Hedland...where the hell is it.

Port Hedland, North West, Western Australia

It's up North. You must be from over East, 'cos even people down South know that !.
(If you live in Perth there is only 3 places a town can be)

Macca

Here it is using ShowMe.

Biggest tonnage shipping port in Oz, over 100 million tonnes a year, mainly iron ore

Is it Friday already?????
(musta been asleep;-))

Hot as buggery, covered in dark red iron ore dust (getting better but) and pretty rough. Local pubs are the 'Nard' (Esplanade) and The Pier about 100m apart. Japs bombed it in WW2. Guy at the BP is called Grumpy George. The BHP Hot Brickette plant cost $4 billion to build and doesn't work - now closed. It got so dusty they decided to build another town 20k's away called....wait for it.....South Hedland. Industrial area is called Wedgefield and has a big wheelbarrow somewhere from memory. Tip is good for bits and pieces. Big salt stockpiles that are worth a look. Council is up the s#%t for money, stone broke apparently. Immigration detention centre closed now I think. Big turtles come up to the beach at night, you can sit outside at the Mercure and wait for them whilst washing the dust away with a cold one. Pretty Pool is not very pretty.

Head north towards Broome and about 40 odd km's up the road you can turn right and take the old Marble Bar road (4WD) rather than the new sealed one. Heavily rutted in sections, boggy sand patches and a real 'paint scraper' in others, but some good country, abandoned mines, creek crossings etc.

End of the line for the iron ore that travels on some of the longest trains in the world (current Guiness book record holder in fact) from BHP's Newman mine 500km's to the east. After stockpiling and blending, the ore gets loaded on to massive ships which wait in line just off the coast to cart immense tonnages to Japan daily.

Just down the road (200km's) at Karratha / Dampier we send off ships chockers full of gas to Japan as well.

Drive down to Perth, wait a for a while at Fremantle Port and you can watch it all come back as Toyota's and Nissan's.

Thus the balance of life is restored.

There you go. :-)

www.travelmate.com.au

I would have got a road atlas and looked in up.................or type the place name into a search engine....

I feel like a rocket scientist!

It is the most important place in Australia (sorry Eastern staters it isnt Sydney or Melbourne) coz especially now with the 70% jump in the iron ore price it is the regianal centre of Australias Economic Engine room, where else did you think the money came from for your nice smooth freeways?

very closely followed by Cape Lambert, 100 odd miles west then karratha/Dampier
Each does 60 odd million tonnes iron ore and dampier (and Burrup)does billions of $ gas and oil.
Soon to be constructed new gas processing train in Onslow, for BHP, just to the west again
Sorry to make eastern staters realise their insignificance!!

Davoe, the figures are well over 50% and that was before the price rise!
On the east coast they think it is freeway tolls and North Sydney parking tickets that support Aus!!