Page 186 - Mit dem Wohnwagen durch Australien 2

the essentials, but no frills, there are no other shops on a high street to speak of. Clearly a men’s world. The majority
of the shoppers, men or women, wear the orange or yellow and blue safety clothes of the mines. Everybody knows
everybody else and banter goes back and forth in the parking lot.

We are enjoying the sea adjacent to our campground. We have to cross two dunes to reach it and this is a bit of an
obstacle. The sand is so hot, it burns our toes through the Crocs we are wearing and we sort of dance as nimble
footed as we can to the cooling waters.

Dampier Peninsula is not only home of the largest distribution facilities for natural gas in Australia; it is also host to
one of the largest Art Galleries in the world. Thousands of Petroglyphs, Aborigine drawings engraved in Rock adorn
the rocky outcrops, some of them 30’000 to 40’000 years old. As a lot of things in W.A. which are not mine related,
these rock engravings are treated a bit shabbily. We have to rely on a hand drawn mud map in order to find them.
There are no Road- or other signs pointing the way. So we can quietly enjoy these magic sites all alone unencumbered
by other tourists.

MINING
We are visiting the largest single Open-Cut Iron Ore Mine in the world, the Whaleback Mine of BHP Billiton. The
mine is 5.5 Km long and at present 28 benches deep. Ultimately it will be 44 benches deep, each bench measuring
15 m in height. Already now it is mined below the water table. Each week 80 million litres of water are pumped out
of the mine and used for various task in the process of the iron ore. The huge ore trucks can transport up to 240 t
iron ore. If they are fully loaded, they weigh 75 t more than a fully loaded Jumbo Jet at take-off! Tyres can measure
up to 3.5 m in diameter, last 9 to 12 months and cost about AUD 40’000 a piece. The high graded Iron Ore is mixed
with some lesser ore before loaded onto the trains.

Officially this is to guarantee a continuous quality to the clients; unofficially, this way, the mining company can sell its
lesser or at the same time. Each day seven trains get filled with approx. 42’000 Million tons of Iron ore each. These
trains are about 3.5 km long and are pulled and pushed by 6 locomotives. These Locs are linked with each other.
The whole train only needs one driver. It reaches up to 75 km/h and uses 3.5 km to come to a complete standstill.

It is not a good idea to drive over a crossing, when the red light blinks. 7 of those trains fill one of large transporting
ships in the harbour 90 % go to China, about 10 % to Japan and Korea. The longest train they had was over 7 km
long, pulled by 8 Engines, driven by one single driver and carried 100’000 tons of Iron ore. This train went for 875 m.

Newman is fully owned by BHP Billiton, Tom Price is owned by Rio Tinto. The houses, the ground and businesses
are either owned by the mining companies or depend heavily on them. There is no competition and the prices for
everything are sky high. Rents for a house can go up to AUD 2’800 per week! A normal person cannot afford these
prices, only mining companies do. Often times the local shops are operated by spouses of mining employees,
others are hard pressed to be able to afford the prices. Until 10 years ago, Newman and Tom Price were privately
owned cities. Meanwhile the administration has been given over to the shire for the price of AUD 1. The community
employees, the policemen, doctors and nurses etc. have difficulties to find affordable living quarters, even though
they are paid better here than in the urban centres. For the first time since many years there will be building ground
available, 12 lots, a little drop on a hot stone. No wonder, that a number of workers, some with their families, live on
the campground in bungalows or in their own vans, even though he rates are also top dollar. There are so called
Congas on the Campground which have 4 rooms with Shower, Toilet, TV and Aircondo, which are rented by workers.
For AUD 70 per day, they can have two hot meals and a cold lunch box to take to work from a cafeteria on the
grounds. The mines work in two shifts at 12.5 hours a day or night. The locals work two days day-and two days
night-shift, then have 2 days off. The fly-in, fly-out people work 7 day / 7 night-shifts and then have 7 days off. They
are then flown back and forth to wherever they live on the continent by the mining companies. The mining companies
pay top salaries and provide for schools, leisure activities such as golf courses, sports facilities, swimming pools
and cinemas etc, in order to make it bearable for the employees to live in the arid and hostile environment.

Mines are constantly changed or amended. Sometimes the whole Mining Camp has to be transported somewhere
else, not to speak of the huge mining machinery. We are very used to the large Roadtrains, but these relocations
are something else. These extraordinary Transporters carry loads 8 to 9 m wide and 35 m long. The transports are
escorted by street pilots. One or two pilots ride in front, and one or two in the back of such a transport. The whole
road is closed until the transport has passed. We have to drive unto the soft shoulder and stop for the duration. We