Last night we received a gentle reminder from the management of the park to make sure we lock up all of our valuables before retiring for the night. It seems they have a higher rate of crime here than the State average.
The laundry gets an early morning visit from Carole and fortunately machines were available. Once that was all attended to we went into town, as there were supposed to be Sunday Markets in the street where the Information Centre is. It was not the case, but we did go into the Information centre and got a few ideas on how to fill in our day.
First up was a morning cup of coffee at the Silver Star Cafe, a converted dining car from a luxury rail service that was gifted to Mt Newman Mining Company by AMAX Iron Ore Corporation in celebration of the first 100 million tonnes of iron ore to travel from Newman to Port Hedland by rail. The carriage had previously been used between Kansas City and St Louis commencing duty in 1939. It was renamed the "Sundowner" and used in WA making weekly trips between Newman and Port Hedland from 1975 till 1989 when a road was opened up for this route.
At the end of Wedge St, where the Information Centre is, there is a park where you can view ships entering and exiting the Port. A schedule is posted on a notice board outside the centre so you can organise
to be there when movements are happening. nYou also get a great view of the loaders on Finucane Island.
All we saw at the time was a tug returning home, but another arrival is due in an hours time.
Next on our list is Dampier Salt and we are told the best views of this facility are from Redbank Bridge Lookout.
Dampier Salt's Port Hedland operation is 68% owned by Rio Tinto and is a 9,000 hectare solar salt facility. Water is pumped in from the Indian Ocean into salt pans where it crystalises as water evaporates. Annual production is over 3.2 million tonnes and the prodcut is very high purity sodium chloride. It is all exported and used primarily for industrial use.
An added bonus of the Redbank Bridge Lookout is that iron ore trains delivering iron ore to the port and returning empty pass under this bridge and along the edge of the salt farm. We were lucky that an empty train returning to its mine passed under whilst we were there.
Rail loop line going to and returning from the port
Unloaded train on its way back to be reloaded
Next we continue on out of town to South Hedland, a newer developed area with a major shopping centre. along they way we call into Wedgefield, a light industrial centre between Port Hedland and South Hedland, looking to top up with cheaper fuel. I also need some Adblue and finding stations with bulk adblue is not that easy. Anyway, the adblue pump wasn't working so we ended up getting fuel in South Hedland. The only feature of Wedgefield is this giant wheelbarrow.
There is a major shopping centre in South Hedland and we only needed a few fresh items, but bought a bahn mi for lunch, not noticing there was no seating at all in this large shopping mall. Clearly they were not encouraging people to linger. So we got back in the car and looked for a nearby park, not much success there either although we could have shared some shade under the trees with a few locals.
Eventually we drove back to Port Hedland and enjoyed our lunch at Koombana Lookout, with great elevated views out over the ocean and port entrance on one side, and the racecourse on the other. It so happens that the horse races are on today, so a bit of a crowd has gathered at the course.
The bahn mi was the highlight of our visit to South Hedland, the vibe there was not good.
Ships waiting to be loaded
One heading in
Not sure who won the race
On the way back to our park, we diverted to go to the local swimming hole called "Pretty Pool", it is basically a creek that is nice to swim in at low tide.
Pretty Pool
Later in the afternoon I went for a walk along the beach and the tide had really gone out. I could walk to Pretty Pool easily from our caravan park.
This is what it looks like from our side of the creek.
Comments
Post a Comment