Day 44 (3 Jun) – Karratha and Dampier

The weather is not too good today.  We’re used to sunny days and warm temps.  It’s breezy and only going to be 22 deg.  Off to Karratha for some shopping and breakfast at a café in town.  Not much to see in Karratha as it’s more of a town that supports Dampier.  Very residential with some industrial complexes.  There’s a lot of Sturt’s Desert Pea plants on the roadside.  They’re quite stunning to look at.

We drove out to the North West Shelf Gas Project Visitors’ Centre.  And, it’s closed!  There is a number to call to see about opening times and the response was they are only open Wednesdays from 9.00am to 12.00pm.  How useless!!  There are some description boards out front so all we could do was take some photos of those for our record.  This is an enormous complex and most of the gas is shipped to Japan and China.  Very little goes to support the needs of Western Australians!  Just a small portion of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG).  All the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is shipped offshore.  Plus, one of the notice boards says that China National Offshore Oil Corporation acquired an interest in the North West Shelf Reserves in 2004!!!  What!!!  They sold the ownership of some of our critical resources to China!!!!  Someone ought to be shot.

They have built a memorial to the workers who were killed and injured building the project, and for the other workers as well (seems like an afterthought).  No mention of how many were killed though.

The descriptive boards were very well done.

I had to take a picture of the next board in two parts as it wouldn’t be readable in one shot.

There are huge gas storage tanks and an equally enormous processing plant.

We couldn’t see the loading facility as it was behind a hill and the security was very tight.  But we could see some of the Bay and the Dampier Salt Loading facility beyond.  Dampier is also a large exporter of salt and there are huge salt pans. Unfortunately, you can’t buy any Dampier or Karratha salt though as it is either shipped overseas or maybe sold to companies who add their name to it.

We then drove into Dampier which has the memorial to Red Dog.  He was an Australian Red Kelpie that roamed the Pilbara and region when his owner died, he befriended everyone he met.  The movie Red Dog tells his story. He is buried in nearby Roebourne.

We stopped for coffee and a snack at SOAK Café on the Dampier Foreshore.  Some excellent views of the bays around Dampier.

Out the front of the café must have been the Corella pickup area.  There were copulating Corellas everywhere.  I think the roly-poly playing was a bit more than just playing.  We even had to stop on the road while a couple of copulating Corellas did their thing!!

Further around the peninsula was the iron ore ship loading facility.  I had previously counted 14 ships waiting offshore to come in to be loaded.  These ships were just massive.

The bay itself it quite beautiful if you can get around all the cranes and port loading facilities that seem to be everywhere.

We tried to get into the train terminus.  Helen went into the security office and was politely told “Hell No”.  So, we took a picture from a lookout over the railway line.  Not the same though.

Back to Karratha and the hill overlooking the town.  This is a very young town, established in 1969.  The lookout had a couple of interesting pictures.

By this time Mikey was in desperate need of a pee, and as there were no facilities and no one was around he found a nice rock.  Except Helen decided to embarrass him.  She thought this was really funny!!  This is why “Nigel” has no friends!!!

On the way back to Point Samson, we stopped at Roebourne and did the historic drive tour.  Almost impossible to follow as the map was so bad.  We went to a lookout for a photo opportunity.  Interesting, but nothing startling.

We leave here tomorrow and head south to Onslow.  We are currently about 1600km north of Perth.

Helen’s Highlights/Minnie’s musings

Lots of interesting places here. My highlight today was the nice people I met and had a chat with. The man in the Woolies vegetable section who helped me ended up having along chat about himself and then a customer at the deli and I had a good chin wag. However, the most interesting was a man who was at the lookout over Roebourne. He was just standing there alone when we arrived. As I was going to be taking the photo from where he was standing, I said hello and we both commented how lovely it was. He had not been there for 11 years and was back paying respects to his father who had come from Roebourne and when he had died this was the spot where they had spread his ashes. It was very moving listening to him.

Complaint of the Day

Michael – “There is nothing more annoying than the high-pitched grinding noise of a café coffee grinder, particularly when it is left on for a long time.” Which is what the café was doing. The guy put the grinder on and then went to serve another person hence the coffee grounds would be like sand when they finally turn it off.

Helen – Visitors centres that are not open. 3 Hours once a week – gotta be kidding!!!

 

Day 45 (4 Jun) – Point Samson to Onslow

This morning was a bit miserable as we left Point Samson.  Very windy and a few showers.  Headed south and our first stop was Fortescue River Roadhouse.  We passed a sign that said, “Cape Preston Airfield – Private Access”.  I wondered why there would be an airfield out here in the middle of nowhere.  When we got to Fortescue River Roadhouse, this sign was displayed.

I checked on Google about who owns Citic Pacific Mining, and it came up as Citic Group which in turn is owned by Ministry of Finance Peoples Republic of China.  Citic is the largest conglomerate enterprise in China.  Citic (or Peoples Republic of China) now has the mining rights to a huge swathe of 65% pure Australian iron ore for the next 30 years.  Why does our government allow this??

The road along here is very boring.  Not much scenery except for thousands of termite mounds.  And some are up to 7 metres tall.

The road to Onslow from the Great Northern Coastal Highway is 77km.  And Onslow is the only thing at the end of it.  On the foreshore there is a weird figurine of four dogs dressed in suits taking photos.  Not sure what this is supposed to signify.

I thought this was a “nothing” town.  We drove around the wharf area, which is quite new.  Then I realised this is all to support the Northwest Shelf Gas Project. 

Naturally we had to have the obligatory fish and chip lunch at the local (and only) pub. 

There is a boardwalk which encompasses an ANZAC Tribute.  Apparently on ANZAC Day, 25 April, the sun shines through the arch.

We visited the museum, and I was surprised to find out that the first atomic test in Australia was conducted by the British on the Montebello Islands in October 1952.  I had no idea.  They did three tests and those beautiful islands where they did the testing are still radioactive.

There is a Gas Plant near Onslow and a Salt Mining operation.  Just off the end of the jetty was a ship being loaded with salt.  This is commercial salt for industrial purposes, not for table salt.

Unexpectedly, we drove over a bridge and the conveyor belt transporting salt to the ship.  There is a front-end loader at the salt plant feeding salt into a hopper that feeds the conveyor and in turn the ship.

Just down the beach a bit is the gas plant.  A ship had just left sitting low in the water and obviously full of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG).

Having seen the town and the infrastructure, we returned to the caravan park.  A really nice one in the tiny town of 850 people.  The section we are in was only completed 2 weeks ago.

Only one night here but I think we have seen it all anyway.  Off to Exmouth and Ningaloo tomorrow.

 

Helen’s Highlights/Minnie’s Musings

What an interesting place Onslow is.  The hundreds of termite mounds were on both sides of the road, and I am not sure whether they were the welcoming party or guards for the town. I went for a walk along the boardwalk and the beach, and the shells were everywhere. Also, the little crabs; although not seen; had left their mark along the sand. The dark area of the sand in the picture is all the small sand balls from their diggings.

 No complaints today but I have a Quote of the Day.

It was raining last night so Michael said he would have a shower in the van instead of the amenities because…….” I don’t want to get wet.”    !!!!!!!!!