Tom Price.

Morning tea at Panawonica.

Stretching the legs on the way
to Paraburdoo.

We were on the road bright and early, headed for an overnight stop at Paraburdoo. Our morning tea break was at a nice roadside stop constructed by Rio Tinto, near one of their mines around Panawonica. What a great name for a town, Panawonica! I love these roadside stops the mining companies build. They have lots of wonderful signage and story boards telling of the history of the land and its special significance to the local indigenous people, and how they work with the local people to preserve the cultural significance of the land. Yeah right! Let's turn that sacred mountain into a hole in the ground!! How do I get a job in the "Make me Feel Good Dept"!! For lunch we stopped at Nanutarra Roadhouse for fuel, for us and the car! The roadhouses here in the north west must all be in competition as to who can make the best sausage rolls. Nanutarra gets our vote! They must have someone dedicated to making these delicious little parcels. Almost everyone who stops for fuel buys one or more!

We've been looking forward to this!

Here we go.

From Nanutarra, we head inland towards Paraburdoo. The landscape is rolling hills and plains of spinifex with red rock outcrops. It is rugged and oh so big. Only the occasional road train coming or going to one of the mine sites along the way. We stopped at a roadside rest area to stretch the legs and take in wonderful scenery. After a long day of driving we finally pull into Paraburdoo. There is not much to do in Paraburdoo!! There is a regional airport serving the

Temporary Miner accommodation.

At Paraburdoo Caravan Park.

needs of the Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) miners, and rows of mining accommodation. There is a small supermarket. For food there is the roadhouse, or visitors can use the miner's mess hall at $25.00 per person for the buffet. Talk about a mining town. The sign on the caravan park gate says report to the Rio Tinto Office in town to register, so off we go. The caravan park is cheap at $25.00 per night. It has brand new amenities and the tariff includes

Travelling the Warlu Way.

Paraburdoo's only tourist attraction!

free use of the washing machines and dryers. The place is spotless, and hardly a tree in sight. The place is deserted. The rows of temporary miner's accommodation lie empty, though we are told they will be full in a few weeks. Our neighbour, who is stranded here waiting for a new alternator for his car, laments how little there is to do, except sit and bake in the sun! We are happy to be only overnighting! The route we are travelling is called the Warlu Way, named after the Aboriginal Dreamtime serpent, who supposedly carved all the ranges and gorges as he made his way inland from the sea. It snakes its way through the Pilbara.

Welcome to Tom Price.

Mt. Nameless.

Next morning we on the road early for the short drive into Tom Price, one of the original Pilbara iron ore mining towns. Yes, there was a real Tom Price. He was a Yank, working for the giant US steel company, Kaiser Steel, in Australia in search of iron ore. He met with Lang Hancock and together they worked to allow the mining and export of the ore. You, like us, may not have known, that there was an embargo on the export of iron ore after WW11, due to a shortage of steel. It took some time to get the embargo lifted. Poor old Tom was back in the US when it

Cheeky early morning visitor.

Carolyn feeds her flock.

was lifted, and died from a heart attack that same week! The town is surprisingly green with lots of trees. The caravan park, run by a lovely couple who are most helpful, is also pretty green, and nestled under the imposing Mt. Nameless! I later read with great humour, the reflections on the white man's names by an aboriginal elder. He reflected, "we already have names for all the mountains and rivers and gorges, but the white man never asks us the names. Then he calls a mountain Nameless when it has a name!!! What that mean?" The other striking 

On the Mine Tour.

The mobile butcher was in town.

thing about Tom Price is the huge flocks of galahs and corellas. They are everywhere, and so tame! The corellas are red from all the red dust! Carolyn soon had a flock of more than 30 galahs coming for a feed every day. We carry some native bird seed for just such occasions. One morning when Carolyn came out, one cheeky little bugger, was actually sitting on the step of the caravan! We would come home and find them all over the awning! We headed into town to find the supermarket. The weekend before had been the

Huge Trucks.

Tom Price Mine.

Nameless Festival, and some of the food trucks were still hanging around town, giving the locals a change to their diet. Also in town was the mobile butcher! This guy is amazing, driving a huge refrigerated semi trailer full of meat and game all over the Pilbara. He parks, lowers a ramp from the rear door, and you just walk into the cool room like a self service supermarket. He had every cut of meat possible, as well as some fruit and veggies. He has a roster on a fridge magnet, and only spends a day a month in any town, and boy was he doing a roaring trade. We bought a few things, and I have to say it is the best meat we've had in WA. Steak up north has been generally tough! The only guaranteed tender beef is a sausage! Hope we find him again before we leave.

Off on the mine tour.

Big blokes toys!

We called in at the Tourist Office and booked our Mine Tour. You can't come to Tom Price and not do the tour. It is only $25.00 each for seniors, which was everyone on the bus! The scope of the mining operations is mind numbing. Back in 1966 when things got under way, production was 5 million tons for the year. In 2013 production was 290 million tons. The mine is a yawning hole in the ground where a mountain once stood, and mountain after mountain is being reduced.

Ore is graded and washed.

Huge machines.

Changes in technology have seen the life of the mines increased from an estimated 40 years back in 1965, to more than 100 years forward from now. It is some of the world's highest grade iron ore. This town is all Rio Tinto, and the investments are in the tens of billions. The rail network alone encompasses 1600 kms and uses 173 locomotives and 10,500 wagons. Each 2.5 kilometre train is carrying around 120,000 tons of ore to the loaders

Even more iron ore.

So much iron ore.

at Dampier. Hundreds of huge trucks, diggers and shovels, plus crushers and miles and miles of conveyors moving the ore around. An amazing fact is that some of the loading equipment is controlled from a centralised control room in Perth!! Can you believe that!! It just goes on and on. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We drove around the mine site for more than an hour watching one more jaw dropping thing after another. That afternoon, we

Town from Mt. Nameless.

The mine from Mt. Nameless.

drove up the rough old 4WD track to the top of Mt. Nameless. Quite a drive on a very rough and steep track, but the views were worth it. We got another perspective on the size of the mine, and even heard the dull thud and saw the resultant cloud of dust from one of the daily explosions. Back at camp, we met up with Laurel and Adrian, whom we had met on the tour. They are a couple of characters from near Innisfail in Queensland. She is a real wag, and he is as dry as a box of weetbix. We had a long and very funny happy hour with new friends.

We stayed in Tom Price for 6 days and started our explorations of the western side of Karajini National Park. But that my friends, is a whole new story!