Monday 8th August.
Auski Roadhouse to Newman.
From the Auski Roadhouse we climbed up into the Chichester Range and then onto the Ophthalmia Range. Beautiful scenery with escarpments and rolling hills, covered with the usual scattered scrub.
Such a nice change after the endless flats. About 50 km from the road house we came around a bend, and there in the road in front of us, you guessed it, the bloody Lanz Bulldog Tractor and its caravan trailer, thumping along the road heading towards Newman.
That’s the 5th time we’ve crossed paths. We exchanged waves as we passed them.
We met a lot of mine traffic, mostly road trains carrying ore, but also quite a bit of huge mine machinery being shipped from one place to another. Overall there would be about 10 trucks of various sizes, for every car.
We got to Newman at about 11.30 and were soon set up in a campground.
After lunch we drove in to the visitors centre to check on our bookings for our mine tour the next day. In front of the visitors centre they had an old dump truck from the mine, on display. In mine language they are called ‘Haulpaks’.
Haulpaks come in various sizes, the smaller ones carrying a 75 tonne load.
This little fella carried a 212 tonne load. It weighed 190 tonne, empty, and when fully loaded weighed a massive 402 tonne, that is more than 75 tonnes more than the take-off weight of a 747 jumbo jet. Only 30 of these massive trucks were ever made, and 22 of them worked at Mt Whaleback.
I stepped the Haulpak out, and found it to be 14 meters long, and 6 meters wide. I’m not sure of the height, but the tyres are 3½ metres high. When they were originally bought in 1973, they cost $2.5million each. The tyres cost $40.000 each, and last between 9 and 12 months. With 10 tyres that $400,000 at least, each year. That’s fairly high running costs.
After we had got used to the size of this little fella, we went for a drive around town and ended up at a lookout situated halfway between the town and the Whaleback Mine itself. On one side we could look down on the township of Newman, while on the other side we looked across at the mine.
Seeing as it was Philip’s birthday yesterday, and also that he had lived and worked at Newman for 6 months back in 1986, we decided to give him a ring. We had a lovely clear reception and had a great catch up. He was able to give us the address of where he used to live and his local watering hole and quite a bit of information about the town as it was 25 years ago.
Back in town we found the house where Philip used to live and the pub. No doubt both have changed considerably. After buying groceries and having a few beers at the local working man’s club, which is managed and staffed by Kiwis, it was back to camp for tea.
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