Port Hedland (Port)

We went on a boat tour around the harbour. The boat, run by the "Seafarers Centre" (a charitable group) does regular circuits of the port picking up and dropping off seafarers who want to come to shore, as well as delivering groceries, medicine and other supplies.

The enormity of the boats and machines servicing it became very apparent once you got up close.

Some interesting facts:
- They bring boats in on the low tide
- They take boats out on the high tide - approximately 8 per day unless there's a particularly high tide when they can take 10
- They turn them round to face out of the port when they are empty, as they can't do it when they are full
- There's about 20 boats waiting off-shore for 2-10 days to come in
- Tug boats are a most vital resource, they cost $29m and the captains are paid $500k
- The train engines "only" cost $6m, and as they ship $1m of ore every 15 mins, if an engine breaks down and it looks like it is going to be 1.5 hours or more to fix, they just push it off the line and get a new one!Read more