AROUND AUSTRALIA 2008
Saturday 4 October – Friday 10 October
Roebourne to Hamersley Range
Blog 10
Before we left the Roebourne area we took a drive out to Harding Dam. The country side was desolate and the dam was quite low. We drove to the lookout and then to the spillway. While we were on the dam wall 2 trains laden with iron ore went past. It is always a spectacular sight.
We made Karratha our base for the surrounding area even though the prices at the caravan park were unbelievably expensive because of the gas and mining interests in the area.
We stopped to look at the coastal nature based camping at Cleaverville. It was a very barren, rugged and harsh land but still lovely.
We drove to the Burrup Peninsula with our first stop being Hearson’s Cove. Hearson’s Cove is a total shell beach with lovely table and chairs set up and BBQs provided for families. It is the spot where Staircase to the moon can be viewed. On our way back to the bitumen road we stopped at Deep Gorge to view the aboriginal Petroglyphs which are engravings into the rock. There are literally thousands of these engravings in the area. We then drove down to the port as far as we were permitted and then onto Woodside Visitor Centre which is on the Woodside Petroleum site of the North West Shelf Gas is processed and shipped out. The facility there takes in the natural gas from the North West Shelf, removes unwanted fractions and liquefies it and then ships 90% of it to Japan and the 10% supplies the natural gas for WA. It certainly was an amazing facility.
We then drove further to Withnell Bay to see the boat ramp and get another view of the gas plant. The colour of the water is Roebuck bay colour and beautiful. We drove back down the Burrup Peninsula and into Dampier. The information board at the entrance to the town also has a memorial to the Red Dog who was a local dog that managed to get rides with various locals to various places by waiting at the road to get a lift and letting the driver know when he wanted to get out. A delightful story.
Both Dampier and Karratha were purpose built towns in the 1960s to cater for the mining transport for Dampier Salt, Pilbara Iron and Woodside Energy Ltd.
It didn’t take us very long to explore Karratha where the coast was mainly mud flats and mangroves. We drove along some of the tracks and found a lovely little beach but the coastline was nothing like the beaches and swimming that was available at Dampier. It appears that they put the town here so that it would be in between the surrounding hills which would perhaps give it protection in cyclones.
Even though we had done the BHP-Billiton and Roebourne tours we still decided to take The Rio Tinto tour to complete the picture.
From this tour we had the opportunity to see things much closer up.
From Karratha we headed to Millstream-Chichester National Park.
It was an easy drive and we arrived at Python Pool, a permanent freshwater plunge pool, located at the base of a cliff in the Chichester Range escarpment. The walk into the Pool was along the river bed.
The rain of the day had caused the dirt road to become VERY muddy, very quickly and the car and van were absolutely splattered with red mud.
We walked around the old homestead to the beautiful Jindawurrunha Pool which actually bubbles up from the Millstream aquifer. This Millstream oasis is made up of a string of spring-fed pools fringed by sedges, palm groves and paper-bark forest. The vegetation around the area was lush, green and plentiful. There were lots of Millstream Palms of Livistona afredii, which are fanned, grey-green leaves and smooth bark. The introduced date palms and cotton palms were once prolific in the area and were overtaking the natural flora and have gradually been removed from the park. The stream was warm. There are lots of white barked gums in the area and pincushion Spinifex clumps that cover the stony plateau. The water that feeds the aquifer comes from the Fortescue River Catchment which includes run-off from the Hamersley Range. The aquifer is a natural underground reserve contained in the porous dolomite rock
The drive to Crossing Pool on the Fortescue River along Snappy Gum Dr was windy with magnificent scenery and even though it was already late in the afternoon it was beautiful.
At Cliff Lookout we were high up on the cliff looking down the escarpment on to the Fortescue River. It was a beautiful morning scene with Spinifex Pigeons well camouflaged by the rocks.
We were on our way to Hamersley Gorge in the Karijini National Park. It was a most beautiful drive with the colours of the road, the Spinifex, the Hamersley Ranges on the right and the Chichester Ranges on the left providing a feast for the eyes.
Saturday 4 October – Friday 10 October
Roebourne to Hamersley Range
Blog 10
Before we left the Roebourne area we took a drive out to Harding Dam. The country side was desolate and the dam was quite low. We drove to the lookout and then to the spillway. While we were on the dam wall 2 trains laden with iron ore went past. It is always a spectacular sight.
We made Karratha our base for the surrounding area even though the prices at the caravan park were unbelievably expensive because of the gas and mining interests in the area.
We stopped to look at the coastal nature based camping at Cleaverville. It was a very barren, rugged and harsh land but still lovely.
We drove to the Burrup Peninsula with our first stop being Hearson’s Cove. Hearson’s Cove is a total shell beach with lovely table and chairs set up and BBQs provided for families. It is the spot where Staircase to the moon can be viewed. On our way back to the bitumen road we stopped at Deep Gorge to view the aboriginal Petroglyphs which are engravings into the rock. There are literally thousands of these engravings in the area. We then drove down to the port as far as we were permitted and then onto Woodside Visitor Centre which is on the Woodside Petroleum site of the North West Shelf Gas is processed and shipped out. The facility there takes in the natural gas from the North West Shelf, removes unwanted fractions and liquefies it and then ships 90% of it to Japan and the 10% supplies the natural gas for WA. It certainly was an amazing facility.
We then drove further to Withnell Bay to see the boat ramp and get another view of the gas plant. The colour of the water is Roebuck bay colour and beautiful. We drove back down the Burrup Peninsula and into Dampier. The information board at the entrance to the town also has a memorial to the Red Dog who was a local dog that managed to get rides with various locals to various places by waiting at the road to get a lift and letting the driver know when he wanted to get out. A delightful story.
Both Dampier and Karratha were purpose built towns in the 1960s to cater for the mining transport for Dampier Salt, Pilbara Iron and Woodside Energy Ltd.
It didn’t take us very long to explore Karratha where the coast was mainly mud flats and mangroves. We drove along some of the tracks and found a lovely little beach but the coastline was nothing like the beaches and swimming that was available at Dampier. It appears that they put the town here so that it would be in between the surrounding hills which would perhaps give it protection in cyclones.
Even though we had done the BHP-Billiton and Roebourne tours we still decided to take The Rio Tinto tour to complete the picture.
From this tour we had the opportunity to see things much closer up.
From Karratha we headed to Millstream-Chichester National Park.
It was an easy drive and we arrived at Python Pool, a permanent freshwater plunge pool, located at the base of a cliff in the Chichester Range escarpment. The walk into the Pool was along the river bed.
The rain of the day had caused the dirt road to become VERY muddy, very quickly and the car and van were absolutely splattered with red mud.
We walked around the old homestead to the beautiful Jindawurrunha Pool which actually bubbles up from the Millstream aquifer. This Millstream oasis is made up of a string of spring-fed pools fringed by sedges, palm groves and paper-bark forest. The vegetation around the area was lush, green and plentiful. There were lots of Millstream Palms of Livistona afredii, which are fanned, grey-green leaves and smooth bark. The introduced date palms and cotton palms were once prolific in the area and were overtaking the natural flora and have gradually been removed from the park. The stream was warm. There are lots of white barked gums in the area and pincushion Spinifex clumps that cover the stony plateau. The water that feeds the aquifer comes from the Fortescue River Catchment which includes run-off from the Hamersley Range. The aquifer is a natural underground reserve contained in the porous dolomite rock
The drive to Crossing Pool on the Fortescue River along Snappy Gum Dr was windy with magnificent scenery and even though it was already late in the afternoon it was beautiful.
At Cliff Lookout we were high up on the cliff looking down the escarpment on to the Fortescue River. It was a beautiful morning scene with Spinifex Pigeons well camouflaged by the rocks.
We were on our way to Hamersley Gorge in the Karijini National Park. It was a most beautiful drive with the colours of the road, the Spinifex, the Hamersley Ranges on the right and the Chichester Ranges on the left providing a feast for the eyes.
At the bottom of Hamersley Gorge we were greeted with the most spectacular view of the river and the most magnificently folded rocks that looked like they had been polished.
