Questions & Big Things in the Pilbara

After a lovely stay at Bullara Station (thanks heaps to the Howletts!) it was time to continue north.  I was on a bit of a serious road trip, since the distances I was going to travel were substantial and I hadn't realised just how little there was in between towns.  No side roads to explore (or none that I'd take Van Morrison down after the rain that has fallen) and very few weird little towns to visit.  Just busy roads, full of roadtrains.  I entertained myself by singing (loudly) to old faves like Meatloaf and the Rocky Horror Picture Show and by pondering some interesting questions ...

Why do the clumps of grass on the verges grow in lines parallel to the road?

A beautiful spray-painted mural at Bullara

Red sand, red rocks

I stayed in some lovely free camps (roadside rest areas mainly) which were alive with birds because of the recent rains.  It's very interesting seeing who stays in the free camps.  I've divided them into two groups: the backpackers/little vans who like having a fire, sitting outside and chatting (that's me) and the super-rigs belonging to cashed up grey nomads ... you never see them outside the van unless they're setting up or packing up.

Robe River rest stop

Sunset at Peawah River

Look at the colour of that water!  In the background is the depth indicator for the crossing - 2 metres

Why have the ravens been replaced by raptors, the more north I travel?

At one camp, I was delighted to see a pair of bee-eaters and I took quite a few photos.  Then at dusk, all of a sudden, there was a flock of them - probably about 20 birds!

Black duck and a grey teal

Wedge-tailed eagle 

If you cross a bridge and the sign says "Unnamed Creek", doesn't that mean that the creek has a name?

As I drove and drove, each burnt out and trashed wreck became interesting ... and there were quite a lot of them!

Lovely, huh!

Not every river bed had water in it

Does anything eat spinifex?

Big.  The Pilbara is full of big things.  Big rocks.  Big mines.  Big trucks.  Big trains.  Big distances.  I had to be careful that I got out of the road of some of the oversized loads that came my way.

This huge load needed two trucks, pulling in tandem, to shift it.  I talked to the driver and he said that they would get to top speed after about 4 kilometres.  Top speed was 75 km/hr.

Big, dirty, long road trains

Big tyres

Another tandem effort.  Big and dirty!

Yep!  Got off the road for these!  Big!

Big bucket!

Big, long train

How will the mining companies rehabilitate the land when they have removed the land?

There might be some lovely National Parks in the Pilbara (not that this dog owner got to visit them) but really the area is dominated by mining.  Everywhere you look, there is evidence of the huge amount of money being made from mining our natural resources.  The roads are stained with the dust from the mines, the towns have grown rich by catering for miners, the infrastructure is quite mind-boggling.  However, it is an ugly sight to be gazing at a beautiful rocky range and then realise that half of it is now missing ... disappearing road train by road train, leaving behind barren terraces.

How many cracks and chips should you have in your windscreen before you replace it?

I got to Port Hedland, got some cracks fixed in the windscreen, drove down the road and a gust of wind blew gravel off the top of a truck's load ... three more chips!  I left Port Hedland.

I saw these all over the place ... I'm assuming they are small test bores

A mine ... eating away at a range of hills

Newman.  An 'interesting' town.

I spent a few days in the delightful town of Cue.  OK, so there wasn't a lot going on in Cue but it was very pretty and had heaps to see in the district.  By now I was heading south and was out of the iron mining ... and into the gold mining.  Standing around the communal firepit, I came to realise that nearly everyone staying at the Cue Caravan Park was a gold prospector ... not sure what gave it away.  It could have been the sign saying "Picks 4 sale" or the conversations that went around in circles as they tried not to let on where they had been searching or how much gold they'd found.

The Club Hotel - a saviour on a freezing cold night

The old courthouse and police station ... still in use

I had to laugh ... Spirituous & fermented liquors!

This is the old Masonic Hall, a two storey tin building

One day, I headed out to Walga Rock.  This is the second biggest rock in Australia and also boasts the largest Aboriginal art gallery in WA.  It was a 47 km trip on dirt roads (only the last 5 km were corrugated enough to shake Maggie off the bed) and was well worth the trip.

One of the strangest drawings is of this ship.  There seems to be arabic script underneath the picture but no-one really knows what it is and how it got there.  The most likely theory is that an Indonesian pearl fisherman called Sammy Hassan drew it early in the 20th century.  Or it could have been a survivor from the Batavia.  Or the Zuytdorp.

Gold mining doesn't seem to have the longevity that iron ore has.  Cue, for example, had a population of about 10,000 in 1900 but today has 178.  I went to one of the many deserted gold mining towns in the region, Big Bell.  The town was gazetted in 1936 but the mine closed in 1955.  Now, all that remains is the enormous shell of what once was a glorious art deco hotel, some footings of buildings and the four walls of a church.

Inside the old hotel

I'm just a little bit early for the wildflowers ... and I think it's going to be an amazing season because of the recent rains.  So I was surprised to see a sea of pink as I drove along a back road.  Not sure what they are ...

I'm a bit over towns at the moment and feel the need for a roaring fire (it's been a bit cold lately) so I'm heading into the 'bush' for a bit of free camping.  And you never know what I might find!