We arrived in Port Hedland after travelling from Kalbarri - the red dust had well and truly encrusted itself in every part of our car, caravan and bodies. During the drive, we started to see the road trains. We passed some; some passed us. Port Hedland locals say there are 100 plus trucks on the Port Hedland-Newman Road each day. They were big rigs and there was a constant stream of them. We were now in the heart of the mining world and about to arrive in the the largest port in Australia. We often hear about mining booms and how important the mining industry is to Australia's economy - it was great to be in a mining town to see how it operates and the impact it has not only on the community but all of Australia. We stayed at Port Hedland for only a night. It's a real ugly, dirty town but we enjoyed it. It was fascinating to learn about a town that relies on one industry.
Port Hedland is hot and dry. Apparently it has gone more than 300 days without rain and has on average 220 sunny days a year. It is also the cyclone capital of Australia! When there is a cyclcone all the boats have to get out of the bay and harbour. Luckily there were hooks to hook our caravan on if there was a cyclone. It gave me some piece of mind - there would be nothing better than experiencing a cyclone in a caravan!
And Port Hedland has an international airport (with a population of just over 15,000 that's not bad). Some of the people we met who work in the mining industry are rostered 30 days on and 30 days off - so they live in Bali as they can fly over there cheaply on their days off.
It's predominantly iron ore that is being shipped away and some commercial salt - apparently it is shipped overseas for commercial use (such as to put on roads that suffer from black ice!)
The iron ore arrives by train from surrounding areas such as Newman and then shipped to China (about 90%). The trains are owned by the mining companies and travel on train tracks built by the company. (I hope this gives you an idea of the money involved in these operations). The Government can't even afford to build a train line! Each train has two locomotives and up to 250 carriages. Apparently it takes four trains to fill a ship.
We went for lunch at a corner pub (just an ordinary pub) and during the mining boom they would charge $1000 a room per night and it was booked for months in advance. Some locals were telling us that a number of years ago a house would sell for $1 million and now they (or the banks) were selling them for $300k. There is obviously some people making lots of money and just as many losing lots of money.
The boats in the port - the difference between a 'full' boat and and 'empty' boat and how high it sat in the water was huge.
We did the Sea Farers tour in the morning (8/10) - inside the port their were a number of large ships that they referred to us "Gina's boats over there; Twiggy's ships over there."
At any one time there can be up to 45 ships lining up in the bay waiting to come into the port. At night time, the lights out in the ocean looked like there was another mini country offshore.
The boats, that are predominantly from China and Indonesia, are contracted to the big companies that get priority in getting into the port. Following the mining boom, a 'freelance' boat sat in the bay for four months hoping to pick up a 'load'. After four months it did't get one so continued on to Brazil.
You can see the iron ore being loaded into this ship!
It takes about two weeks for them to make the return trip to China and some of the sailors (Matt told me to stop calling them Seamen) can be on a boat for up to eight months at a time - not even allowed to get off in their hometown of China. Port Hedland is one of the Ports that allows them to get off the ship through the Sea Farers service.
We did a Sea Farers tour and went out to the boats in the bay and picked up some of the sailors which are given 'day-leave' and can come into town of the day. They take them grocery shopping and have access to computers, shopping, counselling or union support.
The Rio Tinto site on the wharf. This is right in town. You can see the trains as the enter the wharf to load onto the ship. Most of this is now automated and managed from an air conditioned office in Perth.
In the afternoon, we did a tour of Rio Tinto site - this was also very informative. The trains arrive from site and are automatically tipped into a conveyer belt and then taken to ships. Most of the processing is now down on site as its the noisy, dusty part which us moved away from town. Most of this part is now automated and operated from an air conditioned office in Perth. There wasn't even a train driver - and doesn't need to be.
After a big day in Port Hedland we went to 80-mile-beach. It's an amazing beach but we were strongly recommended not to swim in it as there are lots of sharks.... I was expecting a bit of a road house or small caravan park but it was huge. It has up to 350 sites and during the peak season there is apparently caravans lining up to get in. And there is nothing nearby. They have a policy of not turning people away. Some people we met come here for three months plus a year. There is not a lot to do - except fishing. That's a lot of fishing...
We drove the beach; but didn't go the 80-miles. The sunset was amazing.
But for Those of you that think this is just one big holiday I spent the entire day doing washing - about eight loads of washing and hanging out and I think it was about 42 degrees with high humidity. I sweated more than I ever have in a marathon. I was finally starting to rid some of the red dirt.
Driving on the beach was pretty cool. The kids all got a drive which they though was great.
After a big day in Port Hedland we went to 80-mile-beach. It's an amazing beach but we were strongly recommended not to swim in it as there are lots of sharks.... I was expected a bit of a road house or small caravan park but it was huge. It has up to 350 sites and during the peak season there is apparently caravans lining up to get in. And there is nothing nearby. They have a policy of not turning people away. Some people we met come here for three months a year. There is not a lot to do - except fishing. That's a lot of fishing...
We drove the beach; but didn't go the 80-miles. The sunset was amazing.
But for I spent the entire day doing washing - about eight loads of washing and hanging out and I think it was about 42 degrees with high humidity. I sweated more than I ever have in a marathon.
A friendly grab. These guys were everywhere and looks so funny scurrying across the sand.
But for I spent the entire day doing washing - about eight loads of washing and hanging out and I think it was about 42 degrees with high humidity. I sweated more than I ever have in a marathon.
There were plenty of shells. Which meant no running races on the beach but plenty of shell collecting.
80-mile-beach was a great place for us to rest and re-fuel (human petrol). While we didn't do much (unsuccessfully tried some fishing) we did spent the time catching up after a hectic week. It was a pretty good place to do it.
Bella shell-hunting. She found some real beauties.
While we drive around Australia; I am surprised how diverse it is. Every town does has a story and what I enjoy most is meeting and talking to the boat driver, the service station attendant and people in the towns learning about their community.
From the Stevens'
#making memories