Around Australia 8

byPLowrey

428 followers

9 years ago

We have been at Kaaratha for the past week which is basically a city created as a result of the huge shipping port that is here. The two main exports are natural gas and iron ore. It has these extremely long jetties which have conveyer belts carrying the ore directly onto the ships that line up to be loaded in the port

The country up here is very rugged with many rock areas. It is clear that there is no value on top the ground, but there is huge wealth underneath. Many travelling tourists come this way to escape the cold southern winters as the temperature here is always very pleasant and warm for many months all through the winter period. Many caravans on the road.

Our next stop is Port Hedland which is as the name states a huge shipping port which services most of the iron ore open cut mines up here in this region. BHP Biliton operates one of the worlds largest open cut mines at Newman which I hope we will be visiting in a weeks time, more on that later.. The port here has massive ships coming in and going out every 2-3 hours with huge rail trains just on a mile long operating back and forth from Newman transporting the ore to here at the port. Had a guided tour to day on a coach where we saw the massive operations and just how the iron ore was put on conveyer belts from rail trucks - one of the many highlights

To morrow we start heading south over to Newman where all this stuff comes from . I believe one of the biggest open cut mines I the world. The weather up here has been very warm but this will soon change the further we go down. Have been in very isolated places recently where there is little outside contact and may continue for a bit longer

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