About Tom Price
Tom Price is the most attractive purpose-built town in the Inland Pilbara with tree-lined streets, modern facilities, an impressive Visitor Centre and a relaxed country-town atmosphere. Once owned by the Rio Tinto mining company it is now owned and run by the Shire of Ashburton. Located below the impressive Mount Nameless, Tom Price has been described as the ‘Top Town in Western Australia’ because it is the highest town in Western Australia. It is nestled in the Hamersley Range, a flat-topped mass of Precambrian sediment which was deposited on the sea bed more than 500 million years ago. It is recognised as one of the oldest weathered surfaces on earth.
The combination of millions of years of wind, rain and ice (during the Permian Ice Age) has eroded the whole area into a series of spectacular gorges. The end result is some of the most beautiful and dramatic landscapes in Australia. The gorges are notable for their distinctive horizontal bedding where layers of red, black and brown iron form bands of colour with conglomerates and sandstone. The area has been denuded by the harshness of the summers with ghost gums, red river gums and wildflowers (including the Sturt Desert Pea) giving the landscape a special beauty (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).
Road Trip to Tom Price
Tom Price, situated in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, is a mining town. The town is located inland, at the edge of the Hamersley Range. Tom Price is the highest town above sea level (747 metres (2,451 ft)) in Western Australia, and is consequently dubbed “Top Town in WA”.
It was a 417 km trip from Port Hedland to Tom Price (maplink).
On the way we encountered some massive mining equipment which took up the entire road, it was massive. We were also warned about being caught at rail crossings waiting for 250 carriage ore trains to pass but we were lucky and missed them all.
Tom Price Caravan Park
We decided to use this location as a base to travel into Karijini National Park and checked into the Tom Price Tourist Park just outside of town (maplink).
Karijini Parks – Hamersley Gorge
Hamersley Gorge was our 1st trip into Karijini National Park from Tom Price campground (maplink).
It involved 50km of dirt road driving; the first 47km wasn’t too bad as the road is used by road-trains and is pretty well maintained and the last 3kms was horrific with sharp rocks and pot holes and a max speed of about 20km/hour. We got our 1st flat of our trip (12,000km to date) and it was a doozie with the tyre being totally destroyed (check out the photos).
The gorge is stunning and only a very short walk from the car park. Brendan and I went swimming while Merrisa watched from the shore. The water was very “refreshing” and we really could not stay in for very long, but it was a box ticked off.
PS – got the tyre replaced in Tom Price and was really lucky to score a match to our tyre set; otherwise the guy said it would be 5-10 days to wait for one.
View more on Hamersley Gorge in TripAdvisor.
Karijini Parks – Dales Gorge
We packed our lunch and headed off on a bit of a road trip to Dales Gorge & Recreation Area (218km return from Tom Price CP – maplink). This is one of the most popular of the gorges within Karijini NP and has 3 separate pools/falls to view; Circular Pool, Fortescue Falls & Fern Pool.
There is also a campground there for those who want to spend more time exploring the area.
Dales Gorge route map
Tom Price Mine Tour
Booked into the tour of Rio Tinto’s Tom Price Iron Ore Mine (maplink) and headed off with Lestok Tours. This is a good tour but we were left a bit disappointed to not see as much as expected. The tour guide, driving our bus, really made it enjoyable (full of heaps of funny quips).
The Mount Tom Price open cut operation is situated within the mineral rich Hamersley Range that has been reported to contain up to 80 percent of all known reserves of iron ore in Australia, making it one of the worlds major iron ore deposits. Mount Tom Price was the first Rio Tinto mining operation to take place in the Pilbara Region where it now has 14 other mines, three shipping terminals and the largest private railway network in Australia.
Off to Tom Price Mine (WA) with Brendan
Some more about Tom Price Mine…
In 1962 geologists identified the large, high-grade deposits of iron ore in the Hamersley Ranges in what later became known as Mt Tom Price. In 1966 Hamersley Iron (HI) was formed. The first official iron ore tram departed Tom Price on the 16th July 1966. HI undertook development of the Mt Tom Price mine as the first mine m the Hamersley area. The first shipment of ore left for Japan in August 1966.
Originally Tom Price ore was railed only to Dampier Port. Ore from Tom Price is now railed to ports at Dampier and Cape Lambert. This rail system was the first standard gauge, heavy haul railways in Australia, and the first extensive privately owned and operated railways. Rio Tinto has since expanded too many more mines and now comprises mainline systems of approximately 1600kms.
With trains approximately 2.5km in length and consisting of 236 ore cars each carrying approximately 120t of ore per car, averaging out at approximately 28,000t per train load. The early railways were built under demanding physical and technical conditions and provided the basis for further developments over the past 50 years.
- Train over 2.5km long
- 4500hp each locomotive
- Approx 120 tonne ore per car
- Approx 28,000 tonne per train load
- Average of 5 trains per day from Tom Price
- Pooled Fleet consists approx 45 x 236 cars
- Approx 200 locomotives in the fleet
- Approx 10,500 ore cars in the fleet
- Iron Ore output:
- Hematite Fe²O³
- Waste – Below 50% Fe
- Low Grade – 50% to 60% Fe
- High Grade – Above 60% Fe
- Lump Ore – 6mm > 40mm Tom Price Ore approx 66% Fe
- Fine Ore – <6mm Tom Price Ore 64% Fe
Tom Price Night Photography
Brendan took me out to a quiet and dark location to teach me about doing night photography (stars etc). It was great learning something like this as he is really good at this type of photography. Our biggest issue was a 3/4 full moon so it wasn’t totally dark. These are my attempts…
