A “Peaceful” Use for Nuclear Weapons?

Tonight finds us in the thriving metropolis of Whim Creek, halfway between Port Hedland and Karratha. I say “thriving” with tongue firmly in cheek as it is the quintessential pub with no town. The pub is currently the most resilient part of a town stuck midway between what it was and what it might one day be, but currently isn’t. In its heyday it had 2 pubs, general store, racehorse stables and 1200 residents. They were there chasing copper or servicing the port some 20km away. However successive cyclones and low copper prices reduced the town to rubble, and only the pub has had enough love to have been restored after all of this hardship,  being reopened most recently in 2006. It now seems to be a curious mix of outback pub and mining camp, with the eating area having more the feel of a donger kitchen and run by a catering company. Good food though as we enjoyed our first pub meal on the road since Isabel’s birthday on day 1.

So where do the nuclear weapons fit in? Well, apparently Lang Hancock hatched a plan to make this town the port for his Pilbara Iron Ore operations, rolling ore down the hill on trains from the Pilbara into a deepwater port for export. The trouble is the land here is so flat around the coast that the water is anything but deep. Anyway, Lang, as a product of his time, and also a man of big vision decided the best way to solve this was to blast a port with nuclear explosions. Even though it was the mid-70s, fortunately more sensible heads prevailed, and the plan moved rather more peacefully to Karratha.

And what of the future for Whim Creek? Well, if you can believe the geological surveys proudly displayed on the pub walls, it is only a matter of time before a local copper boom breathes life back into Whim Creek.

The rather sleepy end to the day contrasted with what was really a day of more big boys toys. Our pilot crew were on the road early and soon their two pieces of mining plant were going past the roadhouse. Each flatbed trailer had a prime mover fastened front and back to keep things under control. It was probably good we missed them because a German couple we met at breakfast had sat behind the load for 45 minutes at 20km/h.

Onto Port Hedland, the destination for BHP’s Iron Ore trains. Most people had warned us that it is not a pretty town, and with the heavy industry focus, that isn’t surprising. It is however trying hard with the new planned settlement of South Hedland to service and diversify development.

One thing we weren’t prepared for was Rio Tinto’s salt harvesting operation. The huge white piles of salt made for quite a sight against the wide blue skies. Rio’s claim to some kind sustainability crown by saying that 99% of the energy required to produce the salt comes directly from the sun and the wind, while it might be true, seems a little hollow. Vast areas of evaporation ponds is hardly a renewable energy trailblazer.

The real focus of Port Hedland is clearly the iron ore export port. BHP can load 4 ships simultaneously, and 12 trains of greater than 200 rail cars supply the ore daily. In the few hours we were there we saw two ships leave (perhaps aided by a falling tide) and numerous helicopter movements, we presumed moving a pilot between land and the ships. The wet finger calculation over dinner came out at $10 billion dollars of export revenue p.a. I’ve no idea what the actual number is, but clearly this is a big operation, and growing.

And so we headed west, not really knowing where we would wind up. When Whim Creek came up and we were still an hour from a “real” destination, and only 10 minutes from sunset, it seemed like a good choice. However, our “free” camp wound up costing us $80 for a buffet dinner and showers, but did give me the night off. It also introduced us to the rather unique pub diversion apparently invented here. A variation on hookey, darts and quoits, it consists of a ring fastened to the roof by a length of string. The aim is to swing the ring in just the right way such that it will be caught on a hook fastened on the wall.

The things you learn…

Of much interest is a collection of parrots in an aviary here. Of great disappointment though for Louis is the complete lack of knowledge of their types by the bar staff. A novelty though is a pair of talking corellas with fine voices, now imitated almost perfectly by Elliot!

And who would have thought it – we’ve made it to day 50, half way through.