Report on the 1998 Hamersley Iron Scholars Pilbara Tour

At the airport, things went pretty well, apart from the plane being slightly delayed. The actual flight was unfortunately rather turbulent. The rooms were luxurious, and once people figured out how to use the airconditioning they became a refuge from the heat outside. That night was fairly quiet as people settled in.

Up early the next morning and we got our first idea of how greens look. The audio-visual presentation was very classy, even if some of the projectors need re-alignment. The lab at the EII facility set new standards in comfy chairs that were, I think, equalled only by Dampier Port Authority and Paraburdoo. The presentations and videos were often a little bit out of date, but, especially later on, some used them to catch up on a little sleep.

Rail operations was fortunately sans presentation and the workshop tour was detailed, if a little hard to hear. The operations centre gave an insight into the complex work that went into managing the ore trains. The rail simulator was also good, and would have been better if someone had not given me 5 disasters at once. The geophysics gave us an idea of the geology and formation of the mines; a special mention must go to the toilet analogy. After the Dampier Port Authority presentation, some were inclined to comment "What a useless piece of bureaucracy that the port can do without" but it was evident that it does have some responsibilities.

The pool was densely populated that evening for nearly an hour. The fact that dinner had to be ordered forced conversation and increased the speed of familiarity. Uno was a popular game later that night and the in house movie facility was appreciated.

Touring the archipelago was a change, and the opportunity to swim would probably have been even more well received had people had brought their bathers. However, the sea lice were not all that nice. Woodside had a video that took itself a bit too seriously but the presentations filled in the gaps.

Dampier Salt Limited, Dampier Division had the worst chairs on record in its conference room - they didn't even have wheels. There seemed to be a lot more loading and reloading of trucks than Hamersley had, but then I considered that this was their mining and shipping complex in one. The visit to Karratha City shopping centre provided us with an opportunity to stock up on lollies and coke for the long trip on Wednesday.

Up at 5:30 am was not as bad as I expected to be. The first few hours on the bus were mainly sleep, punctuated only by noticing that the bus was going the wrong way, toward Pt Headland. However, people did wake up and soon a competitive game of Uno was in progress. I don't know who won, but I was the first person to 1000 points. The Mt Tom Price tour was good, although the concentrator tour had a lot of miming.

The Hillview had several notable features. My discovery of tv Tetris promoted a spurt of competitiveness that resulted in scores of 3500+. Prank calls and strange movies also featured in the night's entertainment. The park down the road was also a popular place to be.

Marandoo is situated on a ridge in the middle of an alluvial plain ringed by hills and the distant mist gave the impression of being a hidden valley. It was highlighted by being driven in the truck and the close up view of the crusher. The environment talk was brief and to the point. The availability of refreshments was also appreciated.

A long drive into Karijini was worth the spectacular scenery of the gorges. Several nice photos and a short trek later, Weano Gorge was a pleasant break. Simon's progressive drenching was one of the many funny things that happened to him throughout the week. The bus breaking down with an electrical fault delayed our departure. The Aboriginal liaison evening provided a different angle to Hamersley's operations. The cultural aspects shown to us were interesting and the kangaroo tail soup was nice as well.

Another early morning and bus trip, although this one was thankfully one sixth as long. We then drove by the engineering achievement of the curved conveyor as we went to Channar. Here we got the obligatory photos of mine machinery and an explanation of small-scale mine geology. We then drove back to Paraburdoo to witness the 1 Mt blast, which was pretty good.

Lunch with icecream at the Rocklea Palms was followed by a brief viewing of the bio-remedial paddock. The haul truck workshop showed the size of the trucks to be huge. Finding out that if the motor cut out there would only be 60 seconds of control left gave an impression of the danger involved in driving one. The fines processing plant was interesting, especially the viscosity of the floculant.

The farewell dinner went well, apart from the burnt sausages. I was surprised at how much we'd discovered about HI. Staying up all that night was an interesting experience. It's strange how much more awake I became when the sun came up. The flights back were uneventful, apart from being able to see my house from the air.

In conclusion, I'd like to thank Hamersley Iron for the opportunity to go on this trip, and hope that they've gained as much as I did.