KARRATHA, Western Australia (& Dampier, Cossack &

I read this quote somewhere;

Karratha — a one-trick pony mining town, which is little more than a turnstile for high-visibility work wear.

Perhaps to some, Karratha’s mining pedigree is rather domineering and a little boring. To us, Karratha delivered so much more. Its history and characters provided plenty of interesting places to visit and bits of new information to add to the knowledge bank. And, it was our first experience in the Pilbara; a destination we’d been looking forward to for sooo long!

We stayed at the only dog friendly caravan park in town and the kids were ecstatic to find we had joined some of the other travelling families we’d previously met. It was great for them to spend a few days back and forth between caravans, playing new games, sharing toys and cooling off in the biggest pool we’ve ever seen (in a caravan park at least!). The parents had a chance to compare itineraries and share tips on managing our dogs while we travelled. We also loved the Autumn special - $32 per night, kids stayed free. Definitely one of the cheapest stays so far!

Karratha was borne in 1968 as a joint State Government-Hamersley Iron development after the original area housing workers and equipment at the Hamersley mining site became too small to accommodate the speed of growth. Since then, it has become a major centre of commerce for companies who have exploited Karratha’s wealth of natural resources. The town’s transient population has seen periods of intense activity followed by deep downturns in areas such as real estate and employment.

The Manager of our caravan park spoke fondly of the time, between 2006 – 2012, when the entire park was full of permanents – 150 of them! Most were construction workers on the gas plant and preferred the $500 per week it cost to live in a caravan than the $2,000 per week it cost to rent even a modest house!! She talked about the sense of community the young families fostered and how they cried when their contracts ended, necessitating a move to another town and signaling the end of the safety and support they’d learnt to depend upon. She talked about dodgy things with the major employers in town who had recently sacked everyone and made them reapply for their jobs – but only if they were prepared to be Fly in-fly out (FIFO) workers from Perth. How absurd! Why would any company want FIFO workers when they could access a reliable workforce locally? Something definitely smelt fishy to the folk of Karratha and I understand why!

Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to do the Port tours, which are generally a highlight for visitors to Karratha. It would have been fascinating to see the massive iron ore ships being loaded. We were able to see the scale of the operations from various vantage points around town and it was impressive! We collectively sighed a big “Aaawwwww” at the bronze ‘Red Dog’ statue and the story of his loveable adventures. We visited a local outdoor rock art gallery but couldn’t find the art! We spotted a dead kangaroo before the heat and humidity sent us heading back to the air-conditioned comfort of the car. It was a beautiful gorge with incredible layers of twisted, rich russet rocks formed by ancient movements of the Earth. Tasha was less impressed, finding it rather boring because it was “just all brown”! Aahh, don’t you love the simplicity of how kids see the World!

We spent a day in Cossack, another ‘ghost’ town about 50km north of Karratha. Cossack was the first port in the northwest and was originally a pearling and farming centre. Many of the buildings had been beautifully restored and some were even being used for accommodation and venue hire. It was a fascinating glimpse into the region’s unexpected history, wealth and hardship. The courthouse was the most impressive structure but there were others that were perhaps more charming and welcoming – especially to those who lived there in a bygone era! One story that caught our imagination was that of an early school teacher, Mr. Niebal. He would attend school each day wearing shorts, a light shirt and a pith helmet. A most unusual outfit for the 1890’s! It gave us a giggle and a hint of what funny characters must have lived there at the time.

We splashed around in Settlers Beach beach as the tide was tumbling in over the millions of tiny crab holes; watching as the shallow channels were swallowed by the unrelenting ocean. The water was so warm it was hard to feel refreshed in the heat but it was still a lovely way to end a busy day.

We stayed in Karratha a couple of days longer than anticipated to ride out a storm that threatened to bring rivers of rain that never arrived during the 2016 wet season. We certainly received some heavy falls throughout the day, but by the evening, all was calm and dry again. Evidence of the drought over the past year is unmistakable around the region. Rivers and creeks that should be teeming with water, fish and birds are just dust and rocks. Cattle are starving, musters have been cancelled and farmers will miss out on desperately needed income as they decide how to find feed for the impending dry period. Having never been to this part of Australia before, we regularly pondered how different the arid landscape would look at this time of the year if the seasonal rains had fallen.

On our way out of Karratha, we stopped at Roebourne, about 40km to the north. There wasn’t much to do but we paid our donation to look inside the old Roebourne gaol. It was a small prison and fairly typical of the era. It was a little sad to read that the prison population was mostly Aborigines who had been accused of ‘abandonment’ of their ‘contracts’. Despite a law being passed giving them basic rights, the reality of their plight was, of course, very different. Rich, white pastoralists could beat them, starve them and withhold other basic necessities such as appropriate clothing and shelter. If a pastoralist’s abuse was discovered, he generally got a slap on the wrist from the local constabulary. Perversely, but hardly unexpectedly, if an Aborigine fled their enslavement, they were gaoled for years for their ‘crime’. How shameful Australia.