Arriving in Port Hedland after travelling along coastal and country roads was a bit of a shock to the system! It’s an industrial and mining city with the busiest port in Australia, witnessed by the number of ships waiting to dock and load to take their cargo around the world stocked with, mainly, iron ore.
This is my trip since leaving Broome and taking me through Port Hedland and on the way to Exmouth.
This link to Wikipedia will give you some history and facts and figures about the Port of Hedland. And the Port of Hedland website is also full of great information. It was interesting to find that in February this year, 2015, ….. the largest single shipment of iron ore has left the port of Port Hedland with 263,989 tonnes onboard the vessel Abigail N. Source Mining Australia
Although the Turf Club free camp had closed there were 8 motorhomes that crept in to stay a couple of nights, only to be sprung by the Ranger who asked us to move on. They were very considerate though, and gave us until 6.30 the following morning to make sure we were gone. This suited us fine as we were attending a Trivia Night that night at the historic Esplanade Hotel and then booked to go on a tour of the port with the Seafarer’s Mission the next day.
Our Trivia results are best left alone – our table of grey nomads came last! – but the tour of the port was a highlight. We met at the Seafarer’s Mission and were loaded on to a bus and taken to a launch that would ferry us around the harbour and pick up seamen that had shore leave from the visiting ships. All along the way we were given information about the ships, the port, the mining companies and the people who work in the port, so it was a fascinating couple of hours. The size of the ships was mind boggling and I hope you can get a good idea from the following photos.
Our group of friendly travellers split up at Port Hedland, most going inland to Karijini National Park while I continued to hug the coastline on my way south. I’m sure it won’t be long before we link up again.
The Snail Trail 
September 15, 2015 at 10:29 pm
That tour looked great Rosemary. We were a bit dissapointed with PH, we were hoping to find some information about the port and the loading around the harbourside, but there didn’t seem to be anything. This might be too late for you, but north of Dampier, there is an exceptional information centre dedicated to explaining the massive north West Shelf Gas Project, free entry too. Very well worth visiting.
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September 15, 2015 at 11:03 pm
I’m already at Oakabella, collecting money from happy campers and working in the cafe 3 days a week while Loretta is away. I was fortunate to visit the gas place you mentioned out of Dampier last year when I was in the area, and actually saw it with our indigenous guide, Clint, when he took us to the Burrup Peninsula. I thought it was done very well and was very informative.
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September 16, 2015 at 10:52 am
Ha ha, of course. I realised as soon as I had posted that you were already at Oakabella! Hope it is going well for you there, such a lovely peaceful spot. I enjoyed your photos from your launch tour of PH harbour. We went to the Seafarers Mission, but wasn’t aware they ran a tour, it looked like a great way to see the port operations.
Happy camping!
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