by Kevin EuDaly/photos and cartography by the author
There’s something I don’t fully understand. How can we fall in love with a land, a place, a piece of this earth? Especially a rugged, hostile place, where few live and almost no one goes to play? A place where every plant’s defense is something sharp, and where dangerous creatures abound? Though I don’t understand how it happens, there is little doubt that it does. They say the Pilbara gets in your blood, an idiomatic expression used in an attempt to explain the love affair that happens in the hostile Outback, in the vast open spaces where nameless paths once crossed the barren landscape, where today steel rails reach to the horizon.
The Australian Pilbara trips in 2011 and 2018 had one overreaching effect; we had to go back — and soon. Not long after arriving home from the 2018 trip the planning began for another trip in 2020 — I wasn’t waiting another seven years this time. By early February 2020 I had the itinerary set, and it looked like another repeat with John Benson, Mel Wilson, and me. With my fingers poised above the keyboard to start making reservations, all hell broke loose.
Wait! What? I’m certain I muttered expletives under my breath. Even though the resistance wasn’t from the Pilbara itself, unleashing a worldwide pandemic to keep us away, more than once I said to myself, “The Pilbara gods have really outdone themselves this time.”
ABOVE: August 11, 10:38 a.m.: The three primary paint schemes are on display on this northbound loaded train south of Emu on Rio’s former Hamersley Iron main line. In the lead is ES44ACi 9123 in the Rio Tinto stripes scheme, followed by Dash 9-44CW 7095 in Hamersley Iron lettering wearing orange and blue stripes, and finally Dash 9-44CW 9404 wearing Pilbara Rail lettering and the orange, yellow, and black striping. The silver background is common to all Rio units, some of which have only a yellow frame stripe.
Humor aside, this was no joke. Travel restrictions, lockdowns, and chaos ensued while I waited for a return to normal. For two years Australia not only locked out anyone outside the country, but locked in those who were there. Furthermore, travel across state lines was forbidden — not even Australians could move about the country. More than once in the following two years, I almost wished I’d gotten to Western Australia and been trapped there for a year — the appeal is that strong.
I kept close tabs on the situation in Australia, not-so-patiently waiting — for more than two years. The Australian government website regularly posted travel restriction updates, and finally, after what seemed an eternity, came the posting I was looking for:
“From July 6, 2022, the way you travel to and from Australia has changed. People entering Australia do not need to provide evidence of vaccination status; will not be asked to provide evidence of their vaccination status; and do not need a travel exemption to travel to Australia.”
ABOVE: August 11, 2:03 p.m.: The former Robe River line from Cape Lambert to Pannawonica has an appeal all its own. While in the northern part of the Pilbara, we journeyed toward the Fortescue River bridge several times, and chased this northbound behind ES44ACi 9121 in the stripes scheme. This was north of Maitland.
It was too late to get to the Pilbara in 2022 before super-hot summer weather and high sun arrived in October or November, which would be followed by the fall rainy season in February and March (the seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere), so it would have to be 2023. In the meantime, my brother Lon planned to retire in June 2023, so with apologies to John, the ill-fated 2020 trip was scratched and it would be me, Mel, and Lon.
This trip was planned a little differently. Wherever possible, I booked whole-house Airbnbs, including starting the trip at one in Wickham, and carefully planned where we’d stay and for how long (if construction projects pop up in the Pilbara, places to stay can get scarce). Mel and I were really itching to get “out to the ends” of the various lines, and so, after a lot of discussion, we constructed the trip to include time deep in the Pilbara where the mines are located. Lon had no Australian experience to base any decisions on, so he was like I was in 2011 — along for the ride.
The departure date was set: August 7, 2023. At 10:24 a.m., I stepped out of our home in East Texas bound for Karratha, Western Australia. The thrill of adventure in the Pilbara was calling me, as it so often does. I’m sure Mel felt the same, leaving with Lon from Kansas City, Mo. But Karratha is a long way from the Midwest, both literally and figuratively. We all met in Los Angeles, and 14 hours and 15 minutes from when I walked out my front door, the wheels left the runway, and we were heading across the Pacific Ocean. At the 30-hour, 26-minute mark we arrived at the gate in Melbourne. We flew west to Perth, then north to Karratha, touching down at the 40-hour, 10-minute mark at 3:34 p.m. on August 9, losing a calendar day by flying across the date line.
ABOVE: August 16, 12:09 p.m.: FMG SD70ACe/LCi 704 and Wabtec rebuilt AC44C6M 104 pull slowly through the loadout at Christmas Creek. The two units will handle the loaded train on a flat grade to Cloudbreak, where bankers will be added for the grade to Moreland. There are two grades against northbound loads; the first is 0.53 percent from Morgan Spur (three miles south of Morgan) to near the north end of the siding at Morgan, a total of five miles. After a mile-and-a-half 0.87 percent downgrade, the following grade is 3.4 miles of 0.55 percent.
Our flight from Melbourne to Perth was a little late, and consequently, our checked baggage didn’t make it to Karratha, so we left the Airbnb address for the airline to forward it to us. We grabbed the rental car, a mine-compliant SUV, and headed trackside. At 4:45 p.m., we photographed our first train on Rio Tinto south of Eight Mile. It was exhilarating euphoria — we were back in the Pilbara at last.
To and Fro: Wickham
We started at Karratha, located east of the former Robe River yard and port complex. Rio’s two lines include the former Hamersley Iron to the port at Dampier, and the former Robe River Iron Associates to the port at Cape Lambert. Hamersley Iron was the second Pilbara iron ore-era railroad, opening on June 23, 1966, less than a month after Goldsworthy Mining was opened on May 25. Half a century earlier, the steam-era Marble Bar Railway opened from Port Hedland to Marble Bar in July 1911, but the last train ran on October 25, 1951, so it was long gone before the iron ore era. The last of the early iron ore predecessors to open was Robe River Iron Associates, which began operations on August 15, 1972.
Robe River and Hamersley Iron eventually consolidated under worldwide mining giant Rio Tinto. Originally, Robe River crossed over Hamersley Iron on a bridge without any connection between the two at what later became Western Creek Junction. To be brief, several entities exist under the Rio Tinto banner, and operate separately to this day, but aside from some paint scheme and lettering differences, the trackside experience is ubiquitous — big GEs on heavy iron ore trains — with one notable exception; the Deepdale trains run with drivers (engineers are called “drivers” in Australia) on the former Robe River, while the rest of Rio’s operations in the Pilbara are autonomous. The autonomous trains with no crewmen on board take some getting used to, and truthfully, a little of the railroad charm is lost without human contact with the crews…
