30 April 2013 - Barradale Rest Area, Yannarie River, Great West Coastal Highway, Western Australia

Still indecision this morning regarding our next destination, however the final decision needs only to be made before tomorrow. There were still three hundred and fifty five kilometres before we re-join the Great West Coastal Highway.

The well maintained road from Tom Price to Paraburdoo was busy with mine traffic, convoys of utes topped with the safety flags, one person in each. We had been told how much diesel was consumed each day in the mine, and it had been no surprise. That, the diesel, is railed in by the train load several times a week.

We pulled into Paraburdoo, also a Rio Tinto purpose built settlement, this with just 1,600 inhabitants and seemingly less services than Tom Price. We called in to the IGA and purchased today’s WA newspaper, which impressed us greatly; not the newspaper but the fact that the same days paper was available by about 10ish so far from Perth.

The road continued on, no longer busy with mine traffic and after fifty kilometres, we re-joined the unsealed and shorter road through from Tom Price, the alternative shorter route we had chosen not to take. The impressive landscapes continued to impress us, rocky ranges and ridges, all colours and all part of this massive Hamersley Range.

We stopped beside the Beasley River for lunch, still having encountered little traffic and then only tourists coming in to discover the inland Pilbara as we had. Road kill was almost non-existent; a snake here and there, and a couple of ancient cattle carcasses, but no roos or other wildlife. The countryside seems to have little appeal to the Big Red kangaroos or any of their smaller cousins, although the brochures for the Karijini National Park would tell you otherwise. Only scrubby trees grow on the iron rock through here, and the very occasional grass, and yet there are cattle stations throughout the area. It is quite depressing to consider that cattle must forage for hundreds of kilometres for a fresh blade of grass. If I were such a creature, I too would consider throwing myself in front of a road train, but then there are even few of these  along this Nanutarra – Wittenoon Road.

I mention Wittenoon here and will briefly elaborate although it is a place we decided to avoid in the end. Today Wittenoon is more or less a ghost town, with less than eight inhabitants clinging hopelessly to their homes and lives because they cannot imagine living elsewhere. It is situated on the northern boundary of the Karijini National Park with a history that is rarely spoken of.

It was way back in 1917 that the Mines Department first recorded the presence of blue asbestos in the Hamersley Ranges. Lang Hancock, the father of the now well-known Gina Rhinehart, discovered the wealth of asbestos in the Wittenoon Gorge in the early 1930s, and in 1937 started mining the mineral from the Yampire Gorge. By 1939 that operation had been closed down, to be superseded by that in the Wittenoon Gorge. In 1947 a company town was built in the same manner of those in Tom Price and Paraburdoo, and by the 1950s, it was Pilbara’s largest town. During the 1950s and the 1960s Wittenoon was Australia’s only supplier of blue asbestos however it was all closed down in 1966 due to lack of profitability and growing health concerns around the asbestos.

For those few remaining defiant residents, there are no government services, or services of any kind. In 2006 the Government of Western Australia announced the town’s official status be removed and that it be de-gazetted. Warnings appear in small print on some tourist information about avoiding the area, or at least not venturing outside one’s vehicle. The access road is omitted from most maps serving to deter voyeuristic visitors. We had thought we might defy the advice and drive up through the area, but decided against it for a number of reasons, including the fact that a person with a chronic lung condition would be even more at risk of contamination. A good call; I have so much more living to do.

Our camp by the Yannarie River

It was about 3.45 pm when we finally arrived at the main road and turned south. Here the great coastal road is about one hundred kilometres from the sea if you are a fit crow and of a mind to go there in a straight line. Just south of the crossroads is the Nanutarra Roadhouse which could have been our overnight stop had Chris not wanted to drive on, however drive on we did, and across the Ashburton River.

This is very pretty and is spanned also by a footbridge, probably the original single lane bridge, with seats for river views and it was tempting for me to say “Stop, I want to take a photo and walk on the bridge!” But I didn’t because we still had another seventy kilometres to go before the next stopping opportunity, this rest area. The setting alone would make the Nanutarra Roadhouse a good place to overnight if you were of a mind to take a wander up to the bridge; however they probably charge like wounded bulls here too.

On we came, now on a wider highway, busier with trucks and quite pretty even though the landscape was much more flat and the roads straight. We pulled into this rest area, surprised to see such an expansive area already host to half a dozen or more campers. We came on down to the flood shelf and later checked the river levels out. It would seem we will be alright tonight even if it does rain. The river bed is quite dry. This is the first free camp we have enjoyed for seven weeks; shame ion us!