docked at the large offshore jetties. Once we were setup the kids had been bugging us to go fishing and as we’d bought them some cheap rods we headed down to the local jetty to pacify their enthusiasm. Not being much of a fisherman myself it was the blind leading the blind, the kids thought the fish simply jumped on the hook while Leonie and I knew how slow and boring it can be. Well within 10min Sam had hooked a bream using the plastic bait we’d bought, her rod almost pulling out of hand and as we got the fish to the surface we’re surprised to see a 25cm yellowfin bream but as with any good fishing story, the fish and fishing line was wrapped around the jetty pylon with no chance of us reeling it in. In the end we had to cut the line and Sam’s first fish swam to freedom. The taste of how easy fishing can be has only gone on to encourage our kids who now want to go fishing at any opportunity.

Red Dog memorial

On Friday we headed out to Burrup Peninsula and to the NW Gas Shelf Project. This multi-million dollar facility is the onshore processing and storage plant which supports the 5 offshore platforms which are located some 137km out to sea. We spent a few hours here learning how gas is piped along the sea bed, back to the processing plant before being shipped all around the land. The peninsula is also steeped in Aboriginal history and a couple of times we viewed some rock art…. As the sun set on another beautiful day we were pleased to be able to sit and watch some rugby league on the tv.

North West Shelf Gas Project

After a slow start to Saturday we headed out to the nearby coastal towns of Point Samson and Wickham for a bit more sightseeing of the area. Point Samson has reverted to a peaceful fishing town after many years of being a shipping port while Wickham is home to many of the mining families that work in the area. We made the most of the nice weather with a swim and a picnic on the beach…. Once we were back in Karratha we restocked our food supplies for the coming days ahead.

And we still aren't as tall as the wheel

Sunday was moving day and Mother Nature had turned on a howling south-westerly wind for us, we spent all day driving head long into it. The car seemed to be working overtime as we were buffeted all over the road and not able to make any more than 90km/hr all day. One of our stops along the way was at the Rio Tinto viewing area where we watched a number of the huge tipper trucks thunder past us. By mid-afternoon we’d arrived at Emu Creek Station, this 330,000 acre working cattle station offers people the opportunity to stay and work on the farm. We were warmly welcomed and set up camp beside another beautiful billabong. Even with the wind howling and a few clouds rolling in the serenity of our camp spot wasn’t lost. We setup the hammock, enjoyed happy-hour while the kids played in the water and we spent the rest of week 11 relaxing by the billabong.