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Port Hedland
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You'll find an array of heavy industrial grot at
PORT HEDLAND
. Labelling itself rather clumsily "The Port of Big Ships", it's an iron and salt port of such unrefined ugliness that it's somehow oddly captivating. The old town centre is set on an island surrounded by mangroves and sludge, while South Hedland, on the coastal highway, has only a shopping centre and cheap fuel to distract the passing traveller. If you're travelling by bus north along the coast to Broome (only 600km away) you should get off at Port Hedland if you want to get to Wittenoom's gorges.
The tourist office runs a ninety-minute town tour on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 1.30pm ($11) but one of the most popular diversions is the tour (Mon-Fri 9.30am; $11) of the
BHP loading facility
(also ninety-minute) where ships load up with 250,000 tonnes of iron at a time. Whale- and turtle-watching tours are organized in the wet season (roughly Nov to March) by the tourist office, as well as fishing and diving charters and harbour cruises, as incentives to stop travellers leaving town on the next bus. You can also visit the
Royal Flying Doctor
base at the airport (Mon-Fri 10am-2pm; free). Other than that, both backpackers' accommodation arrange
tours
to the Karijini (Hamersley Range) National Park. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Australia,
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