Day 45 - Tom Price Still

This is a SMALL Dump Truck - since replaced with even BIGGER ones!!!!

MINE TOUR!!!!! We stump up $90 hard earned into Gina Reinhart’s pocket (like she needs it!!!!) and board “Crunchie” the bus for a tour of the Tom Price mine. Baz, the bus driver, who was called in at the last minute from his RDO because the other bloke called in sick, was in fine form on the commentary, having missed his true calling as a comedian!

 

This machine used to take 700 Litres of hydraulic oil!!!!

Everything is massive, from the trucks to the holes in the ground! The kids are amazed at the size of everything, and are now already hatching a plan to build a Lego City including a mine and railway…..

At the Look Out, where you can actually get off the bus and wander around (within boundaries) Baz points out that where we are standing is 100m BELOW where the Peak of Mt Tom Price USED to be, and in front of us is a hole almost a deep again, where Iron Ore is still extracted from!!!!!

 

Tom Price is also home to WA SES’ busiest unit, doing 40-50 Rescues from Karijini National Park a year. Most of these are high angle Cliff Rescues. Seems many tourists, foreign and local, see the need to not heed the ample and abundant warning signs re falls and cliff risks.

 

Afternoon, drive to top of Mt Nameless. Pretty amazing view of Tom Price township and the mine site.