A conflict of interest

We have now moved on to Karatha, a small town of some 20,000 people at the root of the Dampier peninsula. Named after William Dampier, who visited this coast twice in 1688 and 1689, his discoveries predated James Cook's discovery of the east coast by some 60 years.

Monday night is Rotary night in Karatha, and we attended the club, which has about 22 members. However, as seems to be common in Oz, there were more visitors than members, but those absent missed a very enlightening talk about the area and it's rock art.
The speaker, who knew his subject extremely well, works for Rio Tinto, who mine iron ore here and export it from the peninsula. His comments about the loss of so many precious works, some as old as 40,000 years,  were pointed, it would appear that the government have earmarked the area for major industrial expansion, in addition to the three major industries already here.

He reckons that there are up to 10,000 rock art items in the immediate area, and many will be lost as a result of the development. He, and others like him, wants the area to be proclaimed a special Unesco Heritage Centre, but as that needs to be requested by the government there is little likelihood of that happening.






So today we set out to see for ourselves what is happening here, as I said, there are three major industries on the peninsula, and one of them is the production of Liquid Natural Gas. There is a huge gasfield about 120 kms north of here, undersea, the Carnarvon basin, with three major rigs out there producing gas and condensates which are piped ashore here and treated. Apart from the pipeline which serves the conurbations of Perth and the surrounding coastal area, liquified gas at 150 degrees below zero is exported to Japan and China by sea in huge container ships. Australia earns 1% of her gross domestic product from this field alone, as well as supplying 65% of fuel throughout the country.
As well as the LNG plant there are huge exports of iron ore from here, it arrives from the mines just south of here in huge railway trains, some up to 5kms long. They are emptied onto a conveyor belt which takes the ore out to the bulk carriers offshore, and it is then exported, again to Japan and China.
A long standing industry here is the production of salt from seawater, large areas are set aside for evaporation, which takes place in two stages. Firstly huge ponds are filled with seawater and allowed to stand while much of the water evaporates off. Then the heavily salted water is pumped into the smaller crystalisation ponds, where the final evaporation takes place, leaving dry salt, which is then lifted by bulldozers and the like.
So one can quite see why the government is reluctant to lose this area to a Heritage Centre, however we feel there must be a compromise before the Aboriginal art is lost forever.

The Dampier area is forever linked with the story of Red Dog. He was adopted as a puppy by an itinerant worker, who took the dog with him wherever he went. When his owner died Red Dog hitched lifts on any vehicle who would take him throughout the region looking for his master, eventually dying himself in Dampier.
We saw the film of the same name in Broome last year, it was excellent. We will but a DVD and bring it home with us for anyone who wishes to see it, we are not sure it will be available at home.
On the memorial is a poem,
The stories this old dog could tell if only he could say,
would add a page in history forever and a day,
but still he'll be remembered by those who knew his way
the red dog of the Pilbara from the north of W.A.
A fascinating tale.