Tour of Iron Ore Mine, red dust clean-up

Thursday 15^th May 2008

Another relaxed start since we had decided to spend a second night here in order to do the necessary repairs and cleaning up without getting stressed in our usual way (or more precisely, without ME getting stressed and causing stress for others!).

We were picked up from the visitors’ centre with a whole bunch of others by a cynical but funny guy called Bob who did a very professional tour – he certainly knows all about the mine. We had to wear white hard hats and safety goggles that were distinctly unflattering (and kept slipping off the girls’ faces) and the bus had seatbelts and we were cautioned that if we were caught without them inside the mine area we’d be fined $20,000 – ahem, the girls were quickly buckled up!

Going past the petrol station he told us that they had indeed now run out of diesel again and he was distinctly unimpressed by their bad organisation.

Inside the mine area was amazing – it is huge and they have cut away SO much of the mountains. It’s been going since 1964, is producing about 20 million tonnes of iron ore a year and is expected to go on doing so for another 20 years or so (probably longer if the price of it stays so high). The purer ore (anything with above 60% iron) was actually yellowy while the rest is a dark colour. But of course, the predominant colour in the whole area is browny red.

Bob was at pains to point out how Rio Tinto/Hamersly Iron (as it was)/Pilbara Iron (the new name) have made a great job of reinstating/revegetating areas that have been mined but it’s still kind of sad to think that whole mountains (well, more like large hills really) have disappeared.

The first stop was at a lookout that took in the whole processing plant which was more or less explained to us. The part I was fascinated by was how they load the trains – for the fine grade it has to be conveyored up and dropped down into each truck one at a time but for the rough grade the train drives underneath the pile and the ore is dropped down into four carriages at a time. The trains are on average 230 trucks long and trucks are processed in pairs so there is always an even number (for those interested in testing their concentration to count them as they go past!)

Our next stop was a lookout over an area currently being mined. This lookout will be lost in about a month because the spot it is on has now become viable again. We had a fantastic view of an excavator filling a dump truck with a bulldozer banging away at a nearby rockface and even a regular 4WD to give us a sense of how massive the machines really are.

The lookout also has an out-of-use dump truck to give us tourists an idea of their size – OMG – they are huge! The obligatory photos were taken with it while Bob explained more about the mining process. We got to see two wedge-tailed eagles – wow – they were just swirling effortlessly around above the pit looking big despite the proportions of their surroundings.

Back in town the girls were given Rio Tinto lollipops and some toy versions of the white hard hats which came in useful in Karijini NP – a story for later if I remember to tell it – yes, this is being written about 5 days later – got a bit behind with it all!

The girls and I set up camp in the library – it was cool, there were lots of books to read (Holly had finished yet another of hers and I wasn’t giving her the next until we had a long drive to do) and Paul sloped off to a local coffee shop to read the newspaper.

The girls were supposed to be doing schoolwork in the afternoon but were distracted by the arrival of Quinn and Harmony (wot kind of names are they?!) who were desperate for young company – Quinn yelled out to Holly asking her to be his friend before they’d even parked their van! A little later beside the park pool (freezing water, apparently – wouldn’t catch me in there) they were joined by two girls, Finlay and Sadie (more ‘unusual’ names!) who are from Horfield in Bristol. The six of them made rocket ships out of towels and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening running riot around the caravan park.

Paul was on a mission to fix up the tap on the a-frame – successfully bought the parts from Muzzy’s hardware store and applied them – fantastic – all sorted... until he thought he’d just tighten it a bit more to make sure and split the plastic! So my grocery shopping trip included a return trip to Muzzy’s!

I spent a lot of time cleaning red dust out of the cupboards and sealing up any potential holes with masking tape. We will also be taping up the back of the van whenever we venture onto dirt roads because the hassle it causes is so great (in my mind, anyway).

It was fish and chips for dinner since tomorrow (Friday) we will be in the middle of nowhere and Paul and Holly need their weekly dose!