Everything about Port Hedland totally explained
Port Hedland is the highest tonnage port in Australia and largest town
(External Link
) in the
Pilbara region of Western Australia, with a population of approximately 14,000 (this includes its satellite suburb
South Hedland, 18 km away).
Port Hedland is a natural deep anchorage port that as well as being the main fuel and container receival point for the region was seen as perfect for shipment of the
iron ore being mined in the ranges located inland from the town. The ore is moved by
railway lines from four major iron ore deposits to the east and south of Port Hedland. Other major resource activities supported include the offshore
Natural gas fields, salt, manganese, and livestock. Grazing of
cattle and
sheep was formerly a major revenue earner for the region but this has slowly declined. Port Hedland was formerly the terminus for the
WAGR Marble Bar Railway which serviced the Gold mining area of
Marble Bar.
History
Port Hedland was originally known by the
Indigenous Kariyarra and Nyamal people as Marrapikurrinya, which either means "place of good water" (as told by a Nyamal language speaker) and makes reference to the three reliable fresh water soaks that can still be seen in and around the town, or as the town council's website says "refers to the hand like formation of the tidal creeks coming off the harbour (marra - hand, pikurri - pointing straight and nya - a place name marker)". According to "dreamtime" legend there was a huge blind water snake living in the landlocked area of water known as Jalkawarrinya. This landlocked area is now the turning basin for the ships that enter the port and as the story goes, "the coming of the big ships meant it was unable to stay".
Though the coastline in the area had been explored in the 1700s, Captain Peter Hedland was one of the first Europeans to explore the harbour for the purpose of developing an export port. Peter Hedland arrived in the area in April 1863 onboard his boat,
Mystery that he'd built himself at Point Walter on the banks of the Swan River. He named the Harbour Mangrove Harbour and reported that it would make a good landing site with a well protected harbour and that there was also fresh water available. What Hedland failed to point out was that the harbour was difficult to enter because of a huge sandbar that sealed the entrance meaning it was only accessible at high tide and that it was difficult to enter in bad weather because of the narrow entrance.
In 1866, the resident Magistrate of
Roebourne, Treverton Sholl, commissioned
Charles Wedge to investigate alternative town sites to Roebourne. Wedge reported that Port Hedland's suitability was pessimistic. In 1891, exploration of the area by Tom Traine John Wedge and Syd Hedley identified two landings and described the harbour as "pretty as well as safe". In September 1895,
Cossack residents requested the District Surveyor to survey the headland at Port Hedland and requested the Government to build a jetty.
Goldsworthy mining discovered iron ore in the Pilbara in the late 1950s and built the towns of
Goldsworthy and later Shay Gap as mine sites. A rail line was then built to Port Hedland where dredging was undertaken to deepen and widen the port's channel and a wharf was built opposite the township of Port Hedland on Finicane Island. Shipment of ore began on
27 May 1966 when the
Harved S Muddsailed from Port hedland to Japan with 24,900 tonnes of ore.
In 1967
iron ore was discovered at Mt Whaleback and a mining venture was undertaken that included the establishment of a new Town,
Newman, 426 km of rail from the mine to the port and the development of processing equipment at both Newman and Port Hedland. In 1986, at a cost of $87 million, the existing channel was dredged to allow the port to increase the tonnage of those ships able to enter the port. Prior to dredging the port was only able to load vessels less than 2000 tonnes but today they're able to accommodate ships over 250,000 tonnes.
Geography and climate
The climate of Port Hedland is warm to hot, with mean maximum temperatures of 36°C (97°F) in January and 27°C (81°F) in July. Maximum temperatures in summer are usually moderated by a warm but humid sea breeze. Annual rainfall (falling almost exclusively between December and June) averages 300 millimetres (12 inches) but because of erratic
cyclones is subject to some of the largest variations in the world. As an illustration, in 1942 1040 mm (41 inches) fell, but in 1944 only 28 mm (1.1 inches) fell and the town went for over 300 days with no rain. The high summer temperatures experienced in Port Hedland mean that most tourists to the area choose to visit in the cooler months between May and September.
Climatic Table>
|
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
Year |
| Mean Maximum Temperature | 36.3°C
97.3°F |
36.1°C
96.8°F |
36.8°C
98.2°F |
35.1°C
95.1°F |
30.5°C
86.9°F |
27.6°C
81.6°F |
27.1°C
80.7°F |
29.0°C
84.2°F |
32.2°C
89.9°F |
34.6°C
92.4°F |
36.1°C
96.8°F |
36.6°C
97.8°F |
33.2°C
89.9°F
|
| Mean minimum temperature | 25.4°C
77.7°F |
25.4°C
77.7°F |
24.4°C
75.9°F |
21.3°C
70.3°F |
17.2°C
62.9°F |
14.2°C
57.5°F |
12.2°C
53.9°F |
13.1°C
55.5°F |
15.3°C
59.5°F |
18.2°C
64.7°F |
21.2°C
70.1°F |
23.9°C
75.0°F |
19.3°C
66.7°F
|
| Highest Maximum Temperature | 49.0°C
120.2°F |
48.2°C
118.7°F |
44.5°C
122.1°F |
42.4°C
108.3°F |
38.8°C
101.8°F |
35.5°C
95.9°F |
34.4°C
93.9°F |
36.8°C
98.2°F |
41.2°C
106.1° F |
46.9°C
116.4° F |
47.4°C
117.3° F |
47.9°C
118.2°F |
48.2°C
118.7°F
|
| Lowest minimum Temperature | 18.1°C
65.6°F |
16.3°C
61.3°F |
15.8°C
60.4°F |
12.2°C
53.9°F |
7.0°C
44.6°F |
4.7°C
40.4°F |
3.2°C
37.7°F |
3.7°C
38.6°F |
7.7°C
48.8°F |
11.1°C
51.9°F |
16.4°C
61.5°F |
16.6°C
61.8°F |
3.2°C
37.7°F
|
| Mean Total rainfall | 60.7 mm
2.39 in |
97.7 mm
3.85 in |
41.8 mm
1.65 in |
23.4 mm
0.92 in |
28.9 mm
1.14 in |
22.0 mm
0.87 in |
10.1 mm
0.40 in |
5.5 mm
0.22 in |
0.8 mm
0.03 in |
0.9 mm
0.04 in |
2.7 mm
0.11 in |
18.9 mm
0.74 in |
313.5 mm
12.34 in
|
| Source: (External Link) |
Located between Port Hedland and
South Hedland are the large salt hills of
Dampier Salt, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto. These large mounds have almost become a tourist attraction in their own right.
Immigration detention facility
In
1991 an
immigration detention facility was opened at Port Hedland to deal with the arrival of
boat people seeking asylum. Port Hedland was seen as a good location as it's located in an area where many illegal boat people were entering Australia, and had an international airport that would allow for easy deportations when required. The Detention Centre was privatised by the Howard Government in the late 1990s. The centre was closed in 2004 due to the falling numbers of asylum seekers arriving by boat to Australia's northwest. The town mayor called for the federal government to allow the town to use the detention centre to accommodate the many new mine workers needed in the towns current mining boom. A lack of accommodation is making it difficult for companies to operate efficiently as they're unable to house staff or consultants within the towns small number of hotels. The Detention Centre, which is situated on the beach front and was formally single-men’s quarters for Mount Newman Mining (now
BHP Billiton), is seen as a perfect solution to this problem. (North West Telegraph 7th Feb 2007) Currently the centre is being referbished and should soon be open for public use.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Port Hedland'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://port_hedland__western_australia.totallyexplained.com">Port Hedland, Western Australia Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
