ROEBOURNE, COSSACK and CAPE LAMBERT

19^th July, 2012

We’re on the road again - but not for long.  Fifty three kilometres north east of Dampier we turn off the highway onto a dirt road and travel 12 kms to the coast.  Cleaverville Beach Camp is also run by the local council and we are going to base ourselves here for a few days while we take a look around.  We spot a recently vacated site overlooking the water and waste no time in setting up.

View from our campsite at Cleaverville Beach

After lunch we check out the area and discover many wildflowers in bloom on the bank between us and the water.

Bluebells and Sturt Desert Peas on the bank in front of our caravan

There are lots of Sturt Desert Peas and Blue Bells

Bluebells

and some that shall remain nameless as we have no idea what they are.

It is easy to pick out the wattle as its yellow flowers are unmistakeable.

Wattle

Just in one small patch alone we identified three different species of wattle and they were all producing lovely sprays of puffy yellow flowers.  That evening as the sun set behind the Burrup Peninsula we could clearly see the gas flame from the Pluto Tower.

Sunset at Cleaverville Beach

As the sky darkened we could see the flames of three more gas burners.

Flames from the gas burners light up on the horizon

With beacons as bright as these there really is no need for lighthouses on this section of coast.  In the morning we hop into Mitzi and drive the 25 kms to Roebourne.  Our first stop is at the Visitor Centre which is housed in the old gaol.

Building in old gaol complex at Roebourne

The gaol was used as an aboriginal prison and in the second half of the 18^th century slave labour was practised by the early pastoralists.  The station owners would round up aboriginals and take them to work as slave labour on their properties.  This was called ‘blackbirding’.  The aboriginals were often chained together but sometimes they managed to escape.  If they were caught they were imprisoned in the gaol for running away.  They were housed in a complex of four large stone brick buildings clustered around a courtyard.  Bunks were three high along the walls and they were chained by the neck and ankles to the walls.

Ankle and neck chains still attached to the wall in the old gaol

Eventually the government banned the use of slave labour but it took quite a few years before the station owners finally stopped this practice.  At 9.30am we hop on a 20 seater mini bus for the Port to Port Tour sponsored by Rio Tinto.  Our first stop is to be the Iron Ore loading facilities at Cape Lambert and along the way ‘Nigel’ our bus driver gives us a non-stop commentary on the history (past and present) of the area along with the best places to go fishing.  To enter the loading facilities everyone must wear long trousers, long sleeved shirt, closed-in shoes, helmet and safety glasses/sunglasses.  Thank goodness the mini bus is air conditioned.  We are not going to bore you with statistics, facts and/or figures because when people start talking in millions of tonnes, thousands of kilometres of conveyor belts and railway lines etc. etc. – it all just becomes a great big jumble of numbers.  Suffice to say the complex is massive

Part of the ore processing plant at Cape Lambert

and just like in Dampier huge trains of iron ore continuously dump their loads onto conveyor belts which then move the ore along to the processing plant which then dumps the refined ore into stockpiles ready to be loaded onto still more conveyor belts

Normal work trucks are dwarfed by the mega machinery loading ore for the waiting ships

which then transport the ore along the jetty to the waiting ships.

At 3.98 km long and with a minimum clearance of 17.8 metres at high tide Cape Lambert Jetty is one of the longest and tallest jetties in Australia.

The Cape Lambert facility is also expanding with another jetty and more buildings being constructed.  As we drive out of the plant back to Wickham (the town built by the mining company to house its workers) we pass donga villages where new accommodation is being added for the expected increase in the workforce and older buildings are being demolished to make way for more modern ones.  Once again the scale of operations being undertaken is staggering with the company working towards being completely automated in the future.  That means trains, conveyor belts, trucks and machinery being operated from a control room based in Perth.  Simply astounding!  All we can say is  ‘There must be gold in them thar hills!’

It’s lunchtime and Nigel now takes us to the historic town of Cossack at the mouth of the Harding River where sandwiches and drinks await us.  Originally known as Tien Tsin the town was first established in 1863 for the pastoral and pearling industries.  At one time Cossack was the largest coastal town between Perth and Broome but a combination of cyclones and shallow water depth at low tide inevitably drove the population away.  A few buildings still remain in Cossack – those that were built of bluestone – and we are free to roam around and check them out.  The buildings still surviving were built in the 1860’s and the court house is just lovely with wide verandahs all around.

Cossack Court House

The court room still has a dais for the judge, a witness box, prisoner’s box and seating for the public gallery.

Wok takes the stand in the court room

The unusual roofline on the Galbraith and Co’s warehouse had us interested.

Galbraith and Co warehouse

There was no mention as to why it had been built this way so we were left wondering.  On the outskirts of town is the cemetery with a small Japanese section reminding us of the pearl connection.  Prior to the Japanese arriving unscrupulous boatmen forced aboriginal men, women and children to dive for the pearl shells.  When pearling no longer became viable the pearling fleet moved further north to Broome.  On a headland north of the town we stop at a lookout.  From here we can see Jarman Island.

Jarman Island

The lighthouse on the island was built in England and shipped to Australia.  Aboriginal prisoners from Roebourne were used to build the foundations and assemble the lighthouse on the island.  To the south of the lookout is Settlers Beach

Settlers Beach

which (according to Nigel) is a great fishing spot.  It was after two o’clock - time to head back to Roebourne.  We’d had a great tour and all for the princely sum of $20 each.  A five hour tour for twenty bucks!  It has to be the best value for money tour around.  We spent the next two days watching the tide roll in and out from our campsite at Cleaverville Beach and the sunsets weren't all that bad either ..... 

Another beautiful sunset at Cleaverville Beach