My trip to Pilbara Iron Ore mines last week
Jul 17th 2006, 12:22 am
#1
A former regular of BE
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2004
Location: Carramar, Perth
Posts: 6,241
My trip to Pilbara Iron Ore mines last week
Extract from my blog:
"On Thursday I got my first chance to go and visit our operations up in the Pilbara. I had to be up before 4am to drive to the airport and catch a flight at 5.25am which made it a long day. I had a scare when I got to the airport and tried to do electronic check-in but got an error message that the flight had closed. Fortunately it was closed for baggage and we got let on. The flight was about 85 minutes with a tail wind but everyone was sleepy and it was dark so nothing to see. Most of the people on the plane were heading back for perhaps a nine day shift rotation so all glum.
We arrived just before 7am at Paraburdoo airport which is a large portakabin basically but with hi-tech security gear. Steve, the project manager who escorted us all day already had keys to the the Landcruiser (complete with tall flag to be seen, flashing orange lights etc) and it took us less than an hour to get into the middle of Tom Price town. As nothing was open Steve showed us around the town including its pub, about 20 shops, and the various housing developments including the 50 he had just supervised being built. They were very nice houses with some great views. The company rents them out to employees for between $100-$250 / week and the utilities are subsidised too. That is necessary to get people up there. The downside is that the remoteness means the one petrol station charges 20c a litre over Perth prices, a $1.10 newspaper cost me $1.95 and everything was about 50% higher than Perth prices. There are also a couple of lodges for FIFO (fly in fly out) contractors.
Then we drove about 30 mins to Nammuldi mine. It is a small one, for which the ops are contracted out it is so small, and luckily it was in shut down so we were able to walk around the processing plant being shown the crushers , scalpers etc for breaking big rocks into small ones for putting on the train. We saw a "small" ore train, just the 2km long as we drove along the dirt access road. BHP has some 7km ones!
Then we popped into Brockman 2 & 4 mines before heading back to Tom Price. There we joined a tourist trip into the mine (which we couldn't have done ourselves) which was really good. Lots of info on the town and mine and got some great photos of the mine, dumper trucks and processing plant.
Finally we took a drive out to the National Park at Karjini, saw a wild dingo, and saw some fantastic scenery at Dales Gorge and Fortescue Falls.
Then it was a 90 minute dash back to Paraburdoo airport for the flight home at 7pm. Qantas managed to gain an extra passenger which caused a 30 min delay. This time it was full of very cheerful people coming off a 9 day rotation who were getting stuck into the beer and were in high spirits. I think a lot of them had crossed legs due to the delay so when the seat belt sign went off about 30 of them jumped up and ran for the 2 toilets. I got home about 9.30pm so it was a long but very educational / enjoyable trip."
So there is much more to WA than Perth. There are loads of photos of the trip on my blog (see signature) but I attach some examples. I don't know whether Karjini National Park or the mine was the more incredible scenery. It certainly whet my appetite for a camping holiday up there sometime.
"On Thursday I got my first chance to go and visit our operations up in the Pilbara. I had to be up before 4am to drive to the airport and catch a flight at 5.25am which made it a long day. I had a scare when I got to the airport and tried to do electronic check-in but got an error message that the flight had closed. Fortunately it was closed for baggage and we got let on. The flight was about 85 minutes with a tail wind but everyone was sleepy and it was dark so nothing to see. Most of the people on the plane were heading back for perhaps a nine day shift rotation so all glum.
We arrived just before 7am at Paraburdoo airport which is a large portakabin basically but with hi-tech security gear. Steve, the project manager who escorted us all day already had keys to the the Landcruiser (complete with tall flag to be seen, flashing orange lights etc) and it took us less than an hour to get into the middle of Tom Price town. As nothing was open Steve showed us around the town including its pub, about 20 shops, and the various housing developments including the 50 he had just supervised being built. They were very nice houses with some great views. The company rents them out to employees for between $100-$250 / week and the utilities are subsidised too. That is necessary to get people up there. The downside is that the remoteness means the one petrol station charges 20c a litre over Perth prices, a $1.10 newspaper cost me $1.95 and everything was about 50% higher than Perth prices. There are also a couple of lodges for FIFO (fly in fly out) contractors.
Then we drove about 30 mins to Nammuldi mine. It is a small one, for which the ops are contracted out it is so small, and luckily it was in shut down so we were able to walk around the processing plant being shown the crushers , scalpers etc for breaking big rocks into small ones for putting on the train. We saw a "small" ore train, just the 2km long as we drove along the dirt access road. BHP has some 7km ones!
Then we popped into Brockman 2 & 4 mines before heading back to Tom Price. There we joined a tourist trip into the mine (which we couldn't have done ourselves) which was really good. Lots of info on the town and mine and got some great photos of the mine, dumper trucks and processing plant.
Finally we took a drive out to the National Park at Karjini, saw a wild dingo, and saw some fantastic scenery at Dales Gorge and Fortescue Falls.
Then it was a 90 minute dash back to Paraburdoo airport for the flight home at 7pm. Qantas managed to gain an extra passenger which caused a 30 min delay. This time it was full of very cheerful people coming off a 9 day rotation who were getting stuck into the beer and were in high spirits. I think a lot of them had crossed legs due to the delay so when the seat belt sign went off about 30 of them jumped up and ran for the 2 toilets. I got home about 9.30pm so it was a long but very educational / enjoyable trip."
So there is much more to WA than Perth. There are loads of photos of the trip on my blog (see signature) but I attach some examples. I don't know whether Karjini National Park or the mine was the more incredible scenery. It certainly whet my appetite for a camping holiday up there sometime.
Jul 17th 2006, 12:30 am
#2
BE Forum Addict
Joined: May 2005
Location: Bunbury WA
Posts: 1,844
Re: My trip to Pilbara Iron Ore mines last week
Lovely Pictures, cant wait to explore WA.
Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure with us.
Denise
Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure with us.
Denise
Jul 17th 2006, 1:20 am
#3
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,337
Re: My trip to Pilbara Iron Ore mines last week
Originally Posted by worzel
Extract from my blog:
"On Thursday I got my first chance to go and visit our operations up in the Pilbara. I had to be up before 4am to drive to the airport and catch a flight at 5.25am which made it a long day. I had a scare when I got to the airport and tried to do electronic check-in but got an error message that the flight had closed. Fortunately it was closed for baggage and we got let on. The flight was about 85 minutes with a tail wind but everyone was sleepy and it was dark so nothing to see. Most of the people on the plane were heading back for perhaps a nine day shift rotation so all glum.
We arrived just before 7am at Paraburdoo airport which is a large portakabin basically but with hi-tech security gear. Steve, the project manager who escorted us all day already had keys to the the Landcruiser (complete with tall flag to be seen, flashing orange lights etc) and it took us less than an hour to get into the middle of Tom Price town. As nothing was open Steve showed us around the town including its pub, about 20 shops, and the various housing developments including the 50 he had just supervised being built. They were very nice houses with some great views. The company rents them out to employees for between $100-$250 / week and the utilities are subsidised too. That is necessary to get people up there. The downside is that the remoteness means the one petrol station charges 20c a litre over Perth prices, a $1.10 newspaper cost me $1.95 and everything was about 50% higher than Perth prices. There are also a couple of lodges for FIFO (fly in fly out) contractors.
Then we drove about 30 mins to Nammuldi mine. It is a small one, for which the ops are contracted out it is so small, and luckily it was in shut down so we were able to walk around the processing plant being shown the crushers , scalpers etc for breaking big rocks into small ones for putting on the train. We saw a "small" ore train, just the 2km long as we drove along the dirt access road. BHP has some 7km ones!
Then we popped into Brockman 2 & 4 mines before heading back to Tom Price. There we joined a tourist trip into the mine (which we couldn't have done ourselves) which was really good. Lots of info on the town and mine and got some great photos of the mine, dumper trucks and processing plant.
Finally we took a drive out to the National Park at Karjini, saw a wild dingo, and saw some fantastic scenery at Dales Gorge and Fortescue Falls.
Then it was a 90 minute dash back to Paraburdoo airport for the flight home at 7pm. Qantas managed to gain an extra passenger which caused a 30 min delay. This time it was full of very cheerful people coming off a 9 day rotation who were getting stuck into the beer and were in high spirits. I think a lot of them had crossed legs due to the delay so when the seat belt sign went off about 30 of them jumped up and ran for the 2 toilets. I got home about 9.30pm so it was a long but very educational / enjoyable trip."
So there is much more to WA than Perth. There are loads of photos of the trip on my blog (see signature) but I attach some examples. I don't know whether Karjini National Park or the mine was the more incredible scenery. It certainly whet my appetite for a camping holiday up there sometime.
"On Thursday I got my first chance to go and visit our operations up in the Pilbara. I had to be up before 4am to drive to the airport and catch a flight at 5.25am which made it a long day. I had a scare when I got to the airport and tried to do electronic check-in but got an error message that the flight had closed. Fortunately it was closed for baggage and we got let on. The flight was about 85 minutes with a tail wind but everyone was sleepy and it was dark so nothing to see. Most of the people on the plane were heading back for perhaps a nine day shift rotation so all glum.
We arrived just before 7am at Paraburdoo airport which is a large portakabin basically but with hi-tech security gear. Steve, the project manager who escorted us all day already had keys to the the Landcruiser (complete with tall flag to be seen, flashing orange lights etc) and it took us less than an hour to get into the middle of Tom Price town. As nothing was open Steve showed us around the town including its pub, about 20 shops, and the various housing developments including the 50 he had just supervised being built. They were very nice houses with some great views. The company rents them out to employees for between $100-$250 / week and the utilities are subsidised too. That is necessary to get people up there. The downside is that the remoteness means the one petrol station charges 20c a litre over Perth prices, a $1.10 newspaper cost me $1.95 and everything was about 50% higher than Perth prices. There are also a couple of lodges for FIFO (fly in fly out) contractors.
Then we drove about 30 mins to Nammuldi mine. It is a small one, for which the ops are contracted out it is so small, and luckily it was in shut down so we were able to walk around the processing plant being shown the crushers , scalpers etc for breaking big rocks into small ones for putting on the train. We saw a "small" ore train, just the 2km long as we drove along the dirt access road. BHP has some 7km ones!
Then we popped into Brockman 2 & 4 mines before heading back to Tom Price. There we joined a tourist trip into the mine (which we couldn't have done ourselves) which was really good. Lots of info on the town and mine and got some great photos of the mine, dumper trucks and processing plant.
Finally we took a drive out to the National Park at Karjini, saw a wild dingo, and saw some fantastic scenery at Dales Gorge and Fortescue Falls.
Then it was a 90 minute dash back to Paraburdoo airport for the flight home at 7pm. Qantas managed to gain an extra passenger which caused a 30 min delay. This time it was full of very cheerful people coming off a 9 day rotation who were getting stuck into the beer and were in high spirits. I think a lot of them had crossed legs due to the delay so when the seat belt sign went off about 30 of them jumped up and ran for the 2 toilets. I got home about 9.30pm so it was a long but very educational / enjoyable trip."
So there is much more to WA than Perth. There are loads of photos of the trip on my blog (see signature) but I attach some examples. I don't know whether Karjini National Park or the mine was the more incredible scenery. It certainly whet my appetite for a camping holiday up there sometime.
Jul 17th 2006, 2:31 am
#4
Forum Regular
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: Over the Hill
Posts: 31
Re: My trip to Pilbara Iron Ore mines last week
Originally Posted by worzel
Extract from my blog:
"On Thursday I got my first chance to go and visit our operations up in the Pilbara. I had to be up before 4am to drive to the airport and catch a flight at 5.25am which made it a long day. I had a scare when I got to the airport and tried to do electronic check-in but got an error message that the flight had closed. Fortunately it was closed for baggage and we got let on. The flight was about 85 minutes with a tail wind but everyone was sleepy and it was dark so nothing to see. Most of the people on the plane were heading back for perhaps a nine day shift rotation so all glum.
We arrived just before 7am at Paraburdoo airport which is a large portakabin basically but with hi-tech security gear. Steve, the project manager who escorted us all day already had keys to the the Landcruiser (complete with tall flag to be seen, flashing orange lights etc) and it took us less than an hour to get into the middle of Tom Price town. As nothing was open Steve showed us around the town including its pub, about 20 shops, and the various housing developments including the 50 he had just supervised being built. They were very nice houses with some great views. The company rents them out to employees for between $100-$250 / week and the utilities are subsidised too. That is necessary to get people up there. The downside is that the remoteness means the one petrol station charges 20c a litre over Perth prices, a $1.10 newspaper cost me $1.95 and everything was about 50% higher than Perth prices. There are also a couple of lodges for FIFO (fly in fly out) contractors.
Then we drove about 30 mins to Nammuldi mine. It is a small one, for which the ops are contracted out it is so small, and luckily it was in shut down so we were able to walk around the processing plant being shown the crushers , scalpers etc for breaking big rocks into small ones for putting on the train. We saw a "small" ore train, just the 2km long as we drove along the dirt access road. BHP has some 7km ones!
Then we popped into Brockman 2 & 4 mines before heading back to Tom Price. There we joined a tourist trip into the mine (which we couldn't have done ourselves) which was really good. Lots of info on the town and mine and got some great photos of the mine, dumper trucks and processing plant.
Finally we took a drive out to the National Park at Karjini, saw a wild dingo, and saw some fantastic scenery at Dales Gorge and Fortescue Falls.
Then it was a 90 minute dash back to Paraburdoo airport for the flight home at 7pm. Qantas managed to gain an extra passenger which caused a 30 min delay. This time it was full of very cheerful people coming off a 9 day rotation who were getting stuck into the beer and were in high spirits. I think a lot of them had crossed legs due to the delay so when the seat belt sign went off about 30 of them jumped up and ran for the 2 toilets. I got home about 9.30pm so it was a long but very educational / enjoyable trip."
So there is much more to WA than Perth. There are loads of photos of the trip on my blog (see signature) but I attach some examples. I don't know whether Karjini National Park or the mine was the more incredible scenery. It certainly whet my appetite for a camping holiday up there sometime.
"On Thursday I got my first chance to go and visit our operations up in the Pilbara. I had to be up before 4am to drive to the airport and catch a flight at 5.25am which made it a long day. I had a scare when I got to the airport and tried to do electronic check-in but got an error message that the flight had closed. Fortunately it was closed for baggage and we got let on. The flight was about 85 minutes with a tail wind but everyone was sleepy and it was dark so nothing to see. Most of the people on the plane were heading back for perhaps a nine day shift rotation so all glum.
We arrived just before 7am at Paraburdoo airport which is a large portakabin basically but with hi-tech security gear. Steve, the project manager who escorted us all day already had keys to the the Landcruiser (complete with tall flag to be seen, flashing orange lights etc) and it took us less than an hour to get into the middle of Tom Price town. As nothing was open Steve showed us around the town including its pub, about 20 shops, and the various housing developments including the 50 he had just supervised being built. They were very nice houses with some great views. The company rents them out to employees for between $100-$250 / week and the utilities are subsidised too. That is necessary to get people up there. The downside is that the remoteness means the one petrol station charges 20c a litre over Perth prices, a $1.10 newspaper cost me $1.95 and everything was about 50% higher than Perth prices. There are also a couple of lodges for FIFO (fly in fly out) contractors.
Then we drove about 30 mins to Nammuldi mine. It is a small one, for which the ops are contracted out it is so small, and luckily it was in shut down so we were able to walk around the processing plant being shown the crushers , scalpers etc for breaking big rocks into small ones for putting on the train. We saw a "small" ore train, just the 2km long as we drove along the dirt access road. BHP has some 7km ones!
Then we popped into Brockman 2 & 4 mines before heading back to Tom Price. There we joined a tourist trip into the mine (which we couldn't have done ourselves) which was really good. Lots of info on the town and mine and got some great photos of the mine, dumper trucks and processing plant.
Finally we took a drive out to the National Park at Karjini, saw a wild dingo, and saw some fantastic scenery at Dales Gorge and Fortescue Falls.
Then it was a 90 minute dash back to Paraburdoo airport for the flight home at 7pm. Qantas managed to gain an extra passenger which caused a 30 min delay. This time it was full of very cheerful people coming off a 9 day rotation who were getting stuck into the beer and were in high spirits. I think a lot of them had crossed legs due to the delay so when the seat belt sign went off about 30 of them jumped up and ran for the 2 toilets. I got home about 9.30pm so it was a long but very educational / enjoyable trip."
So there is much more to WA than Perth. There are loads of photos of the trip on my blog (see signature) but I attach some examples. I don't know whether Karjini National Park or the mine was the more incredible scenery. It certainly whet my appetite for a camping holiday up there sometime.
My DIL's company is working on that one so would be interested to hear your impressions.
Jul 17th 2006, 2:54 am
#5
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Apr 2006
Location: Ballarat
Posts: 7,005
Re: My trip to Pilbara Iron Ore mines last week
Very interesting read, thank you. My boys love the big dumper truck and would love to sit in one.
Mandy
Mandy
Jul 17th 2006, 5:22 am
#6
Fighting my corner
Joined: Aug 2005
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Posts: 11,948
Re: My trip to Pilbara Iron Ore mines last week
Originally Posted by worzel
Extract from my blog:
"On Thursday I got my first chance to go and visit our operations up in the Pilbara. I had to be up before 4am to drive to the airport and catch a flight at 5.25am which made it a long day. I had a scare when I got to the airport and tried to do electronic check-in but got an error message that the flight had closed. Fortunately it was closed for baggage and we got let on. The flight was about 85 minutes with a tail wind but everyone was sleepy and it was dark so nothing to see. Most of the people on the plane were heading back for perhaps a nine day shift rotation so all glum.
We arrived just before 7am at Paraburdoo airport which is a large portakabin basically but with hi-tech security gear. Steve, the project manager who escorted us all day already had keys to the the Landcruiser (complete with tall flag to be seen, flashing orange lights etc) and it took us less than an hour to get into the middle of Tom Price town. As nothing was open Steve showed us around the town including its pub, about 20 shops, and the various housing developments including the 50 he had just supervised being built. They were very nice houses with some great views. The company rents them out to employees for between $100-$250 / week and the utilities are subsidised too. That is necessary to get people up there. The downside is that the remoteness means the one petrol station charges 20c a litre over Perth prices, a $1.10 newspaper cost me $1.95 and everything was about 50% higher than Perth prices. There are also a couple of lodges for FIFO (fly in fly out) contractors.
Then we drove about 30 mins to Nammuldi mine. It is a small one, for which the ops are contracted out it is so small, and luckily it was in shut down so we were able to walk around the processing plant being shown the crushers , scalpers etc for breaking big rocks into small ones for putting on the train. We saw a "small" ore train, just the 2km long as we drove along the dirt access road. BHP has some 7km ones!
Then we popped into Brockman 2 & 4 mines before heading back to Tom Price. There we joined a tourist trip into the mine (which we couldn't have done ourselves) which was really good. Lots of info on the town and mine and got some great photos of the mine, dumper trucks and processing plant.
Finally we took a drive out to the National Park at Karjini, saw a wild dingo, and saw some fantastic scenery at Dales Gorge and Fortescue Falls.
Then it was a 90 minute dash back to Paraburdoo airport for the flight home at 7pm. Qantas managed to gain an extra passenger which caused a 30 min delay. This time it was full of very cheerful people coming off a 9 day rotation who were getting stuck into the beer and were in high spirits. I think a lot of them had crossed legs due to the delay so when the seat belt sign went off about 30 of them jumped up and ran for the 2 toilets. I got home about 9.30pm so it was a long but very educational / enjoyable trip."
So there is much more to WA than Perth. There are loads of photos of the trip on my blog (see signature) but I attach some examples. I don't know whether Karjini National Park or the mine was the more incredible scenery. It certainly whet my appetite for a camping holiday up there sometime.
"On Thursday I got my first chance to go and visit our operations up in the Pilbara. I had to be up before 4am to drive to the airport and catch a flight at 5.25am which made it a long day. I had a scare when I got to the airport and tried to do electronic check-in but got an error message that the flight had closed. Fortunately it was closed for baggage and we got let on. The flight was about 85 minutes with a tail wind but everyone was sleepy and it was dark so nothing to see. Most of the people on the plane were heading back for perhaps a nine day shift rotation so all glum.
We arrived just before 7am at Paraburdoo airport which is a large portakabin basically but with hi-tech security gear. Steve, the project manager who escorted us all day already had keys to the the Landcruiser (complete with tall flag to be seen, flashing orange lights etc) and it took us less than an hour to get into the middle of Tom Price town. As nothing was open Steve showed us around the town including its pub, about 20 shops, and the various housing developments including the 50 he had just supervised being built. They were very nice houses with some great views. The company rents them out to employees for between $100-$250 / week and the utilities are subsidised too. That is necessary to get people up there. The downside is that the remoteness means the one petrol station charges 20c a litre over Perth prices, a $1.10 newspaper cost me $1.95 and everything was about 50% higher than Perth prices. There are also a couple of lodges for FIFO (fly in fly out) contractors.
Then we drove about 30 mins to Nammuldi mine. It is a small one, for which the ops are contracted out it is so small, and luckily it was in shut down so we were able to walk around the processing plant being shown the crushers , scalpers etc for breaking big rocks into small ones for putting on the train. We saw a "small" ore train, just the 2km long as we drove along the dirt access road. BHP has some 7km ones!
Then we popped into Brockman 2 & 4 mines before heading back to Tom Price. There we joined a tourist trip into the mine (which we couldn't have done ourselves) which was really good. Lots of info on the town and mine and got some great photos of the mine, dumper trucks and processing plant.
Finally we took a drive out to the National Park at Karjini, saw a wild dingo, and saw some fantastic scenery at Dales Gorge and Fortescue Falls.
Then it was a 90 minute dash back to Paraburdoo airport for the flight home at 7pm. Qantas managed to gain an extra passenger which caused a 30 min delay. This time it was full of very cheerful people coming off a 9 day rotation who were getting stuck into the beer and were in high spirits. I think a lot of them had crossed legs due to the delay so when the seat belt sign went off about 30 of them jumped up and ran for the 2 toilets. I got home about 9.30pm so it was a long but very educational / enjoyable trip."
So there is much more to WA than Perth. There are loads of photos of the trip on my blog (see signature) but I attach some examples. I don't know whether Karjini National Park or the mine was the more incredible scenery. It certainly whet my appetite for a camping holiday up there sometime.
Congratulations on a great trip and an excellent choice of destination. It's surprising to see the number of people who aren't prepared to venture off the beaten track - but as you have found for yourself, the results are well worthwhile.
Jul 17th 2006, 7:35 am
#7
Banned
Joined: Dec 2004
Location: Tapping (Perth)
Posts: 2,619
Re: My trip to Pilbara Iron Ore mines last week
Wow, Worzel, what a fantastic experience!!!
Gina
Gina
