TOM PRICE TO EXMOUTH

David and Beth on top of Mt. Nameless overlooking Rio Tinto Iron Ore Mine, Tom Price

The Hardhat Crew - the Hansens embarking upon the mine tour at Tom Price

One of the dumper trucks which carries 220 tonnes of iron ore in every load.

The mine site from the lookout.

My "twins" - Beth and Tess at the mine site.

The Hansen family in front of an excavator.

DAY 72 – TOM PRICE – EXMOUTH                                           Monday, 12^th September

Up early this morning and all hands on deck in case we were able to get an early mine tour this morning.  Unfortunately, no cigar.  So we took a drive up Mt. Nameless which is the second highest mountain in Western Australia and the highest one accessible by vehicle.  The view of Tom Price township and of the Rio Tinto Mine site was fantastic.  It really gave you an insight into the size of the mine.

We went back and attached the van before meeting outside the Information Centre for our tour.  The kids loved having their hard hats and protective glasses.  The man who conducted the tour was very informative and it was well worth doing.  Here is some of the interesting information we learnt:

• ·         There are 32 dump trucks which hold about 240 tonnes of iron ore (or 117 cubic metres). They usually only fill it to 220 tonnes so that the tyres last longer. The tyres are 3.7m high and weigh about 3 tonnes.  Each cost about $35,000! 

• ·         The excavators are so big that they can fill a dump truck in two and a half minutes!  The front end loaders are a bit slower.  They take 5 minutes to fill the dump trucks.

• ·         The trains that depart from there for Dampier have 230 carriages, carrying about 26,000 tonnes of iron.  It takes 1.5 hours to load the train with lump ore and 4 hours to load it with fine ore.  It takes more than 5 hours to travel to Dampier.

• ·         The dump trucks use 5000 litres of diesel every 24 hours and use 20 litres of fuel for every 1km!

• ·         Last year this Rio Tinto Mine exported 220 million tonnes of iron ore.  Rio Tinto have just announced a    HALF-YEAR profit of over $9 billion.   BHP Billiton just announced an annual profit of $22 billion.  I think somebody might be making a bit of money.

• ·         The truck drivers alone can earn $120 – 150,000 a year.  They pay $250 A MONTH in rent to Rio Tinto!

It was a really interesting tour but of course by the time we put our equipment back and everyone had a toilet stop and we got back in the van it was after 12pm.  This is the latest we have ever started a long journey.  We don’t like to travel at dusk because of all the animals and we have really only done it once, on our day to Purnululu National Park.  And our trip to Exmouth just confirmed why we made that rule.  We stopped only twice between Tom Price and Exmouth.  Once, at a rest station for an urgent toilet stop for Mummy and once at Nanutarra Roadhouse to change drivers and to give the kids a little treat.  The little treat did not however extend to hamburgers ($18.50).  David did comment: “At least it was with ‘the lot’!”

Apart from those two brief stops we travelled from 12:30 to 8pm.  The last two hours were particularly difficult with the sun setting right in front of our eyes, and then animals all over the road – cows, sheep, wallabies, kangaroos.  By the end, we had all six pairs of eyes glued to the road for anyone to yell out if they saw an animal.  I really didn’t enjoy the last part of the journey, although it was particularly beautiful watching the setting sun on our left and the full moon rising on our right.  One thing we did notice was the fact that kangaroos have once again appeared, rather than just the wallaroos and wallabies of the tropical north.

We passed Laurence and Violet on the road going back to Coral Bay from a day trip to Exmouth but didn’t realise until we had passed them! 

When we arrived, things did not go exactly to plan as the ground is solid rock and so the tent pegs would not go in.  So the full annexe had to be erected while the kids ate tinned spaghetti and 2 Minute Noodles for dinner!!  Oh well, will get them to pop a few Vitamins in the morning!!  Everyone was very tired from our big day.   Hope the kids will sleep in a bit in the morning…