A Tale of Two Towns

When we were in Newman, a BHP Billiton town setup to exploit the Mt Whaleback and associated ore bodies, I found a Woolies. At the time, I said “I bet Tom Price has a Coles. And I was right. Branding is alive and well even in the Pilbara Iron Ore business. Standing at opposite ends of the Hamersley Range, arch rivals BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto stand off in competition. Now I don’t know who is making more money out of Iron Ore, but I know where I’d rather live. Newman is tidy, clean, up-to-date and seems to have a community atmosphere with sports clubs and public art. Tom Price seems old and tired, a little dirty, and the public art doesn’t seem to extend beyond elaborately painted bus shelters scattered around the town to take workers to the mines. Even the clubs seemed a little more blokey. I suspect Tom Price is older, with 60s and 70s aluminium sliders an architectural feature.

Ok, so the town wasn’t real great at Tom Price, but the location is pretty excellent, standing as it does under Mount Nameless. Tom Price is named after Thomas Price, and American steel entrepreneur who was instrumental in encouraging Lang Hancock to develop the Pilbara ore body back in the 50s and 60s.

We passed the time of a slow start feeding the birds in the campground. Elliot managed to handfeed a spinifex dove, and there were galahs and corellas in the team as well. A surprise overnight deluge required a bit of a dry off before we packed. We headed up Mt Nameless, a name bestowed by Europeans much to the distaste of the local aborigines, who  quite correctly point out it is anything but nameless. It has the title for the highest road in Western Australia, and given the choice between a walk and a ride, the passengers of course chose to travel in comfort. It provides a view over the Mt Tom Price mine, at least as much as is visible behind the mountain as it pokes out either side. That is as close as you get without doing the tour as very unfriendly signs keep you out of the site. We chose not to do the tour as it didn’t get a good rap from the family we camped beside last night.

That family was an interesting meet for us. They were the only ones we have met doing the travelling in a single vehicle and tents. They left Darwin at the end of term 2 and intend to travel around to Victoria during term three. Then they fly home, leaving the car at the rellies for term 4 and complete school before flying back and finishing the lap during the Christmas holidays. They were travelling in a Prado and also broke stuff on the Gibb River Road. The other interesting thing was they were both school teachers and had a 14 year old girl and twin boys of 11. Reminded us of friends back home – you know who you are!

There was much discussion as to what we would do this afternoon. The choices were head towards Port Hedland, or go via Millstream-Chichester. Pros and cons on both sides. We started out by doing our last stop in Karajini, Hamersley Gorge. This was different geology, with less iron in the rocks and lots of folding of the layers leading to wild stripes in the rocks. The easy walk was to a pool and some falls, but we headed upstream attempting to find a place called the Grotto. I think we failed as we were short of time, and the track was indistinct and challenging in places. It was however very pretty in places.

The time we spent in Hamersley Gorge pretty much ruled out making it to Millstream Chichester in any reasonable time, so it was back across the top of Karajini again on the south side of a vast plain looking up at the escarpment of the Hamersley Range in the setting sun. It also meant we would have to go through Wittenoom, a ghost town now abandoned after it became obvious that the asbestos being mined in the area was killing people. There were warning signs on the road warning of the dangers of the asbestos remaining in the tailings. We went nowhere near the mine, sticking to the main road which was the only sealed bit of the road, I suspect to keep the dust risk low. We didn’t stop, drove with the car sealed up and ignored the signs to the souvenir shop.

We pulled into the Auski roadhouse, a junction in the middle of nowhere with all of a travellers requirements. We shared the camp kitchen with a bunch of guys piloting some enormous piece of mining machinery down the road from Pt Hedland. I expect we will meet it some time tomorrow.