Pilbara

The Pilbara is Aussie for "no cell phone coverage". It's in the Northwest corner of Australia and, if it weren't for mining, the only thing living here would be snakes, kangaroos, and whatever else lives in the bush of Australia. So, me and two other colleagues board the plane in Perth accompanied by about 100 other miners and 4 ecoresort tourists and head to Paraburdoo, Western Australia. A pretty full Boeing 717 (2 x 3 seats x 25 rows) landed on a runway just long enough for the plane. There's not even a taxiway- the plane did a U-turn at the end of the runway, motored back and pulled up to an airport that held less people than the plane.. It was definitely the smallest airport I've seen. Yes, that white shack of a building is the airport terminal. The whole thing.

We headed to the rental car office and got our 4x4 ute, fully equiped with mining safety lights, flags, radios, and the works. Yes, the only reason these people are here is for iron ore mining. You can thank them for all of the steel that goes into your cars, buildings and appliances.

Turns out you really need this truck just to get to the mine. I expected the mine roads to be dirt with rocks in them and all, but it turns out of our 3 hour drive from the airport to the mine, at least 1 hour of it was on a dirt access road from the highway to the mine. Thankfully, no flat tires.

For Joey and Ryan, I got to take a picture of a loaded ore train heading to the port. Three locomotives were pulling 230 cars loaded with ore from the Tom Price mine. It used to be Mount Tom Price, but 40 years of digging and now it's just Tom Price...

It was a long day, but interesting, nonetheless. It felt the opposite of the Christmas season - 41°C (106°F) of "dry heat" - dry, it's still bloody hot.

Cheers,

Tim