A day in Weipa and to the mine

Finally, I have managed to go for a bike ride. I rode fro Weipa to its little airport. The round trip was only about 30 kms. That is more than I have ridden for a while and I surprised myself as I went through the ride in 1 hour 10 minutes on my mountain bike. So I hope I can increase that over the coming weeks. I did not ride at the tip as the roads were so corrugated.

On return from my ride I said farewell to 2 couples from around Gympie that I met on the ferry to Thursday Island, Alan and Helen and Jim and Helen Nice friendly people.

After a shower, I walked up to the shopping centre and had 2 muggacinos and 1 serve of raisin toast. It was not too bad and it was cool sitting in there while I did some reading, The infrastructure appears to be very good here all courtesy of Rio Tinto or its predessors.

Then back to the Karavan for a read and then lunch. At 2.20 pm it was time to join the Mine Tour from the campground. About 30 people were on the tour.

We had a wonderful coach driver who informed us and we also listened to an audio presentation about the town and mine.

Weipa is home to about 3000 people many of them either work for Rio Tinto or support services in some form. Most of the homes are owned by the employees. About 28% of the homes are still retained by the company. Many look really good. There is a very good water supply so there is a lot of green around the town especially the ovals.

So, after a look around the town, we travelled over two single lane bridges to get out to the mine site. Crossing one, we saw the ore train taking its load into Weipa to the loader, all 3000 tonnes at a time.

Once at the mine site we saw the loader loading the mine haulers that take about 190 tonnes each load. Their roads are so smooth with a grader looking after them along with a massive water cart to damp it down. It seems only a very short time to load the haulers then they travel at 60 km/hour to the unloader.

Once unloaded, the ore is screen and basically processed before it is loaded onto the train to go to the wharf where there about 8 vessels that take the majority of it to Gladstone for turning into aluminium eventually.

The ore looks just like red soil in about 5 mm pellets. It is taken straight from the ground after the overburden is removed. No doubt it is a massive operation and one that is worth visiting.

On return to the campground, I chatted with my neighbours who are in the camp ground waiting for a house. Jim is helping an innovative couple of aborigines with their business which is contracted to look after a lot of Rio Tinto work. The 2 principals were taught at an apprentice school by Jim and they have seen a way to become independent without Government handouts. Their business has contracts in the vicinity of several million dollars. Jim has told them he will help for a few years to get them really straight. Jim also knows a good friend , Peter Swan.

So that is another day in a lovely warm environment.