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| Footprint through the Kimberleys from Northern Territoris to Broome, Western Australia |
one just can not leave Broome without seeing the Biggest Natural Round Pearl on show in the Cygnet Bay Pearl Company show room...but I kept the Credit Card deep in the recess of the car...just on the safe side.
The mangoes we collected 12 days earlier from Kununurra were still
very green, so I decided to hoist them up on the roof rack, cushioned in
a cloth bag, just to quicken the ripening process, hopefully!
So it was now time to turn south, finally, on our way back to Sydney via Perth and the treeless Nullarbor Plain, skirting the Great Australian Bight.
Our first major stop will be the Pilbara, the major export wealth generator for Australia with its high quality Iron Ores. After any overnight stop by the side of the Great Northern Hwy, I noticed that the passenger side front wheel hub's leaking of oily grease is getting quite a bit more pronounced and another problem, a jointing gasket for the exhaust pipes has broken, and its screw loose...it's a worry, but not enough to panic yet! So, just put the broken gasket back in absence of a new one, tighten the screw, and cross fingers!
As we cruise along nicely, another challenge is beginning to surface, in the form of a dark and gigantic smoke column on the horizon, and kept growing bigger & bigger, until we realised that it is a raging bush fire along a section of the highway.
The highway was smoke
filled. A couple of road-trains had already stopped and were assessing
their predicament. Their problem is not knowing the length of the
highway in trouble, if getting caught, there is no way of turning back
for these lengthy trucks. So I proposed that, our car would drive
closer, and see if it is safe to rush through, and radio back to tell
them, if we're not dead!! Off we went, fortunately, it was only about
200 m length that was covered with smoke, but the fire was quite a bit
away....the truckies followed suit after we radioed back from a safe
distance, and we were heroes for a couple of minutes. We all shook
hands, and had a good laugh. |
| Footprint as we travelled down the Indian Ocean Coast of WA |
And there are ships, bearing Chinese names, waiting on the Indian ocean, taking turns to fill up their share of the Ores for delivering to Shanghai or wherever the ports are in Asia. The scale is enormous, just the reddish brown dirt that we are able to sell so much of it. Here and Dampier, which is another 260 Km away, are generating significant wealth for Australia, allowing us to work through the Global Financial Crisis almost without much of a hiccough.
Miners and supporting labourers are in steep demand here. In Roeburne, where we stayed the night, our neighbour is a truck driver, and he's earning nearly $200,000, where in Melbourne where he came from, he would be just another unskilled driver. But he and his young family can only afford to stay in a caravan, a nice and comfortable one though, for the last 4 years, because to rent a house would cost over $100,000, even just a run down place. Such is the price of the boom time around this region of Western Australia.
Australia has two of the 3 biggest Iron Ore miniers in the World, BHP and Rio Tinto, the third one is Vale of Brazil. So we have an strategical advantage in supplying to Asia, particularly to China which has recently taken over Japan as the biggest customer.
Dampier is another copy of Port Hedland, train coming, boat going out..and just keep repeating. It is also a major salt mining location, with large fields of salt ponds, exposing the white crytalline salts, an epic sight to see.
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| Treasured Aboriginal rock carvings alongside with busy mining activities. |
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| Another major export earner....the North West Shelf Gases |
Ahead of time, we rang the public relation offices of each mining companies to find out the availability of tours for their mines. Finally, we settled on Tom Price as being the most reliable and closest. Some mines do not run tours unless there are sufficient visitors, to travel 500 -600 Km on that basis, requires a smoke of something. Tom Price just run them daily at this time of the year.
In order to drive inland through the private roads of Rio Tinto, basically along their railway management track, we have to obtain a permit from their office. The cost is free, but we must sit through a 30 minute Video explaining the traffic and safety regulations on this private road. The warning is, do not break the rules, two strikes, you'll be kicked off immediately. We are watching you, they said! Really, they want to drive the "safety first" message through.
The road is very much running along the railway that carries Rio's mineral's from inland mines to the sea. The railway was the first infrastructure that was built even before mining operation began in 1966, connecting various mines in the Pilbara to the two ports on the Indian Ocean. Just to get an idea of the length of the railway, from Dampier to Tom Price mine, it is about 340 Km by driving nearly most of it along the railway.
Pilbara, because of its richness in iron ore deposits, naturally the landscape is predominant red, but not only that, it is also majestic along many parts of it, and there are many waterholes for cooling down. Karijini National Park has many narrow gorges, some beautiful pools. Along the way to Tom Price town, we camped overnight in a very secluded waterhole, the nearest camper was 500m away.
Tom Price is a mining town through and through, originally built by the mining company to house their staff, gradually, it evolved into a township with government infrastructures. We got there early in the morning to joint a tour to go into the giant Tom Price mine. It was a real eye opening exercise, although we were kept in the bus most of the time, but there was one stop where we were allowed to get onto a viewing platform to look into the big deep hole in the ground.
Comparing pictures taken at the beginning of the mine, one could see where once a huge hill existed, now it a great big 200 meter deep hole. The mining vehicles are giants, one scoop can take on 40 tonnes of dirts. Each tyre is about a storey high, some costing over $60,000 each. The notable feature of the mines are its heaps of ores of differing quality, and the precision train loading operation.
You are invited to view David's photo album: 2011 4x4 Trip ( Pilbara )
Message from David Tam:
The
Pibara in early Spring. We toured the big Tom Price Iron Ore mine, and
the majest Karijini National Park and its beautiful swimming holes.
https://picasaweb.google.com/
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Australia, along with Brazil offers the highest and cleanest quality
of Iron ores, offering 60% or higher purity. Generally, less than 50%
purity ores are not mined. There are hill size heaps storing ores of different bands of quality. They are mixed and matched to customer's
contracts. And the heavy machinery used are beyond any boy's dream. |
| Precision loading of ores onto a moving train |
All and all, a very amazing exhibition of engineering and management prowess in these mines.
On the way out of Tom Price, I noticed that the front wheel that had the
leaking oil/grease from its hub has gone from bad to ugly looking, with
oil traces sputtering out from the center like bicycle spokes. So I
took the car to the local mechanic and asked for an opinion or even fix. The
good news was, it was not a very serious problem, but the bad news is,
the quickest they could schedule in the repair work, is 10 days. Just
looking at the line of 4x4 mining cars waiting in their yard, then I
understood why the long delay. It gradually, sunk in to me, that in the
outback, it is very difficult to find sufficient labours to do ordinary
works that we in the city take "immediacy" for granted. And labour is
very expensive here too.Without further ado, we left and continued our journey going south, with the hope for better luck further down the Western Australian coast.
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