Croc Country

Friday 12th June
Today we had an 8am appointment in town to get our car serviced so it was an early start
for the whole family. After we dropped of the car we walked to the local Centro Shopping
Centre which had all the usual shopping places such as K-Mart, Woolworth and so on.
We did some shopping and stocked up on supplies for the forthcoming week as the next decent shopping opportunity is Broome.
By time we got the car back, refuelled and stowed all the shopping in the caravan it was well after 2pm before we took a drive to the Burrup Peninsula which is home to the famous North West Shelf LNG Project.
Just outside this very, very large plant is a fantastic visitor centre which explains all about this project and has some fantastic displays. The North West Shelf Project pumps gas from the seabed to the onshore plant, some 135km away, where the gas is split up into its various components, the main part (86%) being Methane or LNG. The LNG is then liquefied and stored in huge underground tanks at -161°C before being loaded onto custom built vessels and shipped to Japan where it is used for all manner of things including electricity generation.
I have never seen a plant as large as this - Very impressive.
On the way back we called in at Hearnes Cove on Burrup peninsula and that where we saw the first reminder (see picture) that we are now in Crocodile country, a sign on the beach saying "Warning - recent crocodile sighting in this area".
On our lap of Dampier we stopped to check out the Rio Tinto loading facility where 4 large ships were being loaded simultaneously with ore. The ore is transported from the mines further inland to the loading facility by train.
Trains are providing sufficient ore to keep up a continuous flow into the four ships. On our way back we saw one of those trains - they are very very very long - my conservative estimate, using the odometer in the car, is 2km total length but it could be more. Pulling the train are three big locos about twice the size of the ones we see back in Wodonga.
Dampier and Karratha are typical mining towns providing accommodation and infrastructure for mine workers. On the outskirts of Karratha are these mining company owned "villages" which house hundreds of workers.
The area is definite 4WD country - about 80% of vehicles on the road are 4WD and large percentage are mining cars which have a second set of rear stop lights and indicators mounted on the roof and a red flag flying from the antenna.
The population must be largely itinerant as most people we spoke to had only been here for less than two years. As nice as the barmy winter temperatures are at the moment, I suppose not too many people like to spend more than a couple of summers in this hot climate.
Tomorrow we're planning to head into Karajini National Park and then onto Barnhill Station - I'm not sure if we will have phone reception in these places but on 20th June we should be back online in Broome.