Day 73 Monday 18th May 2015, steamy Port Hedland We visit the information centre to tell them how much we’ve enjoyed their town and lo and behold the lady behind the counter and two customers are from Hastings and Bittern … Continue reading Go West, Day 73 – Port Hedland
Day 72 Sunday 17th May 2015, clear breezy and 25 Port Hedland The Ollies move on towards Broome while we fall, hook, line and sinker for Port Hedland. We join the Seaman’s Mission tour of the harbour with our neighbouring … Continue reading Go West, Day 72 – Port Hedland
Day 71 Saturday 16th May 2015 Indee Station to Port Hedland After 4 days ‘off the grid’ we need to top up our water tanks, do some in person banking in Port Hedland (the first NAB since Geraldton) and Woody … Continue reading Go West, Day 71 – Port Hedland
I do like a good museum and often you’ll find stories that really explain the culture of a region. One of my favourites is the Katherine Museum and the story of its flying doctor. Another is Cooktown with its impressive collection from each era of its past including Captain Cook’s unexpected layover here when the Endeavour was holed on the Great Barrier Reef. Port Hedland Historical Society too, has a ripper little museum and it is there that I read this story: “Local aviator Len Taplin was once stuck in Broome and, desperate to get back to Hedland to keep … Continue reading Hysterical Societies
About 70kms south of Port Hedland, WA and a mere 9kms off the Great Northern Highway is Indee cattle Station. Alison greets us in the cool of the sprawling homestead. It turns out that she’s from Melbourne too and ‘does the season’ up here. We park out back behind the machinery sheds where there are spotlessly clean portable bathrooms. In fact everything seems portable. Dongas for accommodation cabins and a large shipping container makes for a pretty good camp kitchen. Everything is chained or bolted down and the buildings that have conventional roofs have them strapped down and the wire … Continue reading Indee Station
This is Australia’s busiest Seaman’s Mission with 70,000 seamen visiting the port annually. The chaplain conducts the tour and after learning about their work and what our tour cost gets used for we board their harbour boat and pick up and deliver crew all over the harbour. This is not a conventional port with piers and walkways so the Mission boat acts like a water taxi. In typical Pilbara fashion the statistics were mind boggling. It is Australia’s 2nd largest port. The world’s largest iron ore port and there are usually about 35 ships waiting out at sea to enter. … Continue reading Port Hedland Seaman’s Mission Tour
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