Derby to Port Hedland.

14/06/2009. On leaving Derby to travel to Broome we stopped to look at the Boab Prison Tree, the boab tree could hold 12 prisoners mainly Aboriginals who were shackled in chains, they were marched from as far away as Fitzroy Crossing a distance of about 260 km and walked 28 -48 km a day chained together, most of these poor buggers were charged with killing and eating livestock. It's sad to read the history, guess they were starving and wanting to survive one will never no the full truth.
The flower of the boab tree opens for 1 night only and has the scent similar to the Frangipani.
Close to the prison tree was a stock trough - the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and could accommodate 500 head of cattle.

Now in Broome and staying at a caravan park 8 km from town, Cable Beach van park is over $40.00 a night, to expensive for us, Cable Beach was everything we imagined it to be with the Whitest of sand and a Turquoise sea just great, we bumped into a couple of nomads - Keith & Marion who we have met at a few rest stops back up north.
Back to Broome and toured the shopping center where Sandra checked out ALL of the pearl shops, Broom is known for it's Pearling Industry.
Then a drive to Roebuck Bay which is just as spectacular as Cable Beach, in the park by the beach San called out to me, before I could answer her an Aboriginal Lady said John come over here to see what we are doing, we walked over and she introduced herself, her name was Becky and her uncle beside her was named Serafen he said Serafen the Ark Angel, they both had a bottle of Port Wine each, he was carving a boab nut his hand didn't look to steady to me, Becky said to us that no body wanted to speak to them (sad) she thanked us for talking to them she shook my hand it was so soft just like a baby's hand.

1. Cable beach - Broome.

2. Boab Prison Tree - Broome.

18/06. Left Broome and now camped at Barn Hill Station, it's situated on the Thangoo property which is a working Cattle station, along a 10km dirt road and badly corrugated in parts. Barn Hill Sation is approximately 430,000 acres and stretches 85km along the coast between Broome & Port Hedland. The property runs 8,000 head of Brahman cattle which is marketed to live export trade through the port of Broome.

Bread as well as sausage rolls, pies, cakes and pizza at the homestead and deliver them fresh every day to camp.

Barn Hill even has a lawn bowling green and has competition bowls on Tuesdays, it is very competitive. At the back of camp is the ocean and the tide goes out for hundreds of meters, good fishing is out to sea for the lucky ones who have a boat, at the beach it is like a miniature grand canyon with the most unusual rock formations, but the only drawback is that there are sea snakes in the water, San was not impressed.

The shower & toilets are made of cement blocks and corrugated iron with no roof, its great to have a shower as you can get a sun tan by day and watch the stars at night.

Sunday night was a $15.00 a head 3 course meal with live entertainment from a local Aboriginal Family Band, lead by Grandad on guitar, his Son also on guitar, Grandson on drums, Granddaughter on tambourine's and 2 younger boys who rap danced, Grandad & Son were very good singers, while this was going on a lady from the audience came on stage playing the bagpipes, can you believe this, Aboriginal entertainers and bagpipes.

Road into Barn Hill Station.

Grader on way out.

23/06/2009. Packed up this morning and made a short drive out to Port Smith on the coast, more dirt roads but this time it is longer at 23km's and as bad as the last one. Took a walk to a lagoon about 1km from park, it was low tide and to reach the water we had an extra 600 metres through mangroves and ankle deep mud and sand, when we got there we were that hot so we just jumped in the water cloth's and all.

The Midge's were so bad last night, Sandra was a mess in the morning from scratching the bites, actually they don't bight they wee on you instead, nice little blighters ain't they.

Fishing on Eighty Mile Beach.

The midge's were so bad we only stayed for 2 nights such a pity Port Smith is such a nice place with good fishing.
26/06/2009. Moved out to Eighty Mile Beach this morning over another 10km of dirt road. The beach is a fishermans haven with Threadfin Salmon the prime target for this time of year, also small Bronze Whaler sharks, a lot of nuisance Catfish, and the odd Stingray, days before we arrived there were 60 to 80 Salmon caught a day for over a week, I could only manage 4 under size salmon and a small shark, a guy fishing near me had the good luck to land a 34lb Mulloway. We had 4 days here and caught up with friends that we have met on the road.
29/06. Moved out at 10am this morning and drove to Pardoo Roadhouse on our way to Pt Hedland. $1.23 a litre for auto gas every thing out this way is so expensive as there is no where else to get supplies, they sure have everybody by the short & curlies.

Had lunch then drove down to the De Grey River to a great free stay, black swans in the river, cattle wandering through the camp, this is a very good camping area we will spend a few days here. Met new friends here at happy hour and exchanged phone No's, late in the afternoon a road train coming down the highway had is horn blowing for a long way .back, some bloody idiot tourists in a rented motor home had stopped on the bridge to take photos and just managed to get to the other side as the truck roared past, I shudder to think what would have happened if they could not get out of the way.

Bush Camping on the De Grey River.

Bridge over De Grey River.

Bulk Iron Carrier Port - Hedland.

Salt Mining Stock Pile - Port Hedland.
Windy morning to day as we head down to Port Hedland, lucky for us we had a tail wind to help us along. Back in the early 1900's port hedland harbour handled Pearling Luggers as well as local cargo. In the 1960s major change took place with the development of the Iron Ore deposits, the port was handling 100,000 Tonnes a year, today the port is one of the worlds largest in Tonnage terms with over 70 Million tonnes of products, worth more than $3 billion a year shipped out, its also the spot to see some of the longest trains in the world, relaying iron ore from Mt Whaleback to Newman.

On 21st June 2001, a new world record was set by the iron ore railway, the longest train at 7.353.5Km long weighing 99,732.1 Tonnes caring 82,262.5 Tonnes of iron ore, was hauled along by 8 Locomotives and 682 rail cars.

Also in Pt Hedland is the Dampier Salt Stockpile - it is huge.