The 12 days of Papa (part 1)

We are still waking with the birds, so the kids find plenty of time to do some catch up journal writing this morning. Well truth be told, the kids have lost their enthusiasm for journal writing, but nothing works better to make them sit down, than the odd bribe..oh sorry, we meant to say words of encouragement!!!!

We were all trying to get used to this quiet caravan park. We are all missing the friendly chats and hellos from new and old companions....when as Linda came out of the toilet she saw our dear neighbours from Kununurra. It was really cool to find them once more. After saying farewell to them in Broome ( we first met in Kununurra, then Derby then Broome) we did not think our paths would cross again. Poor Bev, like you Roslyn/mum, she is a bit of a worry wart. Having worried all night about us in Kununurra (the day we had car troubles), then again in Derby when we stayed out late to see the sun set and have dinner by the beach.......she probably was relieved to have said bye to us in Broome. They really were generous souls. Later on in the day, they came over to give us an information book about WA, NT and QLD, that they thought we would really enjoy!!! This trip has really been made special by the people we have been priviliged to meet.

There is so much for us to learn about this section of the Pilbara....so here we go...................................

First stop Cossack. The above is the Cossack Museum in the old courthouse. This small town, now a ghost town, was first established in 1863. It was originaly the main shipping port for the north west coast, home to the North West's first pearling industry and saw hundreds of prospectors hoping to strike it rich during the gold rush days. Unfortunately, Cossacks harbour proved too shallow for the growing demand and increase in the size of ships. The pearlers also moved further north to Broome, and the town of Cossack was eventually abandoned by 1950. This historic town, its many restored heritage buildings and cemetary, give you a glimpse of what life in Cossack must have been like all those years ago. No mention, however, of Russian horsemen or pogroms!!!!

Judge Robbie, ooh he did enjoy this fleeting moment!!!!!!!

All found guilty of having way too much fun with Papa.

One of the tombstones in the cemetery.

The view from the cemetary. Not a bad spot for your final resting place.

The kids have been waiting for this moment.  Finally getting to see the Red Dog Memorial Statue. For them it lived up to all expectations. Having all seen the Red Dog Movie, we all felt like we knew Red Dog. Whilst in Dampier we purchased a copy of the original Red Dog story which the movie was based on. The kids all read this copy and this is what they shared with us. Red Dog's real name was Tally Ho. Although he had many different names as he spent time with his many different masters. The name Red Dog came about by the colour he became after spending a trip on the back of a ute as he was way too stinky to sit in the cab. All that was recognizable of him were his eyes. He had turned red like the red dust.

 

Dampier houses port facilities for Dampier Salt, Pilbara Iron ( Rio Tinto ) and the Woodside operated North West Shelf Venture and Karratha Gas Plant.

Dampier was first discovered by Englishman William Dampier in 1699, but apparently he did not think too much of the then barren coastline. The town of Dampier was not established until 1966 by Hammersley Iron, now known as Pibara Iron. This picture is taken at the William Dampier Lookout. 

Here we ate lunch and watched them filling the huge ships with iron ore and salt. We learnt this iron ore comes from Paraburdoo. The iron ore from Linda's new love, Tom Price goes to Cape Lambert, which is right next to Point Samson. This is one of the highest and longest wharves in Australia. It is 3.98 km long and  has a minimum clearance of 17.8 metres above high tide. The giant ore carrier ships await to be filled. It takes 24 - 36 hours to load one of these ships with iron ore.

The Pilbara has Australia's largest solar salt field, with Dampier Salt being Western Australia's principal salt producer. They export something like 4 million tonnes of salt each year. We learnt that this salt is mainly used in the chemical industry, for road de-icing and for the production of plastics and glass. It is also used in food processing and for food products.

Along the road that lead to the Woodside North West Shelf Gas Venture, is some of the most prolific rock engravings. These are known as petroglyphs. These are considered to among the earliest examples of art in Australia. Apparently this art is 6000 to 30,000 years old ( not a typo!!)It is very different Aboriginal art then what we have seen, but if you looked carefully you could see pictures of turtles or kangaroos. They tell us that more than 10,000 individual rock engravings have been identified in this area.

Robbie is still finding incredible wild flowers to photograph. We are thinking that perhaps a coffee table book of all his wild flowers might be in order on our return!!!

Hearsons Cove. A beautiful sheltered swimming area. Our swimming and relaxing soon came to a sudden halt when Benji exits the water with a bleeding foot. A quick inspection reveals something that most likely would require more than a bandaid. So off we go to the Karratha Hospital. The triage nurse feels the most likely culprit for the injury is an oyster shell. They recommended suturing, but were worried about infection, especially as we are off to Karijini National Park. They then looked for glue....none available and they were not too impressed with Rob's suggestion to use super glue!!! They bandaged it all up, advised no walking on it at for 48 hours and said if it starts bleeding to just use duct tape and tape the foot back together.....comforting advice!!!!!  Benj is not allowed to get it wet for 7 days. The countdown begins!!! Benj has taken all this in his stride. Piggy back riding is the new mode of transport for Benj. We make some modifications to our next few days, but onwards and inland we travel.