As part of the Coastal Walkabout Expedition in June 2012, we completed a 960 km flight from Exmouth, WA on the North Cape of the Ningaloo up to Broome, WA to investigate the pace of coastal development by the oil and gas industry. With over 1000 active gas wells offshore, the near shore support infrastructure is massive. We passed over Onslow and Karratha and landed in Port Hedland to refuel. Port Headland is the largest (by weight) port in all of Australia with its iron ore processing plants and loading facilities. With BHP Billiton, Atlas Iron and Fortescue Metals Group shipping more than 20 M tons per month, the scale of the place can only be seen from the air. Below is a sample of the some of the large scale mining and loading operations. For more on Port Hedland, click here.
