Ever since visiting the SupaPit at Kalgoorlie, we’d been keen to see an iron ore open cut mine – allegedly much bigger, which was hard to believe.  From Exmouth, the most accessible was RioTinto’s hole at Mount Price but Mike had demurred and pointed us towards BHP’s Newman, where he had done much of the early infrastructure.  So Newman it was.

En route, all the travellers we’d met by now were sure that one place we really had to visit was Karajini National Park.  For many, this meant staying at Tom Price and driving in.  Others, more in-the-know, had booked their spots 180 days ago.  We met one couple who had planned their long term itinerary in WA by selecting all the National Parks they wanted to visit and then by sitting up by their computer until midnight and grabbing their campsites the very minute they became available.  For example, they claimed that all Karajini sites at their proposed dates had gone by 7 o’clock in the morning!  We hadn’t done ANY of that.  Nonetheless, by means unknown, Lesley secured 2 nights in the “overflow” campground at Karajini, so we planned our journey around that.

Along the way, we stopped for a couple of nights at Cheelah Plains – another well organized station stay.  Cheelah gave us the opportunity to visit a couple of waterholes and even have a swim in one of them.  Recent rain prevented us from driving to the bottom of Exmouth Gulf but we did see some amazing country.  The soil (such as it is – gravel really) is rust red but there’s been so much rain over the last months that everywhere is heavily tinged with green.  There was a short walk to the top of a nearby hill to see the sunset and a cafe which served communal and almost-affordable dinner every night (Japanese style pork katsu our night) except Wednesdays when they do a burger night at the big firepit.  A few of us, who couldn’t help ourselves, did a quick business plan and reckoned they’re adding at least $300K a year to their revenue through their tourist activities.  It’s a working cattle property but vastly understocked – as is everywhere else.

Karajini beckoned and we found the “overflow” which looked just like the regular campsite but not quite as close to some of the park’s famous gorges.  We knew we’d found the right place when we got out of the car to be met by a dingo wandering around the campground!  Lean as a robber’s dog! 

This park is all about the gorges, walks to and through them and swims in them.  Trevor’s mobility allowed some of this but not long hikes.  When fit, we could easily spend a full week here just walking – great variety, very beautiful and, at least while we were there, such glorious weather.

Two nights here plus cloudless sky all day was enough to prove that the electrics still don’t work properly (sorry John!).  Our allowed nights were up, so we headed towards Newman and directly to the Information centre to book tomorrow’s mine tour.  As luck would have it, there was a tour available in 45 minutes but no tours for the next two days – an easy decision that one!  Once again, the scale of the operation was mindblowing and it is obviously and visibly true that the Newman pit would swallow the Kalgoorlie one at least twice.  We saw some sheds and some railway lines and duly photographed them so we now have a record of the mine-that-Mike-built.  This pit was called Whaleback because the mountain looked like a huge humpback whale when they started in the 70’s.  They’ve made it down to the belly of the whale now and there’s still more to go! 

Iron ore is a bit different to gold in volume recovery.  If I’ve understood their rubbery figures, iron ore comes out of the ground at about 300,000 parts per million (gold was just 3 parts per million).  The highest grade ore is 68% iron and the rocks can be welded if you wish!  But processing seemed relatively simple – bashing and smashing the rocks into little pebbles before shipping it to Port Hedland for overseas smelting.

Newman also has a few other attractions, notably waterholes.  We took ourselves off to Kalgans Pool, having duly acquired our BHP entry permit.  The journey involved driving both across and along the river, so we joined forces with another couple (Andrew and Gerladine), walked the various water crossings first but easily managed the trip.  A quick, cold swim at the end was disturbed by some Rio workers being choppered out at the end of their day – what a way to commute!    

Leaving Newman behind, we set off early next day for Millstream and Chichester National Park, famous for its night-sky viewing.  It was 400km away and more than half was all dirt.  Still, the road was officially listed as “Open”, so what could possibly go wrong?