45. Turf Club, Port Headland, WA

Place: Turf Club, Port Headland, WA
Month: August
Days Stayed: 3
Weather: 30 fells like 25 and windy.

Oh My Goodness:
The Working Port:
The amount of product going out of this port was mind boggling! The port area looked like a third world country.

Shopping:
Non- existent: Apparently they shop on line for their clothes and goods. Shopping Centres: one a Boulevard and the other the ' shopping Centre'- One Harvey Norman, K Mart, woolies and Coles, Tobacco, Pharmacy, surf shop and that's about it! They did have a Vinnies and a RSL Op shop around town as well. For such a huge town it was a little surprising.

Highlights:
The Seafarers Cruise:

We started at head quarters which was the Seafarers Mission, run by the Anglicans. Apparently one of the largest in the world. They minister and back the 'seafarers that come into port. They care for the pastoral, practical and spiritual welfare of seafarers of all nationalities and faiths. They liaise between the shipping company for them if they haven't been paid. The boat picks up the seafarers at the same time take tourists around the port. The ships are huge!!!

Salt Tour:
We were taken by bus one of the large ponds where the water moves through to 8 other ponds, to be purified by the fish and bird life until it was 26% salt. They call these large areas of water ponds, however, you they go as far as the eye can see. Then it goes along a channel to where they harvest the salt. It is then trucked to the port to be loaded onto the ships. The salt is the best quality- A grade Salt. 70 per cent is used by the chemical industry to produce caustic soda, soda ash and chlorine. These chemicals are then used in the processing and manufacturing of other products such as PVC, aluminium, soaps and detergents. Metre long flathead, mud crab, "wolf herring" about a metre, huge queenies and trevally and huge cod's.

Twilight Industry Tour:
This time we were bussed to the the other side of the port to Finucane Island, Where we could se the miles longs conveyor belts taking the iron ore to the ships and then loading them onto the ships. There were helicopters ferrying pilots to the the ships waiting out at sea to be taken into port. The ships out at sea where 'stacked' about 5 rows. There seemed to be hundreds of them. The sunset was stunning. We noticed that one of the attractions around this area of WA is the staircase to the moon- On a full moon the reflection on the sea looks like a staircase. Well, this looked like staircase to the sun!

Scrap Metal:
Another export is the scrap metal. We saw huge piles of scrap metal and giant magnetic cranes moving the scrap metal onto the trains.