Yesterday (Monday) we did the tourist “thing”, a bus trip that takes in the Dampier seaport, processing and ship loading area. It was an interesting 3 hour trip, stopping at the salt lookout on “anchovy flats”, watching an empty train go past, then on to Parker Point where the trains are unloaded, ore stockpiled and then loaded on board ship.
The machinery is capable of unloading two trains simultaneously. The giant unloaders each take two railway carriages, turn them 130 degrees to tip the ore out and bring them back to the original position before shunting them on and another two carriages are brought in. The whole operation takes 80 seconds, the carriages remain hooked together (they revolve on a special coupling) and tip in excess of 200 tonnes of ore each time.
When emptied the ore falls into giant hoppers, is dropped onto conveyor belts and sent to the stockpile where it is piled up by “stackers” to await shipment. The ore is then picked up by a “reclaimer,” a giant machine with a rotating head and put back on another conveyor system and taken to the wharf where other “stackers” load the ore onto ships. This system is capable of more than 9,000 tonnes per hour.
The Parker Point wharf is capable of anchoring four ships at a time. Two ships are being loaded whilst the other two are tying up or making ready to sail.
Looking north from Parker Point you can see the general cargo wharf and the Woodside gas wharf where ships are constantly coming and going.
After our Parker Point inspection we were driven south through the town of Dampier and then on to North Intercourse Island where we again inspected another stockpile of ore and another loader but the wharf here is only capable of taking one ship, causing downtime whilst that ship sails and another is brought in. A couple of hundred metres further south is the salt loading wharf but it was inactive today.
Rio Tinto gather their iron ore from 10 mines in the Paraburdoo, Tom Price area, transport the ore via two railway lines to Dampier and Cape Lambert (50 kms north of Karratha) and usually have 4 ships loading at anyone time, 24 hours per day.
Access to the wharves is restricted and apart from this tour it is necessary to undergo an induction to be able to set foot inside the compounds.
Hope this gives an insight into the industries of this area. We will tell you more about the iron ore from BHP Billiton (that other company) when we reach Port Hedland the port all their iron ore is exported from.
bye for now
‘the travellers’