Karijini to Broome

Karijini to Port Hedland

Monday, April 25^th & Tuesday, April 26th

The Hamersley Range is superb and the drive from Karijini through the range to the Fortescue flood plain was spectacular. We took our time, stopping at a lookout for a view and to read about the construction of the road through a gorge. Amazing engineering achievement!

As we travelled, the number of road trains with 4 trailers increased, as mining does not stop for public holidays. The output of ore from Tom Price & Newman is incredible, but most of that ore goes by train to Port Hedland, so these trucks were going from smaller open cuts to the port.

All of WA is quiet on weekends and holidays but Port Hedland was like a ghost town. The main street was closed and deserted and the whole area was industry and port related, dusty and dry. We understood how Stu must have felt when he first arrived in Gladstone!

The Dampier Salt Co had huge stockpiles of pure white salt waiting beside its production basins to be loaded into trucks and onto ships and the trucks were constantly moving on the road, about the only sign of life!

As we needed somewhere to stay, to wait until businesses opened on Wednesday so that we could, hopefully, buy a new tyre, we visited the caravan parks and discovered that $50 at the TOP 4 was a bargain (but we only discovered this when we had driven around Port and South Hedland for ages looking for other options and finally booked into another in desperation, only to be charged $40 for a dry and exposed site inside a cyclone wire fence just off the main road.) We were aware that housing in Hedland was expensive and realised that many workers lived in caravan parks but it was still an eye opener to realise that the impact was to push up all accommodation prices to amazing levels and that service was not a necessary component of business as there was such a high demand – lump it or leave!

Trying to make the most of things over the couple of days, we went to a couple of parks and had picnics, walks along the beaches, visited the iron ore port and cleaned and cleaned the van, ourselves and our clothes, as red dust had pervaded everything.

Port Hedland to Pardoo Station

Wednesday, April 27^th

A phone call to Beaurepaires brought good and bad news – they had a tyre for us but could not fit it until the following day L There was no way that we wanted another day in Port Hedland so GVS rang another tyre dealer who said that he would fit it for us. As it turned out, he not only did this but didn’t charge us. A good Port Hedland story!

The morning disappeared as we dealt with the tyre, shopping and fuel but we headed off towards 80 Mile Beach before lunch, feeling pleased to be on the road again. A stop beside a river about 80km north of Port Hedland was very pleasant and lifted the gloom of the past few days of industrial town life.

GVS decided to go to Pardoo Station, about 130km out of Hedland, so we headed down the dirt road, uncertain of what we would find although the big signs indicated fishing, bird watching, relaxing in the cafe or swimming in the pool. What we found was a 100,000 acre cattle station with about 80 sites, some accommodation in dongas, some powered camping and others, like ours, unpowered for $15 per night.  The whole area had an incredible collection of buildings, from the Pardoo Store & Cafe to the enormous machinery sheds. Like many farms, Pardoo had its collection of machinery, earth piles and junk at the entrance!

Having chosen a site under some trees, we headed to the river estuary, about 4km down a dirt road. The mangroves were full of red mud crabs and mudskippers, there were gulls and kingfishers and the Santa Gertrudis cattle were resting in the shade on the grey clay mud under the mangroves. We could see large fish jumping out of the water and frantic schools of small fish racing to avoid being dinner for larger fish! Other fishermen were trying but small catfish were stealing their bait. Graeme spoke to a fellow who came in on a tinny and had caught a 90cm barramundi ! Something to aim for ...... next time.

As the mozzies drank our blood once the sun went down, we realized that we were now moving to more tropical climes and the book Capricornia by Xavier Herbert was an appropriate choice as these cattle ‘barons’ were still doing it tough!

Pardoo Station to 80 Mile Beach

Thursday, April 28^th

From the time that we left Karijini we hit ‘The Doldrums’ .... every sailor knows about sitting there, frustrated, irritable and waiting for something to happen J Port Hedland, Pardoo and now 80 Mile Beach had little to offer us. 80 Mile Beach was pretty, with lovely white shell-covered sand and beautiful blue water that wasn’t deep enough  for swimming. The sunset over the water through clouds produced those stunning pink and purple colours and then the incredible red sun as it sank below the horizon and that was certainly the highlight.

Graeme joined dozens of other beach fishermen trying to catch something on the incoming tide but without luck. The only fish being caught were catfish and the people in WA don’t eat them, so they were thrown back.  This was a place just for fishermen, many of whom drove onto the beach or had dune buggies so that they could drive away from the competition and wreck the beach in doing so. It was hard to tell how far offshore the reef ran but the stories of catching big fish and sharks abounded so interest was keen.

The weather was hot and humid and we were grateful for the afternoon cloud cover. This area was hit by a force 5 cyclone in 2009 and the trees had yet to recover their size and leaf cover so the only shade came from our awning. The before and after photos at the store showed the great devastation caused by the winds and the recovery, just 16 months on is impressive.

80 Mile Beach to Barn Hill Station

Friday, April 29th

A few drops of rain and a beautiful sunrise! The humidity was high but again the cloud cover kept the temperature down to a manageable level. Xavier Herbert, in the mammoth saga about Capricornia, had a wonderful description of the wet and dry seasons and how the presence of one leaves one longing for the onset of the next! He also wrote about the wet bringing insects of every dimension and variety into life .... thank goodness that the wet is (almost) over, as last night our outside lights brought us unwanted visitors in their 1000s, including flying ants that crawled down the back of our shirts then bit!

Having finished reading Capricornia, I am staying in the Territory with Mary Durack’s ‘Keep Him My Country’. In both texts the coming of white settlers into the harsh outback is described in all its complexity and the effect on Aboriginal people in graphic detail. While Herbert  details the plight of the ‘yellow people’ (mixed race), Durack writes clearly of the problems for all of those trying to survive in the rugged bush and has many characters offering different approaches to the lives that they have been forced to lead or have chosen. The notion of the country getting into the blood is an interesting one, particularly as it related in the text to white men going ‘combo’ ie. taking lubras as bed partners. The issue of men’s need for sex is a major one in both texts. Hopefully I’ll be able to buy ‘Kings in Grass Castles’ in Broome to reread what was already an Australian classic when I was at school and refresh my understanding of the history of the Kimberley.

Barn Hill Station was a wonderful relief – great camping under trees, an interesting coastline and beach and lots of fish .... or so the story goes AGAIN!! The eroded red cliffs meet the sea in many places at high tide, while in others there is white sand and a few rocky outcrops.  It was much more interesting than the 80 Mile length of shallow, tyre-track covered beach. The facilities are basic – corrugated iron amenities complete with snakes and green tree frogs in the toilet cisterns, rammed earth huts, a lawn bowling green of sorts – but during the ‘season’ it seems that the place is packed. Many come for 3 months or more. Mozzies drove us in for a while in the early evening, but our Bushmans worked quite well and the fishing and walking were fun. 3 nights or more here should be good.

Sat. April 30^th

 With butcher birds warbling, magpie larks squawking and the Brahman cattle walking around and occasionally mooing, it was a noisy start to the day. Fishing and walking again on a sunny, humid day and Graeme had 4 turtles swimming around the rocks on which he was fishing while I found a shovel-head shark washed up onto the beach with ½ its side chomped out, presumably by a more powerful predator. I continued my beach cleaning project, collecting plastics, bottles etc as I went on my walk. I’ll need to go back in the morning with a bag as the king tides brought a lot of debris up onto the edge of the red cliffs. Back to camp to be in the shade for the middle of the day, then back to the beach for a swim and to watch the sunset.

Sunday, May 1^st – Thursday, May 5^th

Barn Hill Station proved to be one of the highlights of the trip. Hot, sunny weather, interesting walks and fishing and very friendly and interesting neighbours kept us there longer than planned. We both felt relaxed and comfortable, even prepared to eat our way through our tinned food in order to stay on. We considered the 300km round trip to Broome to restock the fridge and pantry but decided that it probably wasn’t worth it. However, our neighbours helped us out by giving us fish, fresh and smoked so the chef produced some creative meals!