We decided to take the dirt road to Newman & it was one of our most enjoyable drives. For over 2 hours through scenery filled with a palette of soft pinks & greens & a horizon broken by the undulating landscape we passed only one other car, we felt like we had the place to ourselves.
Spinifex tufts climbed the rocky hillsides & the spent stalks of the flowers shone silver in the harsh sunlight. The road base here changed to white for a short distance. This part of the Pilbara is certainly isolated. Differing from the Kimberley in that the country is a lot harsher & supports little growth while the emerging hillsides take on a rounder shape instead of the steep sided flat topped escarpments.
Further towards Newman we picked up more traffic & the dust changed to the familiar red that is common throughout the Kimberley & Pilbara regions. Plenty of dust was kicked up by us & the trucks working the roads. Shame I forgot to cover the air vent in the door - a nice cleaning job was ahead of me wiping away a layer of dust inside the van once set up in the caravan park.
Living here would be a constant battle with the dust especially if there was wind. I doubt if anyone would win white clothes!
Newman is a typical mining town, & the boom has resulted in more development occurring & they are encouraging people to live in the community with promise of another shopping centre to be built. FIFO's ( fly in fly out) work 7 days 7 nights then 7 days off. Locals work 2 days, 2 night then 4 days off. The dust from mining & the harsh environment is ever present, even the leaves of trees near the roads are red from dust. Our caravan park on 28 acres was nothing more than 20-30 camp sites surrounded by rows of mining accommodation in the form of the typical portable container or " donga".
Touring the open cut mine in a bus, & despite the only time we alighted was at the lookout, we were still required to conform to WPH&S. Boots, long pants, long sleeves, hard hat & goggles were uniform to be able to take the tour?????
The open cut mine has been operating for 30 years & they estimate another 60 years minimum of iron ore is yet to be dug. It is the one of the highest yields in the world per ton & in fact the discard is equal in ore to what Russia sells. Biggest client - you guessed it - China. The enhanced photo shows the iron ore as blue, grey or black. The yellow is also ore but needs to be blended with the other as the fineness of the ochre powder clogs the machines.
The trains drive through the tunnel for automatic timed loading & it is then railed to Port Headland on BHP owned tracks. We keep getting told Port Headland is horrible - don't go - so we have to check it out to see why we shouldn't go.
One of the older trucks at the Information Centre - the new ones are bigger.
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| Bringing down the ore from the open cut |
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| The open cut at Whaleback Mt , Newman |
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