Newman WA

Today turned into what we call a driving day. We clicked 467km from Bilyuin Pools camp to Mount Robinson Rest Area via Newman. We are very much still in mining country and so there is not a lot to see/visit along this route. We leave camp at 7:30am and stop for breakfast,131km up the road on the bank of the Gascoyne River. It is Western Australia’s longest river at 865km long.

We have noticed these trees with interesting curling bark.

Our next stop is to top up with fuel at the Kumarina Roadhouse. 

That done we continued another 165km to Newman. (We did have a quick photo opp as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn).

Seen a few birds of prey … this one was enjoying a snack.

Behind the wheel again.

This is the largest inland town of the Pilbara and services the huge BHP Billiton Mt Whaleback Mine. It has a population of 5,000 and another 4,000 fifo miners. We had hoped to do a mine tour but unfortunately the next one available was in 10 days time! The mine has an estimated 1.6 billion tonnes of ore. It also has its own railway that runs 426km to a privately owned port in Port Hedland. The trains measure in average 2.7km, have 4 locomotives, 268 ore cars carrying 33,000 tonnes of ore in each journey!  We have a look at the information boards at the entrance to the town. 

We then enjoy a pie for lunch, do some shopping at Woolies, top up the water tanks and use the dump point.

By now the day is getting on and we still have 107km to drive to our spot for tonight at Mount Robinson Rest Area. It was a lovely drive through some ranges. We even got up to 735m alt! The views at the rest area a stunning.