25 April 2013 - Cooke Point Holiday Park, Port Hedland, Western Australia

ANZAC Day dawned fine and warm here in the north west of a country which celebrates, or commemorates this day so very religiously, so much more so than their cousins across the ditch. But then I never cease to be amazed as I travel this fine land to learn more and more about the involvement of Australia in the Second World War in particular. They pulled their weight more than most in both World Wars and continue to contribute troops and support world wide.

This morning I thought about my father and wondered if he had marched, joining the veterans at our own home town where to he and my mother have only recently moved. I have not had much success in contacting them lately; the four hour time difference just does not seem to work with our respective schedules.

This morning we were back out on the road about 8 am, again passing great convoys of caravans and camper trailers at even greater frequency than yesterday. There is an absolute frenzy of northern flight and I am very glad that we are travelling in the opposite direction.

It is about a hundred and fifty kilometres from the Pardoo Roadhouse through to Port Hedland. After crossing the Pardoo River almost fifty kilometres south of the Roadhouse, the landscape changed gear and we were treated to inspirational landscapes wide with rocky outcrops and the colours those that delight us; pinks, greens, reds, oranges, apricots, those I think of as Namatjira’s. Some of the way it was reminiscent of that around Coober Pedy, but with an array of green vegetation thrown in, albeit low, sparse and scrubby.

De Grey River

We pulled into the rest area beside the De Grey River, recommended by the fellow walker in the Gieke Gorge, John from Perth. It is an extensive camping spot, council blessed complete with toilets, rubbish bins and a dump station, but mostly a spot of great beauty beside this wide sandy banked river. Many of the trees near the bank had been recently flattened so we can only assume these were also victim of Cyclone Rusty just two months ago. I suspect it is a very popular overnight camp for the nomads already on their way north.

Despite the fact that we passed turnoffs to a couple of mines, the Pardoo and Poondana iron ore mines, converged with the rail line which comes through from the Yarrie iron ore mine, and saw several bloated cattle corpses, we were impressed with the beauty of the Pilbara, or at least this northern edge. We look forward to the inland sections we intend to explore during the next week.

And then we arrived at the outskirts of Port Hedland, a mess of industrial structures, industrial yards, yards full of dongas and modern 4WD vehicles and all of these stained or smudged with the brown orange dust of iron ore.

We pulled over in the rest area adjacent to the mountains of white salt, all part of the Rio Tinto salt mine operation and turned on our telephone. I had a list of numbers to ring and so we began with the Port Tourist Park. This was answered by an answerphone belonging to a well-known firm of accountants, possibly receivers for the now closed park? We then tried the Black Rock Tourist Park and then the South Hedland Caravan Park, neither who bothered to take our call. We were stuck between a rock and hard place; stuck with the Cooke Point Big4 knowing all too well that their daily charge was $52 a night.

Fortunately we are members of the Big4 loyalty club however $46.80 is still a great deal more than any other caravan park we have encountered in Australia in our twenty seven months of travel. (Kings Canyon had the dubious honour of that award prior to today) And so here we are, ripped off and at the mercy of the greedy monopoly.

While we were checking in with the very pleasant managers in this very nice park, albeit very pricey, the couple who had been our only fellow campers in at Pardoo last night arrived and asked if the park was dog friendly. Obviously he was pretending to ignore the large notice at the gate. He was told that no caravan park in Port Hedland allowed domestic animals in the park. (Black Rock is still open but apparently not very attractive and obviously not that keen for customers)

Interestingly this is also the case in Broome which must cause great distress for those thousands who travel with their little canine flea-balls. As penalty for this, these travellers are denied access to National Parks and so many other camping spots, and those in Broome and Port Hedland. Leave them at home or give them to the grandkids! If you travel you don’t need a millstone around your neck. It is bad enough to be past one’s prime without self-inflicted burdens. Ah, on my soapbox yet again!

We set up in a spot backing on to the Pretty Pool Creek, far enough distant to be bothered by water bugs but close enough to enjoy the view. From our camp we can also see the white mountains of salt and the rail that takes the trains two and half kilometres long to and from the mines far off in the Pilbara.

Port Hedland’s salt operation is part of Dampier Salt and was the last to be added to the group, purchased in 2001. It covers just over 9,000 hectares of operational area, although it certainly does not look like it from where we are. Seawater from the Indian Ocean is pumped into nine ponds covering 7,800 hectares where the salinity is concentrated step by step, the process of flowing, pumping, crystallising, sampling and finally harvesting. We saw huge machines ripping the salt up from the salt floors, from where it is being trucked to where it is washed, drained and dried and the finally trucked yet again to stockpiles ready for export near the Port Hedland deep water berth, and wondered at the amount of corrosion the salt must wreck on the machinery. Interestingly none of this is destined for the table; it is used industrially such as in cleaners, bleaches and chlorines.

After lunch we headed out in an attempt to see all of Port Hedland in an afternoon since it is such an expensive stop-off place. Alas, industry tours are not yet available; we are again too early in The Season. And today being a statutory holiday, the Information Centre and museum were not open, nor were the shops and businesses in the town of Port Hedland.

Fortunately there is the Port Interpretative Walk which starts along the Esplanade and is most informative in the absence of anything else.

Here we learned a few facts about Port Hedland, that one Captain Peter Hedland called in to explore this mangrove inlet in 1863, although not the first to come this way, he did manage to have the spot named after him.

It was not until nearly the end of the century that the pastoral industry in the Eastern Pilbara demanded a port and in 1896, the first jetty was constructed here on the coast. A few years later, gold was discovered at Marble Bar, added justification to the ports existent.

In 1908 the jetty was extended and in 1911 a railway between Marble Bar and Port Hedland was completed. From then through to the late 1930s, the Port was mainly used for the import of stores and producer items for the local industries, and the export of pearl shell, wool, livestock, gold, tin and small amounts of copper.

After the Second World War, the port continued to serve the pastoral industry and began to export significant quantities of manganese.

In 1965 the iron ore industry, as it is today, began its life in the port when Goldsworthy Mining Limited (now BHP Billiton Iron Ore) dredged an approach channel and turning basin for ships up to 65,000 Dead Weight Tonnes (DWT). At the same time the Leslie Salt Company (now Rio Tinto Minerals) commenced development of the solar salt industry, mentioned earlier. A new land backed wharf was built to cater for salt exports and to improve the facilities available for the import of fuel and producer items.

Next the Mt Newman Mining Company (now BHP Billiton Iron Ore) chose Port Hedland as its export port, and further dredging and development took place to allow the use of the port by very large bulk carriers of up to 120,000 DWT. In the early 1970s, the port could accept vessels of up to 315 metres in length and 185,000 DWT.

In the mid-seventies further work was carried out when extensions to the turning basin and some channel widening took place, allowing ships of up to 225,000 DWT to access the port.

In 1986 major capital dredging was undertaken to deepen the channel by 2.5 metres. In conjunction with a computerised under keel clearance programme, this allowed the port to accommodate ships of up to 330 metres and 260,000 DWT.

The channel at Port Hedland is now twenty nautical miles in length varying in both width and depth with minima of 183 metres and 14.3 metres respectively.

Today the Port continues to predominantly serve the mining industry of the Pilbara driven by massive demand and as such handles the largest iron ore export tonnage of any Australian port.  Other exports include the salt, manganese, chromite, copper concentrates and livestock.

Today we saw several ships in port being loaded and watched another being guided in by the port pilot. The “shipping news” on a blackboard outside the Information Centre showed that today’s ships were from Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan.

We saw few people in Port Hedland today, just those fishing from the public jetty, waiting for transport across the port for work, an Asian women in an emporium valiantly holding the fort solo of her large and interesting store and a happy chappy who told us he was “a bit drunk” and was heading home to have “a bit of a sleep”.

Port Hedland appears to the uninitiated as a long island parallel to the mainland, cut off from the shore by great tidal flats or those prone to high tides but connected by a long and substantial causeway to carry both road and rail traffic. The Indian Ocean coastline on the outer shores of this “island” are quite attractive and there are homes along the foreshore, all facing out to sea and away from the uglier aspects of this industrial settlement. The satellite suburb of Pretty Pool is also rather nice; we drove to the park and walked out onto the beach.

We decided that despite the iron ore veiled structures everywhere, we actually liked Port Hedland more than Cable Beach!

Ten kilometres or so to the south is South Hedland, purpose built to accommodate the burgeoning population due to the development of the iron ore mining in 1960s. Today housing is at a premium both here and in Port Hedland, nothing under $750,000 and most well over a million. Rents range from $1,000 to $3,200 a week and we know what it costs to stay in a caravan!

It is a pity that tourist accommodation is so expensive because Port Hedland is a whole lot nicer than its reputation. We would have been happy to have spent a couple more days, but will be gone by check out time tomorrow unless something untoward comes up in the interim.