After umming and arring about
whether to venture into Port Hedland, we decided to stay one night at the racecourse
free camp in town, and so booked a twilight industry tour for the
afternoon. We are so glad we did -what an interesting place!
We walked by the port and watched
the enormous ships being guided into the docks by the little tugs. We also
viewed the Rio Tinto Salt Mine and wowed at the grader on top of the enormous
mound of salt as it spread it evenly – seemed a rather dangerous job.
The industry tour took us around
Port Hedland showing the workings of the iron ore industry. We went out to
Finucane Island, where BHP have their loading dock and past FMG (Twiggy
Forrest) and Roy Hill (Gina Reinhart’s) operations. Such an eye opener! We had
no idea of the magnitude of the iron ore industry happening at Port Hedland. We
watched as the 2km long trains, pulled by two massive locomotives, lugged 136
carts x 2, of iron ore, with each cart weighing over 80 tonnes, down to the
docks. The carts were then tipped, 3 at a time, onto conveyor belts, which
travelled up to the ship, with the whole process fully automated from Perth!
Incredible.
We certainly could have spent
another day or two in town, doing the Sea Farers and Salt-mine tour, the later
being booked out for over a week! Next time.
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