Just when we thought the earth could not get any redder, we travelled to Karijini National Park, Millstream National Park and a town called Tom Price. There, everything didn’t just look a deep red, it looked rusty, because this is iron ore country, and it IS rusty!
Karijini is part of the Hammersley Ranges, we stayed at Dale’s campground and walked some magnificent walks along gorges made up of layers of red rock. We saw snakes, lizards, dingoes and rocks with asbestos in them. We then moved on to Millstream National Park, travelling over dirt and bitumen roads. The car and van took on a particularly rusty look. The views and gorges are beautiful, the history of the area is interesting.
There is a balance between National Parks and protecting indigenous historical areas and the iron ore mines that have provided Australia with an income and have kept the economy buoyant. Hammersley Gorge was “discovered” by Lang Hancock, father of the richest woman in Australia, and the 8th richest woman in the world. Rio Tinto now also operates iron ore mines in the area. We visited the mine in a place called Tom Price which was named after an American who was one of the main initiators and supporters of the opening up of the Pilbara region to iron ore mining. Hmmmmm.
Rio Tinto has it’s own freight rail network that runs throughout the Pilbara, transporting iron ore to the ports for export. These trains have around 500 carriages and are run remotely from Perth – no one is driving them! It is amazing country and I am glad that there are some protected areas but I am conflicted around the level of conservation that is happening.
Rio Tinto also has a private road that people can use if they watch a 20 minute video on how to drive – on dirt roads! Fair enough I guess as some driver’s skills we’ve seen have been pretty questionable. Parts of this road were quite challenging, especially when there is a lot of dust!
Lastly Murujura has been an indigenous meeting and camping place for thousands of years. The etchings and paintings on the rocks in the area tell thousands of years worth of stories. For instance, there is an etching of a Tasmanian Tiger on these rocks, apart from being completely extinct now, they have been extinct on mainland Australia for around 5000 years.
Hope you enjoy!
Spectacular and when a train comes through, pull up and put the Billy on.
Travel well