30th July 2013 2

26^th July 2013

Hamersley Iron as it was known then (now Rio Tinto) purchased Karratha Station and established the town of Karratha in 1968 to support its mining industry. The name Karratha is local language for Good Country.

  

Karratha is a bustling town of about 18,000 permanent residents and a large fly in fly out worker population, FIFO’s as they are known. It has a growing population with housing developments popping up everywhere. House and land prices are at extortion levels and rents are killers also, all related to the high earning capacity of the work force, which means anybody unfortunate enough to be stationed there eg school teachers or government workers, really do it tough. There is obviously plenty of money to be made as every house you pass has a big boat or caravan parked in its driveway (or both).

Although a large number of people live in various company camps situated between Karratha and Dampier some 20 – 30kls away the greater majority live in Karratha and I presume the camps cater mainly for FIFO’s.

Iron ore from Rio’s mines at Tom Price, Paraburdoo and Pannawonica is shipped out from massive loading facilities at Parker Point Dampier. Mineral salt is also produced at Dampier like at Port Hedland and is exported globally. Further out on the peninsula are the gas production establishments for the North West Shelf Project involving several companies such as BHP Billiton, BP Developments, Chevron Australia, Japan Australia LNG (MIMI), Shell and Woodside Energy being the operator. The place is colossal, you can see several flare stacks from quite a distance as you drive towards the location but you can’t see much of the workings, as you come over a rise in the road near the operation it is quite jaw dropping as a scene like something out of starwars evolves in front of you, it is massive and when you see it at night time it is just a blaze of lights.

According to a brochure I was given the gas plant covers over 200 hectares and produces 12,000 tonnes od domestic gas per day. 52,000 tonnes LNG per day. 4,200 tonnes LPG per day and 165,000 tonnes barrels of condensate per day.

All the gas comes from several offshore production platforms one of which also produces 30,000 barrels of oil per day from several oil fields in the region.

We did a conducted tour of the town, salt production and iron ore facilities and later drove back to check out the gas production establishment - it was all quite mind blowing.

24^th July - Stairway to the moon, this is a phenomena that takes place when the full moon rises in a direction that coincides with wet mud or sand flats (ie low tide). As the moon rises above the horizon it casts a path of light across the wet sand or mud and with the natural tidal depression across the flats it gives the impression of a stairway, very intriguing. According to the visitor information booklet we had obtained, this phenomena was to take place at 6:35pm and as we were in the vicinity (gas production plant) at 4:00pm we reckoned we could kill a couple of hours rather that travel back to our vans 30kls and then come all the way back. Around 5:30pm son David phoned for a chat and said the moon was still visible in Brisbane, by 6:30 pm it was almost standing room only on the beach with vehicles of all sorts including motorhomes lined up facing the sea like something out of a Mad Max weird invasion about to start. By 7:30pm apart from being starved and busting for a pee the bloody moon still hadn’t arrived and there was a general consensus of opinion that the brochure time was either wrong or it was the wrong month. Eventually, God knows what time it was, a withering cheer broke out along the bay as the moon finally poked its nose up over the horizon and we all forgot about our bladders.

We stayed at the Balmoral Caravan Park it’s well set out, big sites, nice wide roadways, good amenities and good water in fact I was allowed to wash both the caravan and car a first for the van since leaving Brisbane and didn’t it need it.

I had the Toyota serviced and mine wages were reflected by the hole in my wallet. Karratha probably has every service you can imagine but you can’t get a caravan or caravan fridge repaired.

So we are heading down to Exmouth where supposedly there is someone who may be able to help with my van issues.

Following are some statistics that I noted during out bus tour of Karratha and Dampier.

Karratha established 1968 by Hamersley Iron

Currently approximately 18,000 permanent residents

Water supply comes from Harding River dam

Annual rainfall is 255mm

Wet season Nov – April

No roof gutters on any houses, when it rains it buckets down.

Rents are $1500 - $2200 per week (basic 1960/70’s homes).

Homes $900,000 to purchase

Parker Point ore terminal

24 ore trains per day

236 ore cars per train

112 tonnes per car

Trains 2.3 kls long

3 locos pull each train

takes roughly 3 hrs to unload a train

Two stockpile areas 13 x 210,000 tonnes and 13 x 200,000 tonnes

Shipping:

Ships carry around 180,000 – 220,000 tonnes per trip

Ships take around 24 – 36 hrs to load 

Load rate is about 10,000 tonnes per hour

Shipping channel is 22kls long and dredged every 5-10 years

Ships are computer loaded to give minimum clearance to channel bottom eg: 100mm (4inches)

The large airport caters for 700,000 people per annum mainly FIFO’s

Workforce comprises approximately 6000 fulltime and 1000 contractors.

Salt Production

Operating area 10,000 hectares

Production 4.2 million tonnes per annum

Salt is grown on crystals and harvested once a year

Harvesting rate is 1,600 tonnes per hour

Average evaporation of production area is 420,000 tonnes of water per day.

Amount of salt deposited in crystallisers 270mm per year

Ships loaded at 2,500 – 3,000 tonnes per hour

Salt harvested is used mainly for chemicals, industrial use and road de-icing in Europe.