Port Hedland

What can I say about Port Hedland. One Word – “Money”. You can certainly make a lot and you need a lot to live here. The town is going 24hrs non stop with BHP & Rio Tinto making their billions.

Everyone here appears to work or have some association with the mines or salt works. Even the caravan park (Cooke Point) we are staying at is full of workers and you are very lucky if you can get a caravan site – we got the inside word to get here early, as the park is full by mid-afternoon. It is the most we have ever paid for a site on any of our trips, but was to be expected.

We toured around the town and as you drive you notice the workers cars (with their number identifiers and flags) are everywhere. The port was unbelievable with huge ships banked up waiting to collect the iron ore to take it back to China. What would we do without the Chinese? And the trains, well they had over 200 carriages (we tried to count them) and you could hear them going all night. Not a good place for a light sleeper!

The next ship being guided in by the pilots

Don’t think about buying a property here – you won’t get much change from a million dollars and that is for a very basic 2-3 bedroom house. I guess the worker’s wages compensate for the house prices, but many just fly up from Perth and live in make shift villages. The townships of Port & South Hedland are certainly not much to look at – lack a lot of green & colour.

If anyone wants a job, you won’t have trouble getting one here. There is money to be made; at least for another 30 years they estimate.

It is time now to escape the city and move on to Karijini National Park.