Roebourne to Dampier

August 20 to August 28

 

Cossack Heritage Village building (and motorhome)

The Roebourne region includes Wickham, Cossack and Point Samson. Roebourne was settled in 1866 for farming, and were celebrating their 150 year anniversary while we were there. Cossack was settled around the same time and was the primary port for agriculture and the centre for pearl divers (before the pearlers all moved to Broome in the late 1800’s). A gold rush fuelled the development, but the departure of the pearlers and collapse of the gold rush turned Cossack into a ghost town by 1910. Still mostly uninhabited, the stone buildings have been restored and are open as a heritage town.

Wickham Display of mining equipment (and motorhome)

Pope's Nose Causeway creating horizontal falls

Wickham was only built in the 1970’s by Robe River Iron Ore and is now the administration and shopping centre for the area. Point Samson is the fishing port and coastal area where we stayed for 2 nights. Very pretty and quiet, but windy. We had been warned that August can be very windy with constant easterlies. They didn’t really arrive until we reached Point Samson, unfortunately restricting my chances to go fishing. The causeway bridge leading to Point Samson operates like a mini horizontal falls, with the 5 metre tides rushing through a narrow opening called The Popes Nose. I’m not sure why it had to be that narrow? As a tourist attraction maybe?

We did experience the Staircase to the Moon, a phenomenon that occurs when a full moon coincides with a low tide at dusk, with the reflection of the moon creating a "stairway" effect on the mud flats. It only happens a few times in winter, and you need a pretty good imagination but it was worth seeing. My photo is ordinary, but some of the images on posters, tee shirts etc. are pretty good.

Staircase to the Moon

Monday we drove 45 kilometres to Karratha. Only established in 1968 to support Hamersley Iron Ore (now Rio Tinto) and the Dampier Salt Mine, it followed the building of Dampier and the town of Tom Price in 1963 by Hamersley Iron after the federal government restriction on exporting iron ore was lifted. From that time when Hamersley had one mine and one Japanese customer, the area now services fifteen iron ore mines, the salt mine, and the nearby Woodside LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) port and processing plant.

The Karratha/Dampier/Burrup Peninsula area is to be seen to be believed. Particularly the very recent and rapid Woodside development of the LNG business, now supporting five (I think) North West Shelf offshore gas drilling rigs. The LNG plant has a great self-guided tour and information centre, the numbers ($34 billion to build, the volume of gas processed, the dollar value to this country) are mind blowing.

20,000 year old Petroglyph rock etchings, Murujuga NP

On top of that, they have the Murujuga National Park at Hearson’s Cove, where some 10,000 petroglyphs (aboriginal rock etchings, as opposed to paintings) are in the ironstone hills of the Deep Gorge area. This fascinating Park looks like mining spoil hills, but are naturally formed “rubble” mountains. The rock formations are all around the area, creating interesting hiking areas like Stove Hill where more petroglyphs, shell middens and other local indigenous history is accessible.

Red Dog Statue, Dampier

We spent a couple of nights in Karratha and three in Dampier (20km away). I hadn’t watched the Red Dog movie (about a red cattle dog, set around Dampier) so the caravan park manager made sure I had a copy to watch the first night. We have realised (as a number of our readers have also pointed out) we are heading south a bit too quickly, so we have decided to stay in the Karratha/Dampier area for another five days as there is plenty to see and do.

Saturday the wind finally dropped off, so we did a sightseeing kayak paddle into Hampton Harbour in Dampier to visit Tidepole Island, also known as Sam’s Island. Sam decided to build a “castle” on the island as Dampier was being developed in the mid 1960’s, and Hamersley Iron granted him a lease to live there. It is now available to day visit (with a permit) by boat or kayak.

I should have taken a fishing rod with me as there were a couple of bait fish schools around the island. If the wind takes another break I’ll paddle out there to try my luck.

Kayak trip to Tidepole (Sam's) Island

Saturday night the Pilbara Regiment Army Base, the barracks are next door to the caravan park, had their annual black tie ball. Unfortunately we didn’t get an invitation, but got to enjoy a bagpipes band, then a live (pretty good!) cover band play through to midnight. It didn’t bother us too much, but I would imagine a few other campers wouldn’t have been too pleased.

Sunday brought the first “rain” we have seen since the Northern Territory. It was only light but coupled with the wind it was a little uncomfortable. It didn’t stop us from getting out, we spent most of the day at Karratha back beach. Not really a beach but a boat ramp and tidal mud flats where people collect “cockle shells” to eat. We chose to harvest oysters from the rocks, a nice entrée before lunch.