Hello, here I go again blogging from Derby, but this blog will start near Dampier and Karratha then Wickham Roeburne and Point Sampson, these areas we have not previously visited..the OREsome area, not really seeing the mines but where the ore is loaded and shipped.
The orange line on the map is this years trip, currently we are planned til mid August when we will arrive on the Roper River in the Gulf of Carpentaria, barra fishing once again!! the blue indicates where we have been over the last 14+ years.
This is the end of June after some unseasonal wet weather after which we had spend 3 days on the side of a road, travelling on the 4th day there was still water across some areas of the North West Costal Hwy.
Dampier..first stop the famous Red Dog statue, the red kelpie whose owner was killed in a motor bike accident and the dog became 'boss dog' of the Dampier area,no one owned Red Dog, everyone loved him, there is a book and Aussie movie well worth watching, and heaps of prints, tea towels stubby holders. key rings etc in every tourist shop!
Dampier, pop 2,000, is 20km sth of Karratha and is considered the sister town and gateway to water recreation activities available around the 42 islands of the Dampier Archipelago.
Established in the 1960s by the Pilbara Iron mining company as a sea based export location for iron ore. Currently the unique and world class port also provides loading facilities for Dampier Salt and Woodside Petroleum Liquefied Natural Gas.
From a lookout at Dampier across to the Salt pile, roadways and loading facilities and many leisure crafts..not a good pic! It was a lovely view on the day.
The town had many unused double story accommodation blocks probably built late 60's and no longer suitable..in the area there were many new prefab villages for the FIFO workers, one area was even many shipping containers stacked up providing sleeping quarters. There were also estates of new houses being built, ready for young families to move into, currently the mining is in the explore and construction phase but apparently having a downturn at the moment but they will still need 1,000 of staff to mine maintain what is already in operation.
An ore loading facility much bigger today but could not get a Picture.
the big candle and there were many of them!
A Woodside operated facility, Aust largest resource development on one of the world's largest producers of gas. The development of this facility in the 1980's followed discoveries of massive gas and condensate fields in the Carnarvon basin.
Today this $27 billion production facility and sub sea infrastructure, onshore processing, storage and loading facility at the Karratha Gas Plant, huge LNG shipping fleet and the supply base to support the off shore rigs. produces 40%of Aust total oil and gas, 65% of gas production for WA.
There is a great interactive display. Lots of mind boggling facts and figures about employment and lifestyle.
an overview of the plant
some of the many facts and figures
nice sculpture..
We had lunch near here on a beach, this is the type of terrain in the area, natural red rock..very rubbly, actually looks like it ha been blasted but it has not. We saw lots of country like this.
KARRATHA...pop 13,000 plus all the FIFO's a very modern little city having a huge growth spurt, housing a nd rent is very expensive, but location/remoteness makes building expensive. Nice place for young families. There was this new Leisureplex opening while we were there, $65 million worth. Glow in the dark, putt putt golf, squash courts, 50m pool, 25m heated pool, 6 outdoor netball courts, 3 indoor basketball courts, volley ball, café, crèche, gyms, waterplay area, it looked really amazing and there was lots about it on the radio. Impressive little town, with all shopping experiences, and lots of houses with big $100,000 fishing boats parked in their driveways...benefits of the big wages in the area.
40 km from Karratha is Roebourne, the oldest town on the WA coast, pop 1200, indigenous community, Wickham, Cossack, Point Sampson, all with history dating back to the William Dampier, times in the 1688's..pre Sydney settlement. We could have all been of Dutch decent if he had claimed the land.
new roads and rail tracks
all colours of soil being moved
the ore haulers
some not so nice accommodation and site offices.
We were able to drive thru a huge construction area near Wickham, the makings of more railway tracks and port facility, massive constructions mindboggling....the ore haulers were coming and going amongst it, 290 carriages per train, an 8 hour trip in from the mine. Too hard to explain it all really except to say the country looks very wealthy!! So many workers flights planned, busses to work sites, rooms cleaned, laundry done, food delivered and prepared so many jobs...and how they keep the fuel up to all the vehicles is beyond fathoming.
There were some very creative outside decks around the little village, Point Sampson , pop 400. ready for some big time growth!!
A Whale bone chair, we had seen a few of these around Geraldton.
This is all quite terrible,
some of our bad history
69 prisoners in 4 12x12 cells!! Most would not know why thy we there..
I hope these are no longer in use!
There is currently a very large prison near Roebourne, so many are of inmates are near their homelands, we had been near a few prisons like this.
I liked this old shed structure at Roebourne.
An overnighter at a roadside stop with around 30 other vans!! I love these tress and the hugging tree ..well I could make up a story here but Jean said no way...not suited for grandchildren!!
SOUTH HEDLAND AND PORT HEDLAND.
POP 18,000+++++ More massive construction, of an overpass over highway, known as the FMG (Fortescue) Bridge.
Pt Hedland is one of the worlds largest and busiest working harbours, South Hedland is the commercial/shopping area, again a mal with all the usual shops and some really lovely sculptural streetscapes and fitness paths.. not many large people and as it was a Saturday visit for us, there were many people out jogging and being active..very sad recently to see our home town called Wangafatta in the local paper..but it was getting very obvious!!
2012 the new Multi purpose Recreation Centre
yet another salt mine between south and Port Hedland
an ore carrier 300m long
over the FMG bridge construction
shipping schedule, we were able to see a vessel leaving
loading
tugs and pilot boats guiding shipment out
one very unhappy machinery operator...kinda sunk!!
I really liked this..if we get to build????
We had been to Port Hedland before but much has changed the Port part had very few shops now but great modern interesting Visitors info a nice park land to watch the ships load and leave, and a nice art gallery. Touring around the town there were some really nice house being built most in colourbond steel, and no spoutings around the roof, guess they would never hold the amount of rain they get in tropical storms, must look great falling out off the roof. I checked the realestate there yep expensive and rents very high!
A unique sight was as we were leaving Hedland and going past the airport the carpark was full of white vehicles with the orange safety flags flying...could have been 300 vehicles!! Looked great.
So that was it..another off our 'bucket list' for this trip,
to see what the big boys do...BHP, Woodside, Rio Tinto and Fortescue
OFF OUT THE ROAD TO THE DE GREY RIVER REST AREA FOR THE NIGHT...
There are a huge number of caravanners on the road..what a boom industry,
there were 60 campers at this free camp..and if we were near a town most caravan parks are full and hard to get into,. The WA Gov have done a lot to encourage off road camping providing pit toilets and pit chemical toilet dump points..we wish other states would recognise the benefits of
this type of tourism..we still visit the towns, spend on food, fuel, entertainment, gifts, souvenirs and tours..the new modern vans are set up to cope with this lifestyle now.
CAPE KERAUDEN
would have been nice if only...
a revist place for us, Sunday, windy, areas blocked off, cramped areas to camp, so across the hills to another nearby camp area, get levelled, did I mention WIND, put the matting down on the white sand, WIND, and the Hawkes still trying to get a level site, eventually get that right, then try and get their gass fridge to light...B WIND!!!, and our matting was quickly covering with sand, when the door opened ...sand on bench, then we put an awning up for the Hawkes fridge.. still would not light WIND...ahh stuff it exec decision by she who must be obeyed, no fun here, WIND forecast for 4 days...outa here plan B..pitty.. nice view, nice beach, nice people to talk to but!!
travelled around 100km and found a spot by the road for the night..nice scenery along the way calmed the frazzled nerves!!
PORT SMITH,
Our travel companions the Hawkes had been there previously..around 10 years ago, we had a day trip there in '99 from where we were at Barn Hill just north, so this was it a HOLIDAY week and maybe some fishing.
27 km dirt road into Port Smith
So a nice park 1.5 km from the water/ocean/view, sandfly and midge aware!! $240 for 7 nights.
Decision, boat trailers off, boat off, motor out of back of vehicle all geared up to spend some boat time, then there was the beach launching...Doug giving the complicated instructions about when and where and how and waiting for tides etc as he had done in the past, the launching was easy, tyres down to 20 as advised by the caravan park managers and we put in on any tide in various places each day..5 in a row..nice, sometimes we waded out with the boat but very easy..Doug had a few problems, not picking the right sand spots etc and getting confused and his boat was abit heavier than ours, so he opted out and went beach fishing....we mainly caught small reef fish but had some good bream, stripey and trevalley, all yum to eat and some put away in the freezer.
beach fishing at sunset
lovely high white cliffs
one of the inlets about 6km from camp
getting boats out
putting boats in when tide along way out
anglers on the sandbars, the whole area cover when high tide
The caravan park frill neck lizard..it and I have the same skin!! Weather beaten!
Pt Smith was a nice stay for fishing only, there was no internet or mobile service, and the midges are savage, the place is notorious for them..we stayed safe for about 5 days but must have let our guard down and WE copped a good few bites and me a good dose of sun, set up some allergic reaction for me..happens...antihistamines are wonderful, as is a mix of black tea and metho for the bites. Trying the inside of banana skin at the moment and it seems to be working OK. Some of the people beach fishing got terribly bitten around their waist on their back any white bits and were very miserable..we only have to look at peoples legs to see where they have been, nasty critters!!Thursday nites are Fish and Chip nites $5 serve, funds to Flying Doctor and some raffles, I won a coffee cup so ended up donating it back!! That night they did 320 serves and the week we left they expected to do 600 serves!! The local indigenous community have a family band who play each Thurs nite, they had one break in 5 hours of playing and they were terrific.
So Pt Smith would we go again NAH!! recommend it.. for midge tolerant males who have big boats, go out 10km and catch big fish...and they do, regulars there all season. The park is on a station so nothing else around to do. Reading was good!!
A revisit out of curiosity for us BARN HILL, that was the place we did some work from at ECO BEACH back in '99 for 3 weeks, then about 50 vans and no unpowered sites on the cliffs...
Again this is a working cattle station with 8000 head and 85km of coast line and beautiful
140km south of Broome
BUT what shock, horror, shame.
there must have been 200 vans in a low powered area inches apart from one another, poor facilities and around $35/nite. Many long term staying retirees there with vege patches growing or other option $22 unpowered which suited us, so there were around 60 out on the cliff.
The beach and water and scenery is lovely.
Wow it is midnight, best get some sleep, goodnight.
AND NOW GOODMORNING!! 6am Saturday 13 July...leaving here in an hour or so so best get cracking with this diary /blog...
BROOME, the Byron Bay of the west coast. We been here twice before and so not a real lot on the bucket list except to be in awe of all the expansion. Pop 15,000, could be doubled in tourist season, May til Sept.
All reports about being not able to get into caravan parks was quite true but apparently tourist numbers have been down all along the coast. We opted to stay 20 km out of Broome in a nice unpowered caravan park which is 1 year old, about 40 vans out here ..with the best water supply, on checking in the manager invited us to wash our car and van..now that never happens anywhere. The bathrooms were large and with a plastic chair provided hmmm yep I sat on the chair under a gorgeous shower and wallowed!! water precious water.
We headed into town, and checked out all the statues, displays new housing estates and went out for dinner in a Chinese restaurant in their China town area. (very small china town) developed Johnny Chi....pearling history, back out to van by 8pm, fairly weary.
Broome timeline, 1688 first recorded European visit the shore by William Dampier he later returned in 1889 in the Roebuck..hence Roebuck Bay.
1850's Sheep farming and discovery of pearl oysters.
1883 town named after Gov of WA Sir Fredrick Napier Broome.
1889 The undersea telegraph cable linking Aust to Java and the rest of the world came ashore at Cable Beach.
1900-1914 Golden age of pearling..up to 400 pearling luggers lined the shores of Roebuck Bay, Japanese divers recruited for diving instead of aboriginal divers, there is a huge pearling history around Broome and lots written about it, statues, lugger replicas and Chinese and Japanese cemeteries.
1942 a fleet of Japanese zeros destroyed 16 flying boats anchored in Roebuck Bay..war time history.
1950's cultured pearl farming commenced, Broome became known of South Sea pearls.
!980's tourism established following investment by English building magnet, Lord Alister Mc Alpine.
cable Beach resort is one of his many famous investments.
a small part of cable beach....no fear of skin cancers here and the sun was scorching!
in the tropics you need cotton clothing....yep really needed to shop...any excuse!!
south of cable beach at sunset....bit like Uluru at sunset, cars everywhere
unfortunately not a very good sunset this evening.
Second day of stay was a great day, we caught up with Stan and Letty from ex Wedderburn now St Leonards and great people we have travelled with over the years..they have opted not to travel now and fly up to Stan's sister Gwen who lives in Broome and now very actively retired....We first met Gwen when she was community nursing in Lombadina north of Broom back in 1999.
Shock horror and shame not one photo of the lovely setting we had a long lunch at, out on the decking, overlooking the bay..such a nice day with good friend, Stan, Let, Gwen, Doug and Jean.
Broome for us done and dusted, bought heaps of groceries, grog, fue land a few eat outs and dumped $800 there...
RE: FUEL, I have been cashing in 1000 flybuy points for 10c /l extra discount and the Coles supermarkets, they were offering 16c on over $100 groc spend so that totalled 26c off not bad and a saving of $34 on our fuel bill...fuel $169/l.
so now I have finished this blog on a Sunday, sitting in Fitzroy Crossing, in the yard of Brodie and Adam Pascoe and 3 kids... called into Brodie who is nursing in the hosp to get directions...her paros Pam and Gary Daws are here visiting too ..we will head off from here with them..we think...
Oh and Doug and Jean left us in Derby heading for the Roper..
BYE til next time which will be about Derby, Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek and from here on to where ever
