Go Hawkers!!!

What an experience watching the has AFL grand final in the Pilbaras at the Newman Pub. Surprisingly, it was a pro Hawthorn audience with several being very vocal throughout the game and obviously their singing and banter got louder as the game progressed.  Awesome win to the Hawks!!!! Especially loved the kiss by Hodge to Buddy during the game.

Spent the 2nd half of the game chatting with the CEO of an organisation who deals with aboriginal health in the Pilbara area. Learnt a great deal about the aborigines. He had an aboriginal (almost white) friend along, who he warned me about (called him the C word), who did not like AFL and kept saying each kick costs $10,000 and that money could be used by aboriginal communities who are starving. He was pissed and got on everyone's nerves. For me, he was harmless but annoying. He started picking on the mine workers and giving them shit. I asked the CEO - I assume he likes fights. He just nodded and smiled. This is mans country.

Finally, the Newman caravan is filling up. People to talk to.... Yeh!!  A young German tourist has arrived direct from spending 4 months at a cattle station of 1.7 million acres. For anyone looking for work, an unskilled worker can get a job right now in the outback helping with cattle mustering. $600 per week which includes accommodation and food. Nothing to spend. But it's 7 days a week and start at 5am for at least 10 hours. It's not as bad as it sounds. Apparently for every 3-4 days hard work, you get 3 days of easy days.

Apparently mustering starts in June'ish and finishes end of Oct. The job differs every day, but most likely your'e on a motorbike, with 2 helicopter pilots mustering, processing cattle and setting up the cattle enclosures.

Well - I've had many many pints of 150 lashes beer during the game at the pub and am now on to the Southern Comfort. Walking back from the pub, it was 34 degrees, so I'm conscious of dehydration :)  I think tomorrows headache will be due to alcohol rather than lack of water......

Enjoy.

Karajini national park tomorrow, Bush camping and no net access. Only the Sat Phone for emergencies.

Mt Whale Back Mine Tour - Newman

It's 34 degrees in Newman today (36 tomorrow) and I am here until Sunday morning. Why? HAWTHORN are in the grand final and my next stop will be 2-3 days exporing the Pilbaras, with no phone (except Sat phone), no TV etc - ie bush camping. So I have had to extend my stay in Newman so I can visit the Newman Hotel, known as the Purple Pub and hopefully watch the Hawks come home with the silverware. Looking fwd to the atmosphere in such a remote place.

So why is Newman a town in the middle of nowhere? In the late 1950's Stan Hilditch discovered a mountain which was 68.8% pure iron ore (highest grades in the world). Long story short, BHP Billiton now run the largest open cut mine of iron ore in the world, called the Mt Whale Back mine. It's been in full operation for +40 years and there is at least another 60 years of resources to harvest. They have estimated 1.6 billion tonnes of high grade iron ore at Mt Whale Back.

200 Tonne Wabco Ore Truck

• The trucks in the pictures carry 200 tonne of dirt. There have only been 30 made and Mt Whale Back has 22 of them. Fully loaded, the truck weighs 75 tonne more than the take off weight of a 747 jumbo. 
• Ore trucks, made by Catepillar, automatic, mechanically driven on the left, with 6 fwd gears and 1 reverse. 

Railway Facts - The railroad network is impressive.

• BHP have the longest privately owned rail network in the sthrn hemisphere from Newman to Port Hedland with a distance of 426 km's.
• First train load left Newman in 1969
• Average train measures 3.75 km's consisting of 6 locomotives, 212 - 336 ore cars and 1 driver. 
• Each ore car carries 25 tonnes of ore and the entire train carries 42,000 tonnes of ore
• Fully loaded, 65 km's per hr / breaking distance 3 km's
• One way takes about 8 hours

Tyre Store

• Holds approx $2 mill of tyres at any given time
• Tyre can measure up to 3.5 metres in diametre and weigh about 5 tonne (with rims)
• Each tyre costs $40,000 and lasts between 9-12 months. 

Other facts

• 80 million litres of water is pumped out of the pit each week
• Water carts carry 104,000 ltrs water and takes about 3 hrs to empty, surpressing dust
• FIFO employees - 2 weeks on 1 week off - 1st week 12 hrs during the day / 2nd week 12 hrs during the night (mine operates 24/7) and 3rd week home.

The Newman caravan park is very empty at this time of year. As iron ore prices have gone down, BHP has laid off people plus it is end of tourist season as it is starting to get hot. So I;m here all alone in the grassed area of the camp ground. To be honest the park is 95% dongas for the miners and the rest is for tourists. According to a worker here - 90% of the dongas are empty.

This sign struck fear into me. Please click on it - to enlarge and read.
What I took away is that they have soooo many snakes here - they have snake wranglers here... Did I mention I hate snakes!!! Day 2 and no snakes. Phew!!

LOL - as I am publishing this - a guy came up to the sign and rang the phone number. Snake in the area! Yes, a snake wrangler came and conquered with a snake in his bag.

Newman WA

I chuckled to myself last night whilst in bed at Meekatharra. The couple from Tasmania, who walked through the town of Meekatharra, came back, packed their van and left with only 30-60 min of day light left. They obviously haven't enjoyed the joys of seeing a town with a large aborigine population.  Every aussie should visit places like Meekatharra, Tenant Creek or better yet, visit an aboriginal community (could I suggest ones on the Great Central Road) to see how the aborigines live PLUS discover how their tax money is being spent. I hope the tassie couple learn a little more and have more acceptance of these towns. By them leaving early, businesses suffer.

I've made a friend called Fred. We met at Meekatharra and are both staying at the same caravan park at Newman. He's a 77 y.o.  from Ferntree Gully. His wife passed away 6 weeks ago so he decided to travel and visit his sons located at Tom Price (Pilbara's) and Coffs Harbour. He has travelled around Aus many times with his family, camping in a 4wd and wanted to make this his final swan song trip. He was an avid gun enthusiast so between that, 4wd's and him regaling his tales about places he has been in Aus, we passed the hours away at Meekatharra and Newman.  He doesn't realise it, but Fred is still in the recovery cycle of loosing his wife and is having trouble moving forwards. 49 years of marriage would do that to you though.  He misses her very much.

The travelling from Meekatharra to Newman (400 km's) is pretty boring in the car. But there were a few highlights.

Gascoyne river network - I drove down a 4wd track to the flat of the river bed, which was concreted. Not much to look out now, but  in the wet season, there would be a torrent of water flowing.

Count how many wheels on this semi. Not a great photo, but this style of semi / trailer setup is designed to tow very heavy loads.

On this section of road, I encountered at least +10 wide loads. These entail a pilot car in the front, about 500 mts to 1km in advance of the wide load. Flashing lights and signs gives the oncoming traffic a clue as to what's coming. But I'll be honest, most of the wide loads, you can fly past in your own lane. But there are a few which require you to stop and get off the road, as the load takes up both lanes of the road. I will admit, early on, I have traveled at +120 km thinking yep - it's going to be small and then have to hit the brakes hard to get off the road. Now I'm taking it easy and slowing down when I pass the pilot car.

In the distance I noticed animals walking across the road. Not unusual as there are no fences and all animals, native and farming roam as they please. But these did not look like cows so I wondered. A herd of brumbys perhaps (wild horses) but no, a herd of wild donkeys. I was going slow, passed them and did a U-turn. Not something you see everyday.

Meekatharra WA

Leinster is a mining town. It was created by Agnew Mining back in 1976 and the town and mine is now owned by BHP. The miners have their own dongas as homes. A donga is basiclly  small mobile home, kinda like the old style school rooms. Very small and basic, but enough for a miner. They have their own mess hall, and transport to / from the mine is via company bus.

The town had a school, medical facilities, police, fuel, caravan park, tavern (pub), drive in cinema, shopping centre, oval (with lights) and recreation area ie all the things required in a town but all built and owned by the mining company.  What surprised me a little was it's family orientation. In the past, mining was a "mans" job, but not any more. The companies prefer to employee husband and wife and put both to work. They have found that both together (at the end of the day) results in a harmonious life for the husband and both are dedicated to the job.

Leinster is known as Wedge Tail Eagle country. A bird I have admired way back when we were hunting in the Flinders Ranges. We always cut up our quarry when dead, which meant the animals could have a feast. Many times we would see the wedge tail eagles picking the flesh of the carcass the following day.

The first 300 km's today was done at a slow pace of 100 km's (GPS). I get great fuel mileage at 4.8 - 4.9 litres per 100km's. This gives me just over 1,000 km's on my 50 litre tank. It's the slowest I will go on the hwy, but it is amazing how much more you see doing 100 compared to +120. On this section I was dodging wedge tale eagles eating fresh kangaroo roadkill. If it was not a fresh kill, the eagles would not bother. The crows however do. Appears the older the better for them. Yuk!!

As I mentioned previously, you dodge for lizards and snakes. But on this section I encountered goanna. Dodged the first, it scuried away. I gave the 2nd a wide berth, however I stopped as I wanted photo's. Great photo's I think. But wish I had a full DSLR to get longer telephoto. I've always wanted to taste a goanna. I remember them being cooked up on the leyland brother style shows many years ago, but to date I have not tried them. Rather have them alive than in the tummy.

Bakery in cue. I thought this place was out of busines, but nope - small shop - Great Curry pies!!

Camping at the Meekatharra camp ground. It's a mining town but has about a 50% population of aborigines. As a result, most shops have security door style protection on their windows etc.

In Leinster a couple came over and said were you in the nullabour a week ago. Apparently I had driven into a photo spot as they were leaving and then overtook them later on. Apparently a bright red Golf is noticable. They are also going to the Pilbaras, meeting up with friends who live in Tom Price. The couple are from Tasmainia and I think have not travelled up north too much. They arrived and paid to stay at the same caravan park I am in. They set up and then walked around town. I warned him to stay close to the mrs. They came back unpacked and left. We chatted as they left, and they said no way were they staying in Meekatharra.  I think the locals scared them.

They also told me the Pilbaras is currently under a bushfire threat. Tom Price maybe evauacted.  I'm one day from Newman which is Pilbara area. Wait and see..

Leinster WA - Northern Goldfields & a Ghost Town

Left miserable Kalgoorlie seeking warmer weather, heading north up the Goldfields Hwy. Whilst I complain about the rain, when it falls up here it is life giving. It was great to see a variety of wild flowers appearing on the side of the road. Pics below.

Just a few km's before Leanora I dropped into a real life or should I say dead, ghost town called Gwalia. I was not expecting too much and was pleasantly surprised. Awesome to see what an old turn of the century township would look like, as it was back then. Everything was open to the public. No fees to pay, just park and walk through the town. Most of the buildings are open and you are free to walk through all the rooms, which included furniture, kick knacks etc. Those buildings not open, required repair and were not safe.

Outdoor Loo

Dried lake system north of Kalgoorlie. Not so wet underfoot, but the rain seeps in very quickly. i had to walk in as I scraped the front spoiler on the 4wd track :( No damage done.

Tea Tree located at the ghost town. Ghosts have a sense of humour.

Norseman - End of the Nullabour

Arrived at this evenings destination and met some interesting characters.

Gazza, 77 y.o. aussie who left Perth 6 years ago, after his wife kicked him out. He has 4 working teeth, 2 up and 2 down and all with a nice tinge of brown. He has moved around WA staying at caravan parks for months at a time. He came over to say G'day and we striked up a long conversation. Opinionated on every topic, but a harmless fellow.  He has no real estate, just a car and caravan and will spend his last days in a caravan park somewhere in WA.

And finally another 77 year old from Germany. Just landed in Perth from his home town of Bremen. His mission - push bike the Nullabour, solo and finish at Sydney. He completed 130 km today, arriving at Norseman, the start of the Eyre Hwy (ie Nullabour) and has 88 days to compete his task. It's predominantly down hill from Norseman to Ceduna, but he will tackle an undulating road, strong winds, road trains and worst of all, oldies towing their caravans. I asked him why - he said why not? Personally, I think dementia has set in, but hey - good on him for trying. Chatting with him, he appears to be like many international tourists I have spoken to over the past few months. They just don't understand the vastness of the aussie outback. Nothing for 250 km's or more if you go truly outback. No phone, water, passers by, in short, no help at all. He only had $400 au cash a debit card & no credit card. He asked was there a store in town that would exchange euro $$.

Interesting story about Norseman. Gold was discovered here in 1894 and the town grew to a population of 4,000 including 5 pubs and a hospital. How was gold discovered? A bloke was visiting his brother and tied his horse up for the night . In the morning, the horse was lame. The "bloke" ( I can't remember his name) examined the hoof of the horse and discovered a large quartz rock with gold. It became the 2nd largest gold producing area in WA and still have 2 mines working producing 100,000 ounces of gold p.a.

Go HAWKERS!!!! My car is only 2-3 mtrs from my tent, so I'm sitting writig my blog, making good progress through a six pack and listening to the football (from the car), semi final - Port Adelaide vs Hawthorn.

2.... no make that 4 beers later..... Very close match, but Hawthorn won are in their 3rd consecutive grand final. I think I might be at Newman, WA (Pilbaras) watching the grand final from the pub.

Kalgoorlie tomorrow. Could not get a site today as they had the Kalgoorlie cup today and everything was booked out. Will be staying for 2 nights as I want to get a good esky. I could not take my old faithful 15 y.o. esky as it was too big and resorted to another. So disapointed with it's performance - within 24 hrs, my salt water ice bottles (3 x 1.25lt, 2 x 600ml, 1 x 1 ltr) all back to water. Even had a beach towel covering the ice packs within the esky. Then I can buy vegies and meat and eat them with confidence.

De Ja Vu

WA outback is famous for it's wild flowers in spring. These are on the side of the road coming into Norseman. I swear they were not there 4 weeks ago. Hope to see more!!

Views from Beacon Hill. It's called that, as the hill has a navigation beacon which planes use to keep them on track. Views are spectacular and photo's don't do it justice.

Cowen Lake (dry lake bed) between Norseman and Kalgoorlie.

Fowlers Bay SA & Great Australian Bight

I have spent 2 nights at Fowlers Bays. It's 140km west of Ceduna and is on the coast. The aim was to have a day here, fish off the jetty, beach and relax. However, Fowlers Bay has lived up to it's name. The foul weather is windy and the clouds look like they are about to burst at any moment. At least it is around 20 degrees C. Fowlers has a very long jetty that is basically used to pick up tourists duiring whale season (May to Oct) and fishing charters. It's in good nick and I suspect without the jetty, there would be no Fowlers Bay. The fishing here is awesome with king george whiting, squid, leather jackets and Aus salmon being taken from the jetty in the past 2 days. However these are die hard fisherman/ladies. In fact, more ladies than blokes and great to see they are so passionate.

One lady stated, hey - it's slack tied and we will not catch anything for a few hours, but I rather be here than back at the camp ground reading a book. I so agree!!! and ventured back to my camp site, got my fishing gear out, created a paternoster rig, rescued my last beer in the esky and am enjoying it way too much :) If the wind dies down a little, I might give it  go later this arvo / evening. However it's been so long, that I had to refer to my knot tying book to refresh my memory about how to tie 4 different knots.

This place reminds me of a poor version of Eden, NSW. Like Eden, Fowlers Bay has an historical past in the whaling industry with whaling stations and whale bones to be seen, but only if you have a 4wd. My sporty Golf GTD coped well on the 11km dirt road into town, but I don't want to make a habbit of driving it over such rough corrugations.

The caravan park is pretty basic. At 5pm, management lites a small fire and everyone drops into the camp kitchen area and I had a good yarn with some of the old folk.

Fowlers Bay is effectively surrounded by sand dunes which are open to 4wd's. I walked up one of the tracks and took these photo's of the town.  Pete - 660 motorbikes - we could have had a ball!!!! Very soft sand and most 4wd's were dropping tyre pressures to about 15 psi but once you got up, a firm crust made it soo much easier.

Made a friend. "Buster" as I called him, joined me for my morning walk. Reminded me of the film - Red.

For electricity power, the town uses solar, wind turbines and gensets. The caravan has a huge Genset (diesel generator) and for some reason only operates at night. It's housed in a shiping container that is about 10 mtrs from my camp site. When it started, boy did it piss off the grass campers. For $25 a night (unpowered), it's pretty poor.

This is the second time in a month I have traversed the Nullabour. However the difference this time, is I'm taking my time. The scenery does change, but it can be a little on the boring side, especially in a car. The road effectively goes over / down sand dunes or put another way, is a continuos undulating landscape. To remove some of the boredom, I have been guessing the elevation of the forth coming hill. My GPS displays the elevation changes and I have become pretty good :). Take my word for it.

Stumpy lizards and snakes on the road today. You can see them moving in the distance and if safe, move over lanes or take them in the middle to let them live. Thankfully, the snake slid off the road to the left, which left me plenty of room in the right lane. I HATE snakes!!

Today was predominantly a transport section and taking photo at the various Great Australia Bite photo points. Can you spot the whales in these photos?