About Onslow
Onslow is a sleepy little town where people go to fish and to have quiet holidays by the sea. Historically it was created as a mixture of pearling, farming and gold mining, but today, in part because it lies on the coast 82 km from the main North West Coastal Road, it is a true Cinderella – a gorgeous coastal retreat where only those who know of its charms tend to divert from the long journey from Perth to Broome. It has become known as ‘Cyclone City’ as, since its establishment in 1883, it has experienced major cyclones in 1909, 1918, 1926, 1934, 1953, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1975, 1995 and 1999. The 1963 cyclone had winds which were measured at 232 km/h. In fact the cyclones have occurred with such regularity that they have had profound effects on the town – it was forced to relocate after the 1926 cyclone and the frequency of cyclones in the 1960s forced the reconstruction of the local jetty to be abandoned (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).
Some more links…
Road trip – Tom Price to Onslow
Today we took the 418km road-trip to Onslow (maplink). Stopped along the way for lunch and captured some of the wildflowers which are starting to appear in WA.
Ended up at the Council run Ocean View caravan park in Onslow (maplink) with a waterside site with fantastic views of the water.
The locals actually call it Onnn Sloooww.
Lunch stop on the way
Onslow Salt Works and LNG Gas Plant
Salt Works
The weather conditions in the Onslow area make it a perfect location to carry out what is known as Solar Salt Mining which involves flooding special made ponds with salt water and then allowing the water to slowly gravitate from one pond to another until it dehydrates to raw salt. They then farm it with special machines, process it and ship it offshore to their customers.
The operation is run by Shark Bay Salt Pty Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. Ltd, which is one of the world’s most diversified trading, investment and services enterprises. It owns and operates two salt-fields in Western Australia — Shark Bay Resources and Onslow Salt.
Wheatstone Liquefied Natural Gas Plant
Onslow was becoming a bit of a dying town until the development of a major Liquefied Natural Gas Plant was established by a company called Wheatstone (owned by Chevron) just west of the town. It is now a growing community with it’s own airport, built to facilitate the “fly-in fly-out” of workers.
The Wheatstone Project’s offshore processing platform is located in 70 metres of water, about 225km from the coast. The offshore facilities gather and partially process gas and associated condensate from the Wheatstone, Iago, Julimar and Brunello gas fields, and deliver it onshore via trunkline for further processing.
Once onshore at Ashburton North, the majority of Wheatstone’s gas is processed by the two LNG trains, where impurities and inert gases are removed and the natural gas is chilled to minus 130 degrees Celsius, at which point it flashes over to a liquid 600 times the density of the natural gas. It is further cooled to minus 162 degrees Celsius and sent to insulated storage tanks to await export overseas via LNG tankers. Excess gas has to be continually “burnt off” to keep the plant working. The flame can be seen for kilometers.
Click here to find out more about the Wheatstone project.
Onslow Gas Refinery
Great sunsets
Brendan and I went down to “sunset point” in Onslow to take some photos of the sunset using the Salt Works jetty as a feature. We even had a dog come down and voice his protest at the sacking of Malcolm Turnbull.
Brendan and I went down to “sunset point” in Onslow to take some photos of the sunset using the Salt Works jetty as a feature. We even had a dog come down and voice his protest at the sacking of Malcolm Turnbull.
Sunset on the sand dunes
The Old Onslow Township
We were told at the visitors centre that the “Old Onslow Township” was worth a visit. The original town was originally established in 1885 during the gold rush, the old town later acted as a port town for pearling luggers following the discovery of pearls nearby. By 1925 the Ashburton River mouth had silted up causing access problems for the ships. As a result the town was moved to where it is located today.
So we trundled down the dirt road expecting to see a ghost town and all we found were some signs with “this was where the general store was” and “this was the site of the livery stables” with no buildings in sight.
We then found the ruins of what was the police station, jail, post office and hospital. It was pretty cool but we were a bit disappointed.
Onslow’s Staircase to the Moon
We did the “staircase to the moon” in Broome (view the post) and were left wondering what all of the hype was about. We also had the same occurrence scheduled to happen whilst we were in Onslow.
The big difference was we did not have to battle the crowds. We just set-up on the seawall behind our caravan site and enjoyed a quiet beer with the neighbours whilst this (so called) phenomenon occurred.
A look around Onslow
Onslow was a really nice spot to visit. The Ocean View Caravan park is right of the water and close to town – totally recommend it.
There is a wonderful ANZAC Memorial constructed on the foreshore (next to the caravan park) which was built to capture the sunrise in a certain spot on ANZAC Day. It is at the beginning of a coastal boardwalk which we strolled along (about 2.5km return).
Brendan and I went for a fish in Beadon Creek with very little success but as they say “it’s all about the serenity” and bonding with your son.
We visited the ANZAC Memorial for sunrise on the morning Brendan was schedule to fly home then took him out to the Onslow Airport for a teary farewell (off to cold old Melbourne). It was fantastic having Brendan with us for 9 days.
