Despite the attempts of the spell checker, it really is 'Hedland', not Headland as you might suspect. It was named after the first European to sail into the place in 1863. He named it Mangrove Harbour, it got the Port Hedland moniker after the town was surveyed and gazetted in 1893. It has been without doubt a very important port in this remote region of Australia and today claims the title for the port that exports the highest tonnage, with something like 30 plus million tons of iron ore going out every month. That is a whole lot of ore. To accommodate the boats they dredged a huge channel, installed huge wharfs and even bigger machinery to load the 250,000+ ton boats that come here. The port itself is fed by private railway lines that come from 400 kms east of here. We did the BHP site tour and they alone have fifty trains. Each train has 4 engines, $20mill each, from USA, and 268 wagons that come from China and carry 130 tons each. The wagons are interesting in that some wit worked out that by putting the reinforcing ribs on the inside, leaving the outside surfaces flat, they could save a million bucks per train per year. The trains come into the handling facility, where 3 carriages and the railway line they are on, are simply inverted over a large hole to empty them. At the bottom of the hole is a conveyor belt that transports the ore through crushers and giant sieves and ultimately to stockpiles 40m high and 200 metres long. When a boat comes in, they have other huge machines that scoop up the stock piles onto more conveyor belts and ultimately into the hold of the waiting vessel.
The interesting thing is that the whole operation, from mine to boat is remote controlled from an office in Perth. The only thing still manually driven are the ship loaders, and they are well advanced to automate them as well. The trouble with all of these big numbers and bigger price tags, is that when something goes wrong, it goes wrong in an equally big way. anyhow, have some snaps
 |
| BHP locomotive. Port Hedland WA |
 |
| BHP ore handler. Port Hedland WA |
 |
| BHP train.. Port Hedland WA |
 |
| BHP stockpiler. Port Hedland WA |
 |
| BHP Jabiru. Port Hedland WA |
What I love most about this is that when someone else like Gina Rhinehart or Fortesue Metals wants to start exporting stuff from equally remote areas, they have to build all their own railways and ore handling facilities. The wharves belong to the State owned Port Authority, but I bet they ain't cheap to use!
The town itself is not really a pretty site. Everything is covered in red dust which becomes red stain. You can't get rid of it. I found the local beach just near the park, went for a wander and took some snaps to relieve the industrial feel of the place
 |
| Beach. Port Hedland WA |
Up early and went for a walk along the beach, took these
 |
| Port Hedland WA |
 |
| Port Hedland WA |
 |
| Port Hedland WA |
 |
| Port Hedland WA |
 |
| Port Hedland WA |
No comments:
Post a Comment