From red sands to white sands in a day

Driving from Karijini to the coast we went through Tom Price and Paraburdoo.

Tom Price was built in the early 1960s as the residential and service centre for the workers at the Mount Tom Price mine, an iron ore mine now fully owned by Rio Tinto, one of twelve mines they operate in the area. Tom Price is the highest town in Western Australia, elevation 747m.

While waiting for our coffee, I was chatting with a local lady who was telling me how it wasn’t really hot yet, but they still ran their air-conditioning 24/7. She said that their air-conditioning runs 24/7 from about September to May. Rio Tinto employees receive an electricity subsidy one rate for winter and a higher rate in summer, and also receive water subsidies.

Paraburdoo, 24kms north of the Tropic of Capricorn is another purpose built mining town. The Paraburdoo Iro Ore Mine is also owned by Rio Tinto.  Paraburdoo apparently gets hotter than Tom Price with summer temperatures around 50 degrees.

We continued over to the West Costal Highway on our way to Warroora Station and our site for the next three nights.

Warroora Station is a family run cattle station that lies adjacent to Ningaloo Marine Park. Ningaloo Marine Park is World Heritage listed, is Australia’s longest fringing barrier reef covering 2,435 square meters. Our site is about 30 meters from the beach with great views out to the reef.

Tomorrow, we head to Exmouth and our next beach stay located in the Cape Range National Park.