Cue, Mount Magnet and Sandstone.......... WA

CUE.........

The renovated original Police Station and Post Office in Cue.....these buildings are still used for there original purpose

 Post Office

The shire office was once the Gentleman's Club

 Murchison Pub

This building was once the Bank of New South Wales

 The charm of older buildings!

Queen of the Murchison Hotel

 This building was once the Gaol

How quaint......Cue's community herb garden

MOUNT MAGNET........

Looking down over the Morning Star open cut

gold mining pit from Warramboo Lookout  









Small town of Mount Magnet from Warramboo Lookout

SANDSTONE............





Sausage sizzle in the park

The water park

 Yes, you could hire the golf clubs for $5 to play golf for free. But wait!!

The relic of the Sandstone Brewery

 Looking down to our motorhome

from the rock shelf above the relic of the Sandstone Brewery

London Bridge

One of the fairways of the Sandstone golf course.....

not a blade of grass!



NEWMAN.....WA

Newman is a modern town built in the 1960's, primarily to house the workforce of the Mount Whaleback iron-ore mine. Discovered in 1957, the iron-ore deposit was named Whaleback because the hill resembled the shape of a humpback whale.

Behind the Visitor's Centre is the short drive to Radio Hill to lookout over the town.....the township is in a semi circle below the hill.

We took a tour of the BHP Billiton Mount Whaleback Iron Ore Mine..............a truly interesting and informative tour giving one an insight into modern mining. Everything is huge!

Mt Whaleback is the largest single open-cut iron ore mine in the world – currently 8klms long and 3klms wide. It is forecasted that the mining operations of this mine is still expected to be 40 – 60 years! There are 13 x 190 tonne and 43 x 240 tonne ore trucks at this site.

The first giant Haulpak truck used at Mount Whaleback mine is on view at the Newman's Visitors Centre. Whaleback Mine owned 22 of the 30 trucks produced. The trucks carried a total weight of 200 tonnes. When fully loaded the truck and contents weighs 75 tonnes
more than the take-off weight of a 747 jumbo jet. The ore truck today is priced at 5 million dollars.

The first trainload of iron ore left Newman in 1969 to Port Hedland. Since then over 1 billion tonnes of ore has been railed out of Newman. Average train is 3.75 klms long, consisting of 6 locomotives, 212 – 336 ore cars and one driver. Each car holds approximately 125 tonnes of ore and a loaded train will weigh approximately 42,000 tonnes.

It is a real eye opener to visit isolated and outback towns.............while we were in Newman a large truck from Perth (The Mobile Butcher) was in town and town folk were purchasing their monthly meat supplies.

NEWMAN....WA

17 July 2012..........

How the other half live...........

this mobile butcher brings meat

from Perth once a month! 

 Ready for the Mount Whaleback Mine tour 

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Photos of Mount Whaleback Mine taken from a lookout in the mine site.......... 

Newman township from Radiohill Lookout



Karijini National Park WA – Tuesday 10th to Monday 16th July 2012

On our way from Marble Bar to Karijini National Park we spent a night at Indee Station (a working cattle property). This was an interesting stopover where we walked to the top of a hill on the property to get telephone reception. Happy hour was enjoyed with other camping guests in the homestead dining room ...... you took your drinks and the property owners supplied the nibbles. We had a very pleasant hour chatting with so many other travellers.

Next day travelled to Karijini National Park.............. This enormous and remote National Park is the second largest National Park in WA. The dramatic gorges formed over millions of years where creeks, dry for most of the year, rage after winter rains, carving out deep, sheer-sided chasms.

We booked into the Dales Gorge campground............. We again meet up with our travelling friends Glenda and John and thanks to them, in their 4WD, we spent a fantastic day from 8.30am to 4.30pm exploring the Weano Gorge and its surrounds and enjoying a picnic lunch. We walked the absolutely magnificent Weano Gorge and its surrounds, exploring the gorges and streams of Weano, Hancock, Kalamina and the vistas from Joffre and Oxer lookouts. Oxer lookout is perched on a sliver of land at the junctions of the four gorges – Weano, Red, Hancock and Joffre – with iron-stained cliffs falling away steeply on both sides.

We arrived back to our campsite around 5pm to find our dear friends, from Newcastle, Marg and Wayne. They had just arrived at Dales Campground, found our motorhome and were making themselves a cuppa while they waited for us to return...........they knew we couldn't be too far and because it was getting onto dusk knew we should be home soon! It was great to see them and with Glenda and John we sat and enjoyed sundowners and chatted well into the evening.

Marg and Wayne have travelled, with other friends, across the rough dirt road of the centre of Australia and before leaving Newcastle we hoped we might catch up somewhere here in WA on our trip.............we have been in contact periodically by SMS (when in telephone coverage) and seven to ten days ago we suspected we would be in Karijini around the same period! This large country and bingo we managed to catch up even though we have each taken a very different path to reach the same spot!

Chris and I enjoyed a rest day after our Weano Gorge adventure and the next day Marg and Wayne travelled with us in our motorhome to the iron-ore mining town of Tom Price. We had a wonderful day with them and it was great to be with such great friends. In Tom Price we had telephone coverage so Marg and I phoned our great friend Kathy............ Back in the early 70's, Marg and Kathy travelled in a small Galant around Australia visiting the many places we have just been travelling. Amazing to think........ all the rough gravel road and in a small Galant and only had a few minor issues................ a broken windscreen and a flat tyre! Two very young girls camping out in tents under the stars!

Another exciting day was spent with Marg and Wayne exploring the magnificent Dales Gorge and its surrounds. The startling landscape here in the Karijini National Park is a must to see.................spectacular gorges, waterfalls and rock pools provide a striking contrast to the stark red of the Pilbara landscape.

I have truly been blown away with the absolute beauty of this amazing place in our wonderful Australia................. I only pray that with all the iron-ore mining in the Pilbara that the beauty of this place is unaffected.............God knows what money can destroy!

KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK .......WA

This amazing landscape of the Pilbara was one of the many picturesque vistas

on our way to Karijini National Park

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Enjoy the following photos taken of the gorges and its surrounds at the Karijini National Park................. 



Karratha, Port Hedland and out to Marble Bar WA

From Millstream Chichester NP we toured around the Mining Towns of Karratha and Dampier and settled for the evening on the Maitland River just south of Karratha.
Karratha was established in the 1960s to serve the requirements of major local industrial projects such as Pilbara Iron, Dampier Salt and later Woodside's North West Shelf Venture.
Dampier located just 20klms from Karratha, also established in the 1960s by the Pilbara Iron mining company as a sea based export location for iron ore. Now from this port is also exported Salt and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The Woodside's North West Shelf Venture represent Australia's largest resource development and one of the world's largest producers of gas. Today, this $27 billion production system include offshore production facilities and subsea infrastructure, onshore processing, storage and loading facilities at the Karratha Gas Plant, an impressive LNG shipping fleet and a supply base supporting its offshore activities. We visited the North West Shelf Visitors' Centre.........to learn all about Australia's largest resource development in an interactive environment..........I must say it was well worth the visit.........everything here in WA is BIG!
Next day travelled north of Karratha to Cleaverville Beach for the evening. We caught up with travelling friends, Glenda and John (who we have been friends with since we met at Clem Walton Park, near Mt Isa QLD, on our travels last year). We spent several hours chatting and hopefully we may see them again when we visit Karijini National Park in a few days time.
Travelling further north we took in the sites of the small settlements of Roebourne, Point Samson, Cossack, and Whim Creek and onto the Yule River for the evening.
Whim Creek in the 1890s was a thriving copper-mining town with two hotels, a blacksmith, a general store, stables and a horse track. Today the only building from that era still standing is the two-storey, corrugated-iron Whim Creek Hotel. Built in 1898, having been imported in prefabricated form from Germany, it has survived numerous cyclones and although the town it served has all but disappeared, is still trading. But wait...........what has happened to the Whim Creek Hotel...........it is NOW CLOSED! Chris was so looking forward to lunch and a Whim Creek Hotel Barra Burger!!
Next day we travelled to Port Hedland and took in the sites of this working town.
Port Hedland founded in the 1880s as a port for shipping out cattle IS NOW a major deepwater port for the Pilbara iron-ore industry. The worlds longest regularly scheduled trains – up to 400 carriages long – haul iron ore to port facilities here. Salt is another important industry. The town is pretty much red, red, red........red buildings, red footpaths, red fences, the iron ore has coloured everything red!
As we travelled across the country last year from Newcastle to Broome we've decided this year to go as far north in WA as Port Hedland then travel south on the inland roads back to the Nullarbor. Before starting our homeward bound journey we travelled south west out to the town of Marble Bar. We may never be back this way so just had to do it! On the way we camped beside Gorge Creek for two days then travelled the short distance to Marble Bar for the day and then came back to Gorge Creek for another evening.
The town of Marble Bar was founded in 1893 following the discovery of gold. The name of the town derives its name from a nearby jasper bar which runs across the bed of the Coongan River. When first discovered, settlers mistook the jasper for marble, hence the name Marble Bar. This town is Australia's Hottest Town having earned this reputation from the consistently high temperatures experienced during summer months when the temperature is over 38 degrees for days on end. The record is 160 consecutive days over 38.7 degrees in the summer of 1923-24. Our visit to Marble Bar was on Sunday July 8, 2012 (middle of winter) and the temperature at 11.45am was 29.5 degrees...............a very pleasant winter's day!
Karijini National Park here we come.................