Pilbara Stories Catalogue by FORM WA

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A new way of knowing the people of the Pilbara

Contents Page

Foreword Julius Matthys, Vice President External Affairs WA, BHP Billiton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06 Introduction Lynda Dorrington, Executive Director, FORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08 Foreword: Pilbara Stories Hon Brendon Grylls MLA, Minister for Regional Development; Lands; Minister Assisting the Minister for State Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Curator’s Note Sharmila Wood, Curator, FORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Annet van der Voort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Is there an end to Annet van der Voort’s investigation of the human face? François Hébel, Director of Les Recontres d’Arles Photography, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The Pilbara Calling, Dr Nonja Peters, Director of History of Migration Experiences (HOME) Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

(including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system) without permission from the publisher.

Ketaki Sheth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 It is customary for some Indigenous communities not to mention the

Portraits from the Pilbara, Devika Daulet-Singh, Director of Photography, Photoink, New Delhi, India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

names or reproduce images of, or associated with, the recently deceased. All such mentions and images in this book have been reproduced

Pilbara Impressions, Liv Lewitschnik, Monocle Hong Kong Bureau Chief, Hong Kong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

with the express permission of the appropriate authorities and family members, wherever it has been possible to locate them. Nonetheless, care and discretion should be exercised in using this book.

Martin Parr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Bharat Sikka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Where there are several variations of spelling for Indigenous words,

Bharat Sikka: The Pilbara Portraits, Peter Nagy, Director, Gallery Nature Morte, Berlin/New Delhi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

the most commonly used versions have been included, or, where supplied, the preferred spelling of individuals or communities.

John Elliott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Photographer Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

All photographs and interviews were completed between April 2011 and January 2013, all information provided at this time was accurate

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

and correct.

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Foreword Julius Matthys, Vice President External Affairs WA, BHP Billiton

What is the Pilbara? The vast Pilbara region is commonly known as a remote, resource-

aspiration to ensure these communities, and the people within them

rich area of Australia, however its beauty and cultural significance

have opportunities to develop and grow. The Pilbara is a region of

cannot be overlooked. But what is it that makes this diverse region

diversity; of Indigenous and non-Indigenous, urban and remote, the

so unique and meaningful? What do the people and communities

natural and the man-made, desert and coast, present and future.

stand for? What does their home mean to them? How does this

Pilbara Stories showcases the cultural dynamic of Port Hedland,

extraordinary landscape work on the mind of the artist, the writer,

highlighting the global mix of people who call the Pilbara town home.

the photographer? The Pilbara’s crucial role in the nation’s prosperity and economic Pilbara Stories seeks to answer these questions whilst celebrating a

future is no secret. The region is well and truly in the national

long-term and multi-faceted collaboration with the people of the

spotlight, and we welcome this as we accept our presence brings with

Pilbara. It is also a celebration of the award-winning partnership

it the responsibility to inspire and deliver positive change. It’s through

between BHP Billiton and FORM, which has spanned nine years and

partnerships with organisations like FORM, and initiatives like Pilbara

continues to grow. Pilbara Stories seeks to highlight the nuances of

Stories that BHP Billiton strengthens its relationships with the people

this region, and in particular, to develop a dialogue of people and place.

of this region and beyond. Whether you’re a resident of the Pilbara, or

Though comparatively few people in Australia have visited it, there cannot be many unaware of the crucial role the Pilbara plays in the nation’s prosperity and economic future.

hope to one day visit may this book offer you an insight to the region BHP Billiton and FORM have worked to invigorate, inspire and

and bring you closer to the Pilbara’s greatest asset - its people.

empower Pilbara communities through strong cultural programs that allow people to find their own voice. Pilbara Stories has provided an avenue for the community to share their distinctive region, sense of place and cultural identity – how Port Hedland looks and feels; how people engage with or think about it, including their beliefs, values, and way of life. Both The Pilbara Project and Pilbara Stories have aimed to change perceptions of the region not only externally but from within the community. The Pilbara Project particularly focused on the unique natural and industrial landscapes, while Pilbara Stories turns a lens on the people and distinct personalities of the region. The partnership between BHP Billiton and FORM began through a mutual goal for the region; FORM committed to ‘build a state of creativity’ and BHP Billiton Iron Ore committed to ensuring the strength and sustainability of the communities in which we operate. The partnership between BHP Billiton and FORM shares a common goal, to assist and encourage communities to prosper in all areas, whether it be health, education, or culture and the arts. It’s our common

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Introduction by Lynda Dorrington Executive Director FORM

Pilbara Stories is an intimate celebration of the diverse heritage and

ideas to help realise this potential. Pilbara Stories has supported people

histories, individuality and everyday experiences of life in the Pilbara

in communicating their distinctive sense of place and identity – how

with a focus on Port Hedland and surrounds. Telling, sharing and

Port Hedland looks and feels, how people engage with or think about

listening to stories from people of all backgrounds and beliefs is a

it, about their beliefs, values, and priorities.

form of cultural expression and engagement that weaves together an

People love the strong sense of community, buoyed by the vitality and

understanding about our shared humanity, whilst recognizing that

unique character of the region’s multi-culturalism and a cosmopolitan

each person has a different and valuable story - that what may seem

nature that values ethnic, religious, age and gender diversity. More

ordinary to them, may be extraordinary to someone else.

than 52 different nationalities live in Port Hedland, which adds a

The Pilbara is home to the world’s oldest living culture, rich with

vibrant charm to the region, which, coupled with the distinctive

natural resources and new industry, a place of vast horizons, story

lifestyle opportunities sets the town apart from others. This positive

and discovery, of people and possibility. The people who have taken

social capital is a huge asset and part of the ability to retain people

part in this project have generously and openly shared their personal

and attract others as the town continues to grow in a sustainable way.

journey, private thoughts and insights. They have invited us into

With a vision for a nationally signiﬁcant regional city, the challenge is

their home, sharing their tragedies, hopes and desires; revealing the

how to preserve this social dynamic, how to ensure that people hold

seductive power of the Pilbara’s rugged beauty, with its magnetic,

the feeling of being connected to each other in a meaningful way and

mystic presence. We admire their courage and good humour; their

can look to the future with optimism.

enduring spirit of resourcefulness and resilient determination; and

In Australia’s cities, and abroad, the Pilbara is often perceived as

we identify with their hopes and optimism as many seek a secure

the wilderness, distant and remote, yet the artistic outcomes of the

future through the employment opportunities that the mining sector

project – this exhibition and book – encourage audiences to see the

offers to them.

region in a different way, as we access the stories and learn about the contemporary

mix of culture and people that comprise it, we see how, shaped by

photographers Annet van der Voort (The Netherlands), Bharat Sikka

the resources industry the Pilbara has always attracted a global mix

(India), John Elliott (Australia), Ketaki Sheth (India) and Martin Parr (UK),

of people. As a region connected through shipping routes to over 31

to develop this multi-perspective and globalising encounter with the

countries around the world, with top destinations including China,

region and its people over a series of residencies that took place in the

Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia, Port Hedland is,

Pilbara over two years. We have done this in order to develop a body

and has always been an international gateway, particularly between

of outstanding work that focuses attention on the distinctive culture

Asia and into Australia.

FORM

has

engaged

The people who have taken part in this project have generously and openly shared their personal journey, private thoughts and insights.

acclaimed

international

that is widely unknown and unacknowledged outside of this region.

Pilbara Stories is about the interconnectedness between people and

For over nine years BHP Billiton and FORM have worked to invigorate,

place, between all of us. Through each person you meet we witness

inspire and empower Pilbara communities through strong cultural

the story constantly unfolding in the Pilbara.

programming that seeks to assist the community in ﬁnding its own voice. The role of the partnership is to see the possibilities and opportunities others might not see and to make connections between people and

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Foreword: Pilbara Stories by Hon Brendon Grylls MLA, Minister for Regional Development; Lands; Minister Assisting the Minister for State Development

The Pilbara is best known as the economic powerhouse of the nation,

people in the Pilbara and am richer for the experience with a greater

but without a doubt, its greatest resource must be its people. In my role

understanding and appreciation of their culture and traditions.

as a Member of Parliament and, more recently as Minister for Regional Development I have had the privilege of meeting and working with

I acknowledge the challenges that regional small businesses face in

people from all over the Pilbara.

comparison to their city cousins and we are developing long-term solutions, rather than quick fixes; looking outside the square for

Opportunities abound in the Pilbara and many people have sought

innovative solutions.

a better life by relocating to the region from other towns and cities, not just within Western Australia, but from around the country and

My role in Government is to be a strong advocate for the Pilbara to

overseas.

ensure that developments and change are achieved in a way that improves people’s lives whilst enhancing the Pilbara’s unique character,

Opportunities abound in the Pilbara and many people have sought a better life by relocating to the region from other towns and cities, not just within Western Australia, but from around the country and overseas.

charm and environment.

This diversity of cultures, traditions and beliefs has blended with the Pilbara ‘can do’ and ‘fair go’ attitude to create the rich tapestry of

In the Pilbara, a number of Royalties for Regions projects have already

character and community that has become the modern Pilbara.

been completed and many more are underway. These projects are But the extraordinary growth of the Pilbara economy has created

delivering housing, land, business development and infrastructure

issues for its people. I also recognize the everyday struggles of people

upgrades, health and education facilities, as well as public open

in the Pilbara where issues of affordable housing, greater housing

spaces, lifestyle and recreational facilities.

choice and access to higher standards of education, health, recreation This is just the beginning of the transformation of the Pilbara region.

and other community services continue to create frustration in the community.

The government is committed to the Pilbara and its people and I am

In 2009, the Liberal/National Government announced the revitalisation

committed to ensuring that the people you will meet in FORM’s Pilbara

of the Pilbara region with the Royalties for Regions funded Pilbara Cities

Stories project can realize the full potential of their communities and

program. The Government has committed over one billion dollars to

towns, ensuring that their immense contribution to this remarkable

build modern vibrant cities and regional centres that support and

region is recognized and that their voices are heard.

deliver a skilled workforce for major economic developments in the region, as well, as providing a sustainable and diversified future for its communities. It is through the Pilbara Cities vision that we are starting to see changes taking shape. These changes will transform towns into cities where more people will want to live and raise their family. A key focus of Pilbara Cities is to provide greater participation and employment opportunities for the traditional owners of the Pilbara. I have been fortunate to have worked closely with many Aboriginal

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Curator’s Note

Whilst these photographs are characterized by formal balance and

observing them with her camera until they have revealed something

subtle equilibrium, Ketaki’s technical finesse does not diminish the

of themselves. Annet’s faces cannot remain silent, they show histories

enduring and timeless quality of the photographs, which are imbued

and emotions; hard work, confidence, stubbornness, anxiety, beauty.

with elegance and a feeling for the landscape in which these people

These are people with whom we can identify and in them we see

find themselves.

ourselves. Similarly, her body of work including Metamorphosis, A

Pilbara Stories is the culmination of artistic development trips

images show us a vision of life stripped of pretension, plunging us

undertaken since 2010, through the towns of Roebourne, Port

into the grittiness and often humourous side of daily reality. Martin’s

Hedland and Marble Bar by visiting international photographers,

talent for picturing contemporary life whilst addressing issues

Bharat Sikka has a rare mercurial creativity; and unlike Ketaki, he is

Martin Parr (UK), Ketaki Sheth (India), Bharat Sikka (India), Annet

of globalization, identity and nationalism has placed him in the

accustomed to working on short assignments in his role as a high-end

van der Voort (The Netherlands) and Australian photographer, John

collections of museums worldwide, including the Getty Museum in

commercial photographer for magazines such as, Wallpaper, Vanity Fair,

Unlike the other photographers in Pilbara Stories, John Elliott has

Elliot. In tandem, interviews and stories were collected from Pilbara

Los Angeles, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern,

Vogue India, and The New Yorker. Portraiture has formed a central part of

been visiting Port Hedland for many years to host workshops

people, our collaborators on this project.

London. A major retrospective was initiated by the Barbican Art Gallery

Bharat’s artistic inquiry, and he brings his style of conceptually driven,

and photograph people in the community. Each year, John covers

in London and has toured internationally.

visually sumptuous mise en scenes to frame the people of the Pilbara.

thousands of kilometres traveling from his Queensland base into

Bharat’s photographs, shot with his Hasselblad medium format camera

remote Australia, to capture the vibrancy of the bush as it pulses and

are cinematic, creating moods and luring us into a space of longing

pounds with the rodeo and racing season, bearing witness to the varied

and desire, inspiring curiosity rather than satisfying it. Classical formal

lives of people in regional Australia, from bull riders and stockmen,

narratives are dissolved in favour of expressive abstraction, conveying

professionals and musicians, to dreamers and drifters. He meets the

vague feelings, moods and ideas. Through doors, and arches, the viewer

new migrants filled with the promises of a new life, and old timers

is separated, forced to look deeper.

whose lives are immensely bound to the land, to its extreme heat and

These highly individualistic photographers developed a set of portraits to form this collection, framing the people of the

Whilst Martin visited Port Hedland as a solo photographer, Ketaki

Pilbara from a multiplicity of perspectives. Whilst those you meet in

Sheth, and Bharat Sikka traveled through the towns of Roebourne,

Pilbara Stories are not necessarily sitters in a formal sense, they are

Port Hedland and Marble Bar, accompanied by Devika Daulet-Singh,

aware of the cameras presence and have given their permission for

a collaborator on the project and the Director of Photoink, a photo

their photograph to be shared. A key principle underpinning the

agency and a publication design studio based in New Delhi. All three

exhibition’s development was to ensure the community’s voice

are from dense urban milieus in cities that have populations

would be represented and the images are amplified by the taped

edging 20 million, when they encountered the people of the Pilbara

In Bharat’s series, modest domestic scenes coexist with vast eternities

conversations and written accounts of personal histories.

accustomed to an expanse of sky and desert, how would they relate

of land and sky; Bharat pictures people in moments of contemplation

to each other? What would they experience? How would they respond

and ennui, they seem to hold secrets within, and we must bring our

to a new visual environment and culture?

own meaning to these scenes. Yet, each picture creates an individual

The photographer, Martin Parr traveled from the United Kingdom to Port Hedland as part of a larger project, commissioned by Foto Freo

Lifetime and Oh My Baby are an expression of memory, history, and identity amongst people, of different backgrounds.

intense light; to its riches and poverties. With a career that has focused on the people of the Australian bush and country music scene, John has been witness to the particular joys, trials, tribulations, losses, and tragedies that characterize regional Australia. This chronicling of the outback has been exhibited in shows at the National Portrait Gallery,

context, a fragmentary clue to make sense of the person and their story.

and FORM, entitled No Worries. An exemplary figure in international art

Ketaki, who has documented different communities in her acclaimed

and a dominant force in European photography, a member of Magnum,

series, Twinspotting, and Bombay Mix, usually spends years, sometimes

photojournalism’s premier agency, Martin has mainly photographed

decades developing a body of work. Ketaki had just one week to shoot

in Europe, yet, despite being an outsider on a brief residency to Port

in the Pilbara which added a different kind of foreignness to her

Hedland, Martin brings us into close proximity with the community.

experience. Yet, Ketaki adapted to working in a new situation with

Annet van der Voort undertook an extended residency in Port Hedland

Moving through the cultural landscape with some help from the locals,

courage, and a genuine curiosity to understand and engage with the

and she was able to delve into the history of town and community over

he photographed voraciously, visiting work places and the port; he

people she met. Ketaki is always looking; it is no mistake that she is

a one month period. Annet was interested in the lives of the people

ventured inside Churches, and Mosques, shops, restaurants, cafes, and

present with her camera poised, ready to illuminate the essence of

she met, fascinated by their experiences and daily realities, which she

pubs. In doing so he gives us a glimpse into a town which is set against a

her subject, to see their strengths; to capture their vulnerability. In her

found so different from her own community in Drensteinfurt, Germany,

monumental landscape, a town where the neon electro-atmospherics

Pilbara photographs we see that Ketaki was able to find moments of

where she currently lives and works. Rather than being a detached

of the port and mining industry ensure that Port Hedland never sleeps.

deep connection with her subjects as they present themselves to the

observer, Annet interacted with the people she photographed, seeking

camera and return her gaze. Her Pilbara portraits are touching and

to communicate her understanding of them through environmental

intimate, yet, stealthily precise.

portraits that position her subjects in the context of their homes and

This collection of portraits is an expression of the individual creativity

work places.

and sentiments of each photographer, but this doesn’t detract from

A working town, Martin’s photographs also show people at leisure, partaking in the glory of sporting events, or the ecstasy of prayer, images

Canberra and institutions across Australia.

Bharat evokes a reciprocal relationship between person and thing, or person and their environment in a way that helps to powerfully realise

Whilst muscular frontier values are often ascribed to the regions,

identity and place.

John finds romantic characters enjoying the freedom of a country

that evoke the tightly knit community and reflect the cultural diversity

Awarded the Sanskriti Award for Indian photography and the

that is an integral part of the town’s identity. Martin’s work can be

Higashikawa Award, Japan for Best Foreign Photographer, exhibited

With an attuned visual perception, Annet registers details about

challenging, with his ‘in your face’ flash that appears to stun people,

at Cité du Livre in Aix-en-Provence, France, Peabody Essex Museum,

people that would not necessarily enter the consciousness of an

freezing them at unusual angles, and in uncomfortable positions. In

Salem, and Sepia International, New York, Ketaki continues to use

ordinary observer. The subtle details of her portraits are important;

a visual environment where we are saturated with idealized images

black and white film. This medium presents a fresh way of seeing

the angle of the face, the position of the body, the gestures that reveal

of ourselves, Martin’s photographs are confronting because they show

the Pilbara; distilling its glorious colours into contrasting chiaroscuro,

the inner life of each person. Annet is intent on seeing what others

us the foibles and untidiness of daily life. With a wink, these candid

revealing the play of light in various modalities, shades and tones.

may miss; she patiently waits for the right time to uncover her subject,

they perceive has few boundaries, a place they can allow their imaginations to drift beyond the confines of settlement. John’s portraits of people in Port Hedland alternately focus in close range or hover back, they are taken with a great sense of earnestness; he guilelessly looks to find the tenderness in people. John humanizes Port Hedland through its people, picturing the range of identities that make up the town, each distinct from the other, yet bound together in a common pursuit of making Port Hedland their home.

them as documents that reveal a glimpse of life in a region that has, despite being at the centre of Australia’s economy, remained largely invisible to the rest of the continent. Pilbara Stories draws us closer and deeper to understanding the heart of the Pilbara. Each photograph starts a story.

Sharmila Wood FORM Curator

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Annet van der Voort

Face investigation.

Photographing in the Pilbara

Is there an end to Annet van der Voort’s investigation of the human face?

For me, Dutch-born and living in Germany, Western Australia and the Pilbara meant the Southern Hemisphere and the other side of the world.

Since she burst out into the world of photography with a marvellous

The way in which she decided to respond to the Australian invitation

project following women in their morning transformation, from their

to photograph in the Pilbara follows a similar process. However, for

bed to the world in seven steps, Annet is proving us that a portrait is

the ﬁrst time she uses the technique of environmental portraits. And

neither a graphic composition nor a repetitive frontal picture, but a

portraits they are, every single person looking at the photographer

reservoir full of social information. She doesn’t search for expected

and posing consciously. Their leisure or work tools and site surround

stereotypes, she makes portraits talk.

them, but although these ﬁll most of the photograph, these activities are in fact not the subject of the portrait.

Whilst some photographers, by travelling around the globe, are

My world upside-down. The sun turning the opposite way, different, very bright star constellations, unbelievable dimensions, different landscapes, different climate, different people with roots from all over the world. Open, friendly, helpful people, willing to spend time with me and my camera. No skepticism, no distrust, no ‘no time’, no ‘no!’ Open doors and open words everywhere. Amazing and amiable this other side of the world!

exploring the exotic, the vast territories, the tensions between nations,

Some photographers interact intensely with their subjects when

it seems that Annet ﬁnds as much to say about our societies just by

doing a portrait; others wait till they are totally bored. Here, at ﬁrst

showing people’s faces.

sight one sees a nearly banal collection of portraits. But when we watch more closely, we slowly realize that there is a strange absence

Her style is not monolithic. She adapts her way of shooting, her

in their eyes and we notice their relaxed bodies. This suggests that

techniques from one project to the next; yet, what most of them have

during the shooting session, their mind escaped and their body was

in common is that they are series of portraits, and they translate

not essential for the portrait.

anxieties. Every single one of these portraits captures a different person, but the ensemble as a series becomes a collective that makes

Is this the result of Annet van der Voort’s latest photographic

us conscious of the phenomenon that is called the human being.

investigation? Capturing how remote workers, travelling every month far away from home, when they cease their activities their mind

Refugees in Germany, young mothers discovering the fragile balance

reﬂects and wanders to another place. What seems to be a very

between themselves and their child, the desire to keep alive the dead

inoffensive and calm collection of colourful portraits, disguises

and loved ones through the presence of their picture on tombs, pianos,

a chemistry of anxiety and loneliness. She has trapped us in her

night tables or walls are among the projects Annet has developed

message. We look at those portraits as if they are mirrors reﬂecting

over the past years.

our own melancholia.

By the way, whose anxieties are these portraits translating? Annet

There is no need for the spectacular. Just like in previous series,

renders these characters so familiar to us that we can identify with

these portraits take us by surprise, they linger with us much longer

them. In her different projects, we recognise ourselves, our neighbours,

than we may have expected at ﬁrst sight – because they touch

she observes from the inside with a lot of empathy, conﬁdence, and

Annet van der Voort

feelings deep inside.

gentleness. She respects a protocol when photographing, different in each project, yet through the rigour of her shoot, she produces the kind of

François Hébel,

states of mind that give the necessary information to make her point.

Director of Les Rencontres d’Arles Photography, France

Annet communicates through her portraits, so captions or any kind of explanations are not necessary. All photographs © Annet van der Voort

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Kerry

Marapikurrinya, that’s our name for Port Hedland. You get five creeks

time. I know a lot of people, they think the country belonged to them,

here, it’s also the name of a family group that our father passes

not belong to the white fella, and they get in trouble by the police,

onto us, to all the family, me and my kids, and we’re still part of the

get locked up or something, they know the land belong to Aboriginal

Marapikurrinya clan group. There’s a place where the fresh water is

people, the Kariyarra mob.

flowing into salt water, drawing into one big yinda, freshwater flowing I remember a long time ago, we used to go fishing, looking for crab,

in to make those creeks. That’s a place where water always is, people

some other boys and girls also. We would get permission from our

could always drink fresh water, and it’s where the rainbow serpents lay.

family first, if you want to go fishing you can’t go here or there, like at When the cyclone come from somewhere else, it pass through here,

Twelve Mile, you know you can’t go up the river, you got to go down

the warlu (snake) get up and fight with the other one, to protect the

river, old people would tell us, don’t go this side, and respect the old

area here, you see the forked tongue of the lightening sparking, he’s

people and the culture.

fighting trying to protect the land. We always used to walk, when we was young fellas could walk miles I was born in Native Lock Hospital here in Marapikurrinya in the

and miles, all the girls and boys have a swim. Tides coming in, and

1960’s. My sister and some other people were also born before me;

when the tides going out, going to the reef, getting crabs, come back

maybe it opened in the early 1950s. That’s where all our people

home give it to the old people, have a feed with the old people.

from surrounding areas, Nyamal or Nyiyaparli from all the stations All of us kids we learn ourselves, go down and make a little bit of

and different tribes would be brought if they had leprosy or other

spear, rough and ready, piece of wood, bamboo, whatever we can find,

sicknesses.

get the old line from somewhere. We would go out to the lagoon and Afterwards our mothers took us away from Two Mile, because the

see the hole and spear the fishes. We used to go everywhere at the

Mount Newman railway put a rail line there. I was shipped around all

time, even down the wharf, but now there are security guards, and

over the place, Koombana, Yandeyarra, to Twelve Mile. Before that we

road blocks.

was going around with my old father, he had a Holden FJ. I remember that I went out to De Grey Station, (Yarri), and there was no bitumen along the old corrugated road. It was a very rough journey. When we were cattle mustering at Yandeyarra Station there was an old stone school, made from rocks. All of us kids were staying here at the time, growing watermelon and fruit trees. We used to wait in the stone house for the plane to come along, when we heard the plane we know: teacher coming to Yandeyarra. That teacher would be teaching

Kerry Robinson, Port Hedland

us out on the lawn or in the stone classroom. When people were living at Twelve Mile, when the sun come down you had to leave town and go back to your community, you’re not allowed to be in town, that’s what the police said. Hard times, that

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I was born in Port Hedland, it was a great place to grow up, it was a place where everyone knew everyone. I currently do rostering for train drivers at BHP Billiton. My father was a train driver, that’s how we ended up here. He was a train driver from Queensland, my parents started off in Goldsworthy. Mum had to come to Port Hedland to give birth to me because there was no hospital there, we went back for three months after I was born, but it shut down so they transferred my father to Hedland. For fun I do hobby photography and we go fishing and camping, we’re outdoors all the time. A lot of people have family that live far away, and they create their own family in Hedland, we might not be blood, but we look after each other and that’s what Port Hedland is all about; it’s the people that you fall in love with, which makes it hard if you ever want to leave. A lot of people leave but they come back, because there is nowhere else like it anywhere in the world.

Amy Jo Ryan, South Hedland

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I’ve been in Port Hedland for four and half years, I work with BHP Billiton as Superintendent of Monthly Scheduling, which involves scheduling the number of rakes per iron ore mine, per day, and the number of ships on each of the ship loaders. I used to work for the Government in Brazil, I was a Project Ofﬁcer working on public programs. My husband got a position in Port Hedland with BHP Billiton as an Electrical Engineer, he came as part of an international graduate program so I came with him. I had low expectations before I came to Port Hedland, but I really liked it, it’s a great community, you have great people, a great lifestyle, good things to do and I enjoy going to the beach, and kite surﬁng. Despite missing my family, I’m really happy here, the life we have is really good, so I don’t see myself going back to Brazil.

Carolina Leao, Port Hedland

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Angela

I have lived here for 20 years, and I am originally from New Zealand. I came here as a backpacker to make money so I could go overseas. I married a local Indigenous man and we have three children. I love Hedland, but the town has changed, especially in the last three years. I work 14 hour days and I have five different jobs that help Hedland be Hedland. During the week I start the day at 8am and finish at 9pm. Sunday is my only day off, so the most precious thing is time. I work at Cassia Primary School, with children who have special needs. I am also the Ballet Teacher at JaBat, a not-for-profit dance school that has been operating in Hedland for 10 years. The school offers classes from pre-kindy to advanced in classical ballet, jazz and tap. We teach the Cecchetti Ballet Australia syllabus. It is the only school north of Perth to Darwin that can teach children to university level. I do love it, I love the girls; they are absolutely beautiful students.

It’s important for girls coming from other places to have the opportunity to do things that make them feel graceful and pretty; one of my students was really depressed when she came here, and dance was the only thing that brought her out of it. We have 96 students, which is less than two years ago when we lost 32 families because of changes to FIFO policy, so it’s been a bit hard for us to manage ﬁnancially, but I just cannot give up on my students and close the school. Even now, I’m staying on for them, and I’ve had to split my family, my children are now down in Perth. My daughter Georgia at 13 has had to manage boarding, school and dancing part time, at an elite level. This is what some of us do to make Hedland a home for ourselves and others. Angela Christian, JaBat Dance School, Port Hedland

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Ziggy

I’m working at the Silver Star in Port Hedland. I have a Chef’s Certificate. I wake up at 6am, have some breakfast then walk up to the Silver Star, which opens at 9am. We do food until 2pm, clean up until 3pm, have a beer after work and go home. Compared to Holland, the money is insanely good, but life is more expensive here. I did one year of Applied Psychology at college, I loved it, but I had financial needs, so chefing was born out of necessity. My brother and I decided a while ago that we wanted to get out, and travel the world. We packed our bags, half a year ago. We have a motto, if anything comes on our path, we continue on it, so we could be travelling for ten years. Now, I’ve been here for four-anda-half weeks. I don’t want to be called a backpacker because that has a hippy association, I don’t think of myself in that way. I would describe myself more as a traveler, someone who chose his own path.

A lot of people are passionate about Port Hedland, you feel that when you talk to people. I think the town is a work in progress, it’s still ﬁnding its identity.

Ziggy Douw, Silver Star Cafe, Port Hedland

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Aileen

I’m currently on maternity leave. We had a little girl, Arianni, on the 24th of June at Hedland Health Campus, it was fantastic, like a birthing centre, and my husband was able to stay for the full time because we were in a private room. I’ll wake up at 7am for a feed, I have some play time and then we get stuff done around the house. There are a lot of mothers groups in town and the support network for women with children is really good. The Hedland Well Women’s Centre has their ABC group for mothers with kids, up until the age when they are crawling. I work as a Regional Visits Coordinator for BHP Billiton, so I deal with external VIP visitors, and play host to a lot of customers and commercial clients, as well as chamber of commerce and industry representatives, North West resources tours, government dignitaries, and parliamentarians. I expose them to operations, what we are doing in terms of growth, and what we’re doing in the community. There is a lot of investment that BHP Billiton gives back to the towns it operates in. I’ve been in that position for ﬁve years now.

I enjoy the Pilbara lifestyle, things are slow-paced compared to the city; there is a relaxed feeling about the place. The people are great; most are up here getting a head start in life.

Aileen Wong with her daughter, Arianni, Port Hedland

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Heng

I’ve been here close to two years, I was previously in Perth and originally born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we came as kids to Australia. I was in Perth for over 20 years, then moved to Singapore for work which is where my kids were born, then we moved to Hedland; they are seven and nine.

It was a big transition for them from being city slickers, it took them a while to settle in, but being in Hedland allows them to have that experience and wisdom that the world is not just shops and clothes and brands, it helps them appreciate nature. The good thing about Port is that it’s a small community, everyone knows each other, we have a circle of friends, that all live in a small area, we learn to appreciate family life and spending quality time together. I’m an Occupational Physician Registrar at the Port Hedland Medical Centre. We start at 8am and end about 5.30pm. I see an average of 40 patients per day. It’s a mixture of occupational health cases and routine general practice cases, chronic disease management, hypertension, diabetes, day-to-day acute ailments, from sore throat to diarrhoea. But our specialty is managing occupational health cases. Basically, we look at the various forms of stress related to work, and ailments, ﬁnding the best way of getting people to work in healthy and safe environments. We diagnose them and develop a plan for treatment. Dr Heng Tan, Port Hedland Medical Centre

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Jamez

I was born in New Zealand, where my Dad used to drive those logging trucks, one of the companies over here needed drivers, so he and his friend ended up getting a job. He moved here first to sort everything out, a couple of months later my Mum moved over, followed by my siblings. I didn’t move over until a couple of years later. Now, Dad works for a concrete company with my brother. School here was terrible. I dropped out two weeks into Year 12 and ended up working. I wanted to do hairdressing and I did that for a few months. Then I got a job at the Finucane Island Sports & Rec Club (Finny Club). Tom and Rau Keefe are the Managers, and I just call them Aunty and Uncle. I do some admin in the mornings, security some nights and most of the time I work behind the bar. I love my job, it’s the best job I’ve had so far. I know I’ll be at the club for a while, and meet all sorts of people there. Once you get to know the customers they become friends, then good friends, it’s always a surprise, because you never know what sort of people will walk through the door. I like going to work; it’s a nice, calm environment, no tension or dramas. I still have my Maori culture, I always wear my pounamu which has been in my family for generations, and I’ll never stop wearing it. When I ring back to my Nan she talks in Maori so I won’t forget it. But the rest of my family has sort of lost a lot of their culture, but I never will; I’m proud of my culture. I haven’t been back to NZ in three years. Most of my family moved to Hedland; in the last month a few of them moved down south. I love where I am, it’s just nice the way it is and I wouldn’t change it for anything. I like to sit in the sun and read a book. I read mostly novels with the odd fiction in there every now and again.

Jamez Edward Doherty, South Hedland

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Khalisah

Hi, my name is Khalisah, I was born in Port Hedland and have been living here for 20 years. I like to get away to the city sometimes for a nice change from the Pilbara. I like the way that Hedland is a small community as it gets the people to interact with community events and other locals. I am currently employed at Health Focus Pharmacy in Port Hedland, however I am on maternity leave and am also planning to study Pharmacy at one of the Universities by correspondence. My mother is President of the Islamic Association of North West Australia. My siblings and I also get involved for when the Association caters or sells food for community events. My mother moved to Hedland when she was 16 years old, from the Cocos Islands, to live with her brother. She is now 52. My father was born in Kalgoorlie and later lived in Perth, before moving to Port Hedland when he was 19 years old. He was a strict Christian, and later chose to convert to Islam before marrying my mother. In the meantime my daily routine is doing everyday chores and taking care of my baby, while doing drawings from time to time as a hobby.

Khalisah Bickford, South Hedland

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Joan

My father was the ﬁrst ofﬁcer in charge of the Port Hedland Airport,

There is information about the station walk-off, which was a huge

he was in civil aviation. The tent he camped in when he ﬁrst came

historical moment for Aboriginal people – they said they are not

was right next to the bomb crater from the Japanese bombing raid in

working for tea and sugar any more, and to keep themselves, they

Port Hedland; they dropped 54 bombs, and in the process they killed

yandied minerals for years. We have a display about the SS Koombana,

a Western Australian man, we’ve just had the 70th anniversary.

a ship that had the infamous Rosetta pearl on board, it was a cursed

The street out to the airport is named after my father; it’s a bit of a

pearl and bad luck for anybody who had it in their possession. The

treasure. My parents had their heart in Hedland.

Koombana disappeared during a cyclone, and people have been looking for it for over 40 years.

I came up working in the hospital and from there found whatever I’m meant to be doing at the time, whether it’s aged care, or

One of my favourite memories is going out bush to Punmu with

teaching. I get called Sister Joanie. I’ve been here now for 20 years.

Bruce Thomas, on the way back he’s sitting in the car and starts

I love Hedland, I do a lot to try and make it better. I’ve got my three

singing this rain making song, and in the desert a beautiful rainbow

boys and then the child of my heart, who I adopted when she was

sprung up from the ground and rain just poured down in the

ﬁve. Her health condition was outside what could be managed in the

middle of the desert. He was singing in language, it was just a really

family. I knew the family that belonged to her, and they researched

beautiful moment.

who I was, my connections. My daughter is 21, her family is from Hedland; their family is part of my family. I am a disability advocate. I highlight inclusion for people with disabilities, that’s the mission I’ve set myself. I get up in the morning. I get my daughter going; get all the bits done in the morning, then once I’ve got her to work, I do my community work. I’ve got aged care students who I’m working with, Aboriginal girls. On Mondays and Fridays I train students for media in radio at Pundulmurra Tafe. Two of my students, both 16, have intellectual challenges. One of them made a sound bite to tell the Minister for Education that he doesn’t like being excluded; they want to be on an equal footing, to the point that the other lad got Under-25 Volunteer of the Year Award. I’m also a volunteer at the Historical Society, I work at Dalgety House, which was set up for the commemoration of Hedland’s

Joan Foley, Dalgety House

establishment. Its original activity was to be a stock and station agent, as pastoral suppliers. We have displays of all the different stages and eras from around here, about the land and Indigenous people, about the start of transport and stock routes.

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Pat and Edna

We’ve been married for 51 years; we come from Canberra. We left home on the 20th April and came up through the centre to Darwin, then all the way to the West Coast. We’re going further down to Perth, then over the Nullabor and through South Australia. We want to be home by Christmas. We escape from Canberra’s cold weather and spend four or ﬁve months of the year away. Our son lives in the house, looking after everything for us while we’re gone. This was our ﬁrst trip to the Pilbara, so it’s new and different. The distances between towns is unbelievable, it’s 350 kilometres before you get to the next one. About eight years ago we came as far as Kalbarri, but then had a phone call to go home. We enjoyed Port Hedland; we liked the park where the ships come in, we had a look at the salt mine, had a look at industry. I found people very friendly and open; they want to know your life story. We’ve been traveling since 1996. We sold our main house where the kids grew up and then we were free to travel, there are about 15 percent of people who sold up everything and just travel.

Pat and Edna Donaghue, North West Coastal Highway

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Annie

I’m from Jakarta in Indonesia. My parents are from Central Java and they moved to Jakarta when they were young, and all their kids are born in Jakarta, went to school there. I went to an Academy for the tourism industry and got a Diploma, then I started working in the hospitality industry where I was a travel agent for 18 years. I came to Port Hedland in 2007 and got married, but it didn’t work out, so we broke up. I planned to go home to Indonesia, but I met Peter Hall. When I came, ﬁrst I worked as a cleaner, and then I got another job doing customer service at Woolworths, I did this for three and half years and it was a mix of full time, casual, and part time. I always like to learn more and I did MYOB accounting and learnt Quick book online. Now, I work at Qantas Lounge, and I would like to work in the hospitality industry.

I love Port Hedland, it’s full of gorgeous people and its close to my country.

Annie Hobbs, South Hedland

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Robert

In my spare time I ride horses and bulls. I grew up in rodeo, riding little baby bulls from when I was six or seven. There’s a few different events, saddle bronc, bare back, then you’ve got the bull ride, novice bull, second division and others. You are only on for eight seconds, which doesn’t sound like long, but it does when you’re on there. You’ve got two judges who have both got a scoreboard of one to ﬁfty that they score you on: one judges the horse, one judges the rider. The judges score on how your horse bucked and then the rider is marked on performance, so it’s really you against beast. I’ve fractured my collar bone and busted my eye socket and cracked my nose, when I hit the bull in the head. I’ve won open bareback in Darwin, and got a few places around here. I’ve been with BHP Billiton for about 18 months, that’s not as long as the other people around here: some have been here for 30 years. I work as a Lubrication Technician, I start at 7am. I trained on the job; with BHP Billiton you can do as much training as you want. We maintain all the machine work, gear boxes, reclaimers, stackers, lubrication, on the oil side of things we pretty much do the whole of site. I was working on the rail before, on the one from here to Newman. I moved up from Fitzroy Crossing for that job and I was staying at camps, going home on weeks off. I went home a few times, but there’s not much happening; there’s nothing wrong with Port Hedland. I’ve got a Missus and a little son, he’s 14 months old; he wasn’t born long after I got the job here.

Robert Brooking, BHP Billiton’s Nelson Point operations, Port Hedland

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Kaye

I was not quite 18 when I arrived in Port Hedland in May 1966. I had

population of women. Unattached girls were very spoilt. Back then,

come from Inverell in New South Wales but I had been working in

it was 70 guys to one girl. The live bands were fantastic and deﬁnitely

Sydney when my brother sent out an S.O.S. for me to come work

no skimpys in the 1960’s. Most weekends we’d go to one of the tidal

for him at his newly purchased Mobil Garage. He paid my way over.

creeks for ﬁshing and crabbing. Inevitably, we would get stranded,

About a year and half later he and his family left and went to live in

push the boat in the mud for hours and scare the sea snakes.

Perth. But I was stuck, I had met Roger. From an early age I rode horses competitively and for pleasure. Roger’s ancestors arrived in the Pilbara by ship in 1863. They sailed

I used to keep three lovely mares here in Port Hedland. They were

from Portland in Victoria in a small barque vessel and landed at

bred on Mt Florence, Roger’s mother’s family station.

Cossack, then known as Tien Tsin. Roger’s great grandfather developed Mt Florence still has horses but they are not used for mustering

Pyramid Station near Roebourne, then in the 1870’s came overland

anymore and run wild. Up until the 1970’s stations relied solely on

and established the Pippingarra Boodarie run on the outskirts of

horses to muster the sheep and cattle. Mt Florence always had a

Port Hedland.

thoroughbred stallion for breeding purposes. I worked at the Town of Port Hedland for most of my career; in the The Pilbara is still home, but when your family lives elsewhere it’s

1980’s I worked as a reporter for The Pilbara Times where I ﬁnally

not the same. I’m happiest when I’m near our kids and grandkids.

achieved my journalist qualiﬁcations. I ﬁnished my working life with

They come up a few times a year and we live half the year in Perth.

BHP Billiton in Public Affairs at the community ofﬁce. When our ﬁrst grandchild arrived in 2005 I knew it was time to retire. I like the Pilbara very much. When I arrived in 1966, Port Hedland was a real frontier town. No air conditioning, but lovely, big fans hovering from high ceilings over wide verandas. It was an exciting place to be and the local people were so interesting. There were people called, Diesel Dick, Smokey Dawson (Marble Bar icon) and Stirrup Iron Jack. There would be cricket or football, played out on the stations just about every weekend, or a party at one station or another. Roger’s mother and father by the nature of what they did in the town were always entertaining ministers or governors, even governor generals - everybody wanted to see what was happening in the Pilbara, which was comparable to the Snowy Mountains Scheme, in terms of

Kaye Richardson, Port Hedland

economic development for Australia. This was different to the scene most nights down at the Esplanade and Pier Hotels, where it was every man for himself and a tiny

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Kenlee

Everyone calls me Kenlee. I work as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Officer with children who have special needs and disabilities. My background is Social Work, if its children or health, you’ll find me there. I also do three days a week tutoring with my son and other kids - our kids really struggle with literacy and numeracy. There is limited government funding, so we take it upon ourselves. If you want to do something proactive, you have to do it yourself. It’s so expensive here now, but our family, our culture, our language, our history, it’s all here in Hedland; we can’t leave that. I’m very close to my Grandmother and she taught me so much, she is a very knowledgeable woman about country, and I’ve learnt from her. When I’m away, I get homesick. I miss this place like a kid misses its mother. I can’t wait to get back here to see a face from my community, when I’m coming back from being in Perth whether it’s on a flight or in the car and I see the landscape change, I know I’m getting into my own country, and all of my anxiety leaves.

I keep telling my husband, we’re never leaving, never leaving.

Kenlee Laetiticia Irene Kelly, South Hedland

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Angela

I’m a Primary School teacher at Port Hedland Primary School. I was born in Birmingham, England. My Mum has ancestry from Scotland, Trinidad and Tobago, my Dad is from Nigeria. I always knew that I wanted to teach abroad and see a bit more of the world; it was my Mum who saw the advert for teachers in the Birmingham paper. They were doing a big recruitment drive for Western Australia, initially there were about 70 applicants, and probably about 30 or 40 made it through. I had to go through the application and interview process, they said, we will place you in a country school. We got sent to Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Tom Price, and Wickham. We still keep in contact with each other via Facebook. We had about a week in Perth, then went straight up to Hedland in 2010. I graduated in 2002, I’ve been teaching since then. I have four children of my own, one is in family day care, one in kindy, one in year three and one in year ﬁve, all girls. When we left Birmingham it was snowing, we had our hat and gloves, we were all wrapped up with thick coats. It was so hot here, I was looking at people wearing jeans thinking they were mad, and now I ﬁnd I can wear jeans, you just get used to it. It’s such a small community, everyone is in the same situation, we’re all supporting each other.

It’s not like a big city, I like the way people are so friendly here, there is a good community spirit, they become the family that you haven’t got. I also met my husband here; he was born here in Port Hedland, he’s a Pilbara boy.

Angela Whicher, Port Hedland Primary School

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Daniel

My wife Rebecca and I have been here two-and-a-half years. We have six kids, aged 12 years to 12 weeks. I was born in Brisbane, my Mum’s family is English and Welsh, we’re originally from the Newcastle area, she’s second generation. Dad’s family is all English; they are the third or fourth generation. I live in Port Hedland on the edge of Pretty Pool; we are the very first house. It’s the original area down there. I’m a Station Manager at Port Hedland Meteorological Office. Up until five years ago we had three or four staff, three observers and a technician. We also used to have forecasters. Now, there is only me. On the observation side of things, we fill in wind speed, wind direction, temperature, humidity, pressure, visibility, and any cloud, any weather. This is the meteorological weather report for all the pilots to access at various aerodromes around the place. We do radio crosses at 6.30am each day, we share that with Carnarvon. I usually get in here at 5.45am, we have a radio cross at 6.30am, generally looking at what’s going on overnight. I studied Engineering at University. Since I’ve worked with the Bureau, we’ve been posted to northern New South Wales, up to Mount Isa in Queensland, after that Cobar in New South Wales, another mining town. It’s a bit of a novelty for us being on the coastal station, that was a big drawcard, so was living in Western Australia, although its a third of the country, most people have never been here. My wife and I like living in these country areas. I do a nine kilometre bicycle ride to work and I couldn’t be doing that if I was living in the western suburbs of Sydney.

Daniel Hayes, Bureau Of Meteorology, Port Hedland

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Kelly

I first came to Hedland in 1999. I was travelling around Australia and I met someone here. At the time I was studying at the University of Melbourne, a double degree Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Forestry Science. I completed this, after my year of travel in 2000. When I got here, I noticed there wasn’t any environment group, yet, I was struck by the specialness of the environment. One night I went down to the beach where the Flatback turtles nest and lay the eggs for their soon to emerge hatchlings. On this particular evening, a busload of backpackers pulled up, then the leader of the tour group started digging up the sand to show them the not ready turtle hatchlings. I was really upset and wanted to do something to protect these beautiful, endangered animals. I was employed by the Town of Port Hedland as a Sustainability Development Officer, working on sustainability initiatives, and I thought this was my opportunity to formally start a local environment group. We started with about 20 people being interested. As Council’s direction at the time changed, we could no longer be a working group of Council, so we became an incorporated association, which is called Care for Hedland Environmental Association. We now run a program to protect Flatback turtles and their hatchlings; we started with 30 people, today we are now in our ninth year of doing it, and we now have 250 people who take part from all around the world. I enjoy getting people to be passionate ambassadors, everyone knows about the turtles now, and knows what is the right practice, how to protect and look after our environment. I ran for Mayor in 2009 and I was elected as Mayor at only 32, it was the first time the community got to choose their Mayor, I also chose to be in the position full time, which is also a first. Each day varies, some mornings I start helping out at a school breakfast program, then, generally, the day is taken up with a variety of meetings, from development applications, to running an airport to financial management and risk management. Every day is a diverse day. I work hard and often there are long hours and challenging issues to address. The return is having kids being excited about the Mayor, the Mayoral role and keen to ask the Mayor any questions that may be on their mind, of people being happy and proud of our town. Mayor Kelly Howlett, Cemetery Beach, Port Hedland

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Roger

I’m the Chief Executive Officer at the Port Hedland Port Authority. Port Hedland is the biggest bulk port in the world. The entire worlds’ seaborne traffic is 1.1 billion tonnes a year and we do over 20 percent of the world’s total iron ore seaborne traffic, so we are a dramatic wealth facilitator for the whole of Australia and we are growing so we’re taking up bigger shares of this as we speak. It’s nice to be in a hub which is strategically important - you can’t replace a port. The total port has about 130 people, there are 30 people based in Perth who principally deliver engagement with customers, and business development. In Port Hedland we have a different mix of operations people, marine, maintenance crews, engineers who look at what needs to be done, so a very different mix of people. It tends to be like two different roles. We run 24/7 operations and we are having to move up on some of that, because of the speed we grew. Last year it was 23 percent off a huge base, from 200 million to 247 million tonnes. Many ports in the world don’t even export 40 million tonne, yet, that’s how fast we are growing. I also look at how we fund this business, how we maintain it, and how we facilitate trade, and how we ensure the community supports the port, that we have the right levels of stakeholder engagement. This starts with making sure we have the right vision, the ability to facilitate trade and to create a sustainable region. You need backbone core values and principles, and to have a framework to work courageously. Not only do we have the values, but we are employing people who are part of the culture inside the organization that delivers long term sustainability. We need to be comfortable that there is career planning, and an exciting environment to live in, pathways to grow. It’s very satisfying when you get it right. Personally, I think all leaders need to refresh and renew, if you do the same thing over and over again in a leadership role, how are you learning? You won’t be learning in leaps and bounds, most leaders need to do that, to keep fresh. I wanted to find something where I made a difference. I hit 55 and started to think about my legacy, so when this opportunity came up, I looked at it carefully and thought this is something that I want to do.

Roger Johnston, Port Hedland Port Authority, Perth

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Ben

I’m a Project Engineer at BHP Billiton Iron Ore. I’m currently working on the pillion project, extending the current wharf. I have been on this project since mid 2011 through feasibility studies and engineering, and now delivery. Whilst I was doing engineering at university, I started doing part time work at BHP Billiton and then entered the graduate program whilst studying at Curtin. I’ve been with them for three-anda-half-years, having moved around in a few roles. I started working out of Perth, and was up here for one week a month, then I moved onto five weeks on and two weeks off, and the four weeks on and three weeks off roster. I don’t get much spare time for recreation whilst I’m in Hedland. I get up about 5.15am, then have breakfast, starting at 6am, then back at 6pm at night, sometimes 7.30pm when a shutdown is on. I get home, get changed, then go and have something to eat, have a chat, then by that time I have a quick shower and sleep. I enjoy the job. I’ve spent quite a few weekends up here, going fishing and I’ve been to the races in Marble Bar. This place is what you make of it. I’m used to the country lifestyle since I grew up in a country town, I’m from Collie where Dad is a car salesman, and Mum’s a teacher.

Ben Johnson, ESS - Port Haven, Village

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Jean-Phillipe

I’m from Mauritius. I work as the assistant to the General Manager at the Port Hedland Yacht Club. I make sure everything is working. We do 300 people often, all at once for dinner. There are about four chefs; it’s a big place. I finished school and at 19 I start to work in hotels, I work in Club Med in South East Asia for four to five years, then Melbourne and now I stay here. I’ve immigrated to Australia, it’s one of the few places you can work hard, and then you can go to the airport and buy yourself a ticket anywhere in the world. There is no-where you can work as hard and buy a ticket like this. It’s economics. Right now, I’m working for knowledge rather than money. One day money will come, and when is enough, enough? I spent five years in Melbourne, and after five years I wanted some sun, and, destiny drew me here. I got this job offer two years ago, because I’m very interested in wine. I’m here in transit, because I want to move down to Margaret River where the wineries are. I wake up at 2pm, go to the Silver Star Café, read the paper, and have breakfast, sometimes at 12, sometimes at three, sometimes at 10 in the morning. I work Wednesday to Sunday, and sometimes, Thursday to Sunday.

For leisure, I go to Pardoo, my little escape on a Sunday afternoon. I watch the landscape changing, it’s different, it’s beautiful. It’s a continent, there is everything in onethere are many options, that’s where I started learning how to fish, and I met some people, very kind people. I got the hat, shirt, fishing rod, but no fish. If I catch one, everyone will hear about it. Jean-Phillipe Rene, Port Hedland

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Matthew

I’m the General Manager for BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s Port operations; that is everything from trains through to ships. I’ve been in the job since early January 2012, so over a year now. I was born in the United Kingdom, but grew up and went to university in Perth. I’ve lived in various locations around the Pilbara over the last 12 to 13 years including mine sites inland, and various BHP Billiton sites as a contractor on open cut mining, construction, and processing plants, mainly in iron ore. I’m now on the receiving end of work on the mines. The growth of the business and the entire industry in my time has been very interesting. We can now claim to be the highest tonnage port in Australia. We ship to major port destinations including China, South Korea and Japan. My day starts between 6 – 6.30am. I typically go into work and check phone messages, and emails. I go to pre-shift meetings, most of which start around 6.30 – 7am depending on the shift arrangement. I go in and meet our workforce, and listen to what’s going on. From there, different things are planned throughout the day; certain parts of the day are busier than others. I’m office based for most of the time, but I look forward to the time spent in the field interacting with employees, asking questions, and being available to people.

Matthew Dowd, BHP Billiton’s Nelson Point operations, Port Hedland

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Karen

I’ve been a personal trainer for about 15 years, and doing this job for two years. I’m an Active Life Coach at Tropicana (ESS-Port Haven Village). The money initially attracted me, after that it follows my background, promoting and encouraging people to look after themselves. It’s provided a consistent income. The disadvantage of being a self-employed personal trainer is that the income is unpredictable, when people cut something, this is usually ﬁrst. An average day would be a split shift, 6am to 12pm, and 2.30pm to 8pm. I ﬁnish work and go straight to bed. Even though we do a split shift, it still feels like a 14 hour day. In the morning we do warm-up stretches with staff so they are ready to tackle their day and reduce the risk of injury. I run the gym, sports and social activities. Our biggest job here is to promote healthy lifestyle choices. We have a ESS Port Haven Village, Port Hedland

labelling system in the food hall – eat most, eat moderately & eat less – which encourages people to make healthier choices about health and well being. I have four children at home, the youngest is my daughter. She is turning 12 in a week - I’ll be at work. She is always asking; When are

Fly in Fly Out (FIFO) refers to employees who are ﬂown to

you coming home Mum? It’s really tough. I don’t plan on doing this for

their place of work, where they work for a set number of

too much longer. I’d like to go into mental health after this. Talking

days and where they also reside, they are then ﬂown back

to a lot of people up here I see this is a big area that needs to be

to their home or place of residence for a number of days off.

addressed in this sector. For me, being away from my partner and kids is almost unbearable. It puts a lot of strain on all relationships, especially your partner at home. It’s hard. I personally want to give

ESS-Port Haven is a place of accommodation located in

more to my relationship and more support to my partner. You feel

South Hedland which caters primarily for FIFO workers.

quite inadequate. It’s emotionally really tough.

Karen Briggs, Cooloongup Perth

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Tom Christophersen, Mount Lawley Perth

ESS Port Haven Village, Port Hedland

Tom

I’ve been working in Port Hedland about six-and-a-half years now.

I found the people very accommodating, you form tight relationships

vehicle so I usually drive myself. On Monday morning we ﬂy up on

residential versus FIFO. I deﬁnitely enjoy the ﬂight home, every single

I lived here for about four-and-a-half years, and have been doing ﬂy in,

with people and the community, and it is a very welcoming town.

the 6.20am ﬂight and get onto site at around 9.15am. We have a safe

ﬂight is full and I’ve started getting upgrades often, which is nice.

ﬂy out for two at Port Haven. I ﬁnished university and I was applying

After four-and-half years it was time for a change, the climate gets

start meeting; we get together and talk about safety and work plans.

for a lot of different jobs and ended up going through the BHP Billiton

to you. I’m working in mechanical governance, we do structural

We look at reports and recommendations, coordinating contractors.

graduate program. The jobs seemed reasonable; the pay was good up

and mechanical audits of machinery, we audit them for compliance against company standards.

here, so I thought I’d like a sea change from Melbourne. I didn’t have

I get back to Port Haven at 6pm. I’ll go for a run or go to the gym, I do that for an hour, dinner closes at 8pm, and then I get on the phone to

any expectations before I came. I hadn’t really heard of Port Hedland

The machines we work on are the stackers, the reclaimers, and the

Kate (who lives in Perth) and go to bed. The lifestyle is tiring. A lot of

before. I moved up in the height of summer, so it was pretty hot.

ship loaders. We do 6am until 6pm, twelve hour days; I have a work

the workforce lives in Hedland, which makes it a bit harder - to have

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ESS Port Haven Village, Port Hedland

Alix Leibke, Ellenbrook Perth

Alix Our reception staff do different shifts, 4am to 4.30pm then late shift,

I got the contact details for ESS from a friend. I applied online and

After four or ﬁve o’clock, we have lots of arrivals. During the week,

got a position. The money attracted me, and I enjoy the lifestyle.

we have around 200 per day. We are a BHP Billiton based camp, we

I would prefer to spend seven days off, instead of just the weekend, so

have a certain number of rooms for the Port Hedland Chamber of

working for longer stretches, then having more time off suits me. I’ve

Commerce. There are 1,202 rooms, and we are usually at full capacity.

I’ve been doing this work for nearly two years, and my partner works

made some really good friends, and met some great work colleagues.

We have reports that need to be sent out to the contractor ofﬁces, so

away as well. The difﬁcult part is that we sometimes don’t see each

they can see who is here, and check in and check out dates.

other for a long time, depending on our rosters. When I’m at home

9am to 9pm. We break for lunch, for an hour. Fourteen days on, seven days off.

I’m an Administration Supervisor and I deal with payroll, accounts,

booking, and accommodation. I also serve in retail, greet people,

There is over ten administration staff. An average day is busy; we

and deal with any queries. Check in is usually in the afternoon.

work twelve hour days, from 5am to 5pm or 6.30am to 6.30pm.

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in Perth I try to spend as much time as possible with my friends and family. It’s living in two worlds really.

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Melchor

I’ve been here in the Pilbara at Port Haven for almost three months. I work as a chef in Compass – ESS. I have a 457 visa which is valid for four years, and my contract with Compass ESS is two years. My duty begins at 9am for breakfast in the Larder. I am assigned to the Asian section, Wok section or Roast section. Chefs have their rotation every two weeks. Right now, my duty starts at 9am and ends at 9pm and I have a break before dinner. During this break time I take my snacks properly and check my emails. I have left my family in the Philippines and I need to know whether they are ﬁne and in good condition. I have two children, they are both boys, my eldest son is 13 year old and the younger one is only ﬁve years old. My wife works in the government as a public school teacher. I work here to give my family a better future, since the salary and working conditions here are good I have to grab this opportunity. Every two weeks I have my rest and

ESS Port Haven Village, Port Hedland

relaxation, during the off swing I go to Westminister in Perth, where I rent a house together with other Filipinos; they are all chefs. I usually spend my days off playing sports, every Thursday I play basketball together with other Filipino chefs in Mirrabooka. We share a lot of things about our family, dreams, failure and, of course, our future plans. I enjoy being with them since we all have the same dream. I can say that this work is part of God’s plans for me and it is just perfect timing. For 13 years I worked as a chef on a luxury ship, but since my children are growing I need to earn a lot so I work in an off shore project where they offered a big salary, but it is too risky. In my last contract in Africa I witnessed a lot of pirates. Can you imagine when you work, that there is military beside you? There were pirates wanting ransom, so they were mainly looking for Canadians, British, Americans and Mexicans. I felt that this job was not a secure one; I felt that anytime pirates can hold me as a hostage. So I told my captain that I can no longer bear the situation. At present, I feel the most secure, that is why I pray and go to church to thank God about this blessing for this wonderful job and great people that surround me and I pray for the future. Melchor Sabile, Westminister Perth

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The Pilbara Calling Dr Nonja Peters - Director of History of Migration Experiences (HOME) Centre at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia

“Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness…

as petrol pump attendant at the Mobil Roadhouse, I as telephonist

very old eight-foot (80 cm) caravan on blocks. I had tried the YWCA

Perth to the Pilbara for six-week stints on a regular basis. The

There is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works…

typist for Dalgety. I walked in requested a job, had a short interview

at my parent’s behest only to be told that there was ‘no room at the

gender divide was huge, around seventy males for every female. The

(Thomas Carlyle).

with the Boss, and began work immediately. Dalgetys was established

inn’. Despite the cramped caravan accommodation and the intense

females there were either shop assistants or domestics. My friends

in Melbourne in 1846, by Scotsman Frederick Dalgety to provide

heat, no air-conditioning then, we had jovial moments. For example,

were mainly the daughters and siblings of business people, teachers

merchandise for the squatters and buy their produce, by 1884, it

if our feet unexpectedly, touched the wall at the end of the bed, the

and nurses.

was already registered as Dalgety & Co Ltd, a joint-stock company,

bolts holding the bookshelf over our head would pop-out and propel

on the London Stock Exchange. By then it was operating in London,

the entire contents over us.

Robert, my late husband and I enter the Pilbara story in 1966. Young and adventurous migrants from Wales and the Netherlands, we hopped into his mini Cooper Sedan and drove to Port Hedland. The

Our leisure time included picnics at Pretty Pool listening to radio broadcasts from around the world from the well-equipped seismic

Melbourne, Geelong, Launceston, Dunedin, Christchurch and Sydney.

bitumen stopped at Carnarvon, and for the next thousand miles the

Although Pearling luggers no longer plied the coast, and most gold

radio jeeps of American surveyors mapping the Gibson Desert.

mines had been abandoned, colourful locals continued to people

We loved evenings at the Picture Gardens. We often talked about

When I started work there, Dalgetys employees were located in

Hedland’s folklore. My ﬁrst encounter came when my Boss asked me

the cowbell that the management clanged to bellow the end of

the large warehouse next to the old manager’s residence erected

to get ‘Smokey Dawson’ on the phone at the Iron Clad Hotel, Marble

interval. Then there was the inevitable collapse of a row of deck

in 1903 and in use for staff quarters. The warehouse comprised

Bar. Surely, he was testing my gullibility? But no, Smokey and

chairs by an overly energetic courting couple. Parties at the nurses

a large retail section where shop assistants, older women in this

many ‘characters’ like him typiﬁed the Pilbara ‘outback’. ‘Red Dog’

quarters, drinks at The Pier and The Esplanade Hotel and BBQs

instance, sold the clientele clothing, shoes, household goods, tinned

would be considered a modern-day version of a Pilbara personality.

at pastoral stations were among my favourites. Often hundreds

foods, tools and many other seemingly exotic items. The Ofﬁce staff,

Another surprise was watching Robert’s eyes widen in amazement

of kilometres out of town, we drove to the Stations in convoys of

included the Boss, an accountant, two ofﬁce girls and one ofﬁce boy.

when he found his best friend from Sussex England sitting on the

jeeps. Steaks were ‘on tap’ there as well as in the enormous Dalgety

There were also some traveling salesmen who dealt directly with

opposite side of the Pier Hotel bar. He had taken a job as surveyor’s

freezers. Pastoralists routinely, dropped off a side of beef for staff

the pastoral station owners. Staff outings consisted of lunches at

assistant and spent his days maneuvering a theodolite.

consumption. We would douse the meat in Swan Larger beer,

A Port Hedland agency opened for business in 1899.

little car had to negotiate the deep corrugations of ﬁery red earth characteristic of the Pilbara’s compelling landscape. At night, as the sky darkened from its vivid blue to a black canopy, Rob made ready to sleep under the stars on a camp stretcher. However, one distant yelp from a dingo would have him sharing the already cramped front seat compartment of the Mini with me. We paid a visit to friends at the new town of Goldsworthy on the way up. They transported us in jeeps to 80 Mile beach, an enchanting, largely untouched golden beach littered with massive conch shells. The resources boom was just underway and offered a plethora of

The Esplanade Hotel. Griff, the accountant, imported the ﬁrst Mini

work opportunities. Robert and I had met only six weeks before he went up there to a job transporting goods to Marble Bar for a local Port Hedland trucking company. He’d heard about it in Perth. Robert

and let it cook while attending to our laundry at the Dalgety staff

Moke in town. We watched in awe as the crate containing the Moke

Progressively more male migrants were converging on the Pilbara.

quarters now the museum. Port Hedland was a ﬂourishing outback

was lowered onto the wharf.

Most described it as a challenge redeemed by well-paid work.

town then exuding a contagion of ‘happening’.

However, you were unlikely to encounter many women drinking at

had earlier been working for a dredging company based on Finucane Island. Goldsworthy Mining had, a couple of years before, developed an iron ore mine approximately 100 kilometres east of Port Hedland. They had built the mining towns of Goldsworthy and Shay Gap, a rail line to Port Hedland, and contracted a dredging company to deepen and widen the port’s channel and constructed a wharf on Finucane Island directly opposite Port Hedland. The ﬁrst shipment of 24,900 tonnes of iron ore left that wharf for Japan on 27 May 1966. On his return to Perth some weeks later, Robert found me laid up with Bronchitis. At his suggestion we went up to together, as the

From the beginning I recall Japanese sailors off the ore carriers

the bar. Most were recently arrived males for a six week stint in the

I ﬂew back into Port Hedland in 2012, after 46 years had passed.

coming into the retail section of the shop to purchase goods. Apart

mining industry. Australia has, since British settlement, actively

Australia had changed enormously in that time, would I ﬁnd this

from answering the phone, ﬁling the mail and doing the banking, I

recruited migrants to ﬁt its labour market needs. Until after WWII,

also reﬂected in Port Hedland? My accommodation, this time a

also typed the shipping manifest for the Japanese ore carriers and

newcomers were predominately from Britain, when Europeans

motel room, while not the Hilton, was certainly far superior to the

at the end of the ﬁnancial year assisted with the stock take. I recall

were targeted and, following abandonment of the White Australia

rickety old caravan. My ﬁrst night there at an art exhibition, which

the surprise I felt when I found out that the other girl in the ofﬁce

policy in 1973, people from Asia and Africa. The resultant ethnic

showcased art sophisticated enough for city viewing, was as far

was married to a local Indigenous man. This was almost unheard

diversity is reﬂected in Port Hedland’s labour market. It comprises

removed as my accommodation experiences. The next day, I felt a

of at that time. It would be another year before Indigenous People

people from around ninety different cultures. The not insigniﬁcant

sadness to ﬁnd Dalgetys an historical site. On the other hand the

were enfranchised.

ethnic, religious, age and gender differences of these workers add a

BHP Billiton sites were very impressive, especially lit up at night.

vibrant charm to the Port.

As for the people, they were certainly more overtly ethnically,

In contrast to the adequate accommodation provided employees

warmer weather would surely ﬁx it! I took leave-without-pay from my Public Works Department job and off we went. You could go up ‘on speck’ and start work immediately in a mining job, or any number of other support or regional industries. Robert landed a job

religiously and educationally diverse than in the 1960s.

on Finucane Island, the trucking ﬁrm that Robert had worked for

At that time, Fly in Fly Out (FIFO), had not yet been articulated.

provided only a makeshift bed in the garage – a camp stretcher that

However, McRobertson Miller Airlines (MMA a.k.a Mickey Mouse

would collapse when his sleep was unsettled. In contrast the Mobil

Airlines) established in the area since 1938, was by the mid 1960s

Roadhouse where he was petrol pump attendant provided us with a

ﬂying skilled workers, geologists, engineers and surveyors from

Next “Gospel of Mammonism” by Thomas Carlyle p481

71 P

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Ketaki Sheth

Portraits from the Pilbara

An invitation from FORM to spend a week in the Pilbara along with

observer of daily life and its myriad rituals. Fourteen years later in

two photographers from India, Ketaki Sheth and Bharat Sikka, was

2007, her book, Bombay Mix: Street Photographs was published.

an irresistible offer to visit a largely inaccessible part of Western

In between, her first book, Twinspotting: Photographs of Patel Twins in

Australia, except for those engaged with the mining industry and

Britain and India was published in 1999. This project, which began in

those who regard the Pilbara as their home. Moreover, I saw this

1995, was a major departure from her style as a street photographer.

invitation as an opportunity to re-engage with notions about this

Using the idiom of the staged portrait, Ketaki slowly uncovered the

vast continent I formed almost 20 years ago, whilst on a visit to its

possibilities of sameness in twins and triplets using the 6x6 format.

Eastern coast.

Working with communities came easily to Ketaki and she embarked

Port Hedland, the starting point of this trip was an unusual

on another six-year project photographing the Sidis - Indian Africans

place, unlike anywhere I had been – a mining town where people

who had settled in India 400 years ago. The Sidis, though assimilated

arrived from all over Australia, some with their families, all to

into Indian society, have remained marginalized because of their

become part of the booming mining industry. The deserts of the

African ancestral history. It was during this project, Ketaki evolved

Pilbara were more familiar. I recognize them, like most people do,

a very fluid approach to making photographs - marrying the staged

through photographs of its ancient landscapes. The rugged desert

portraits with photographs reminiscent of her original style as the

alternating between red and green hues seem fierce, remote and

observer. Her book on the Sidis will be published this year. Thus,

yet inviting. Contemporary photographs of its inhabitants were

it was no surprise when FORM extended an invitation to Ketaki

more difficult to find.

to photograph. Her experience working with communities was

The deserts of the Pilbara were more familiar. I recognize them, like most people do, through photographs of its ancient landscapes. The rugged desert alternating between red and green hues seem fierce, remote and yet inviting. Contemporary photographs of its inhabitants were more difficult to find.

essential to bridging the cultural gap while she photographed in

Against the backdrop of the complex history of the Aboriginal

the Pilbara.

people and their colonial masters, it was no surprise to experience the sharp divide between these two communities, some 300 years

Ketaki arrived in the Pilbara with some trepidation, despite

later. The impact of colonial rule on Aboriginal society was

this, her portraits betray none of her initial discomfort. Instead

profoundly disruptive and despite the transition at the turn of the

we witness the ease with which she fills the frame by going in

20th century, the Indigenous population remains alienated and

close, waiting for that moment when her gaze is returned with

marginalized even to this day.

equanimity. In some portraits, while the gaze of the subject is averted, the framing is nonetheless telling of the complicity of

The initiative by FORM to support photographic projects about the

the subject in the making of the portrait. Each portrait is nuanced

Pilbara, thus, assumes critical significance. By inviting both local

differently and invites further reading into the personalities of

and international photographers to make portraits in the Pilbara,

the subject, their racial background is rendered irrelevant. Ketaki

the definition of ‘community’ is accorded a special place and

approaches her subjects with openness, curiosity and patience to

enlarged to include not only people working in the mining industry

hear their stories. Photographs, by their very nature, are mute.

but also people from the Aboriginal community. With a base in

We expect them to reveal things in the way they are framed and

Port Hedland, FORM’s outreach programmes proved invaluable to

contextualized. The ‘Supergirl’ from Roebourne with beautiful

both photographers, who were strangers, but yet welcomed in to

curly hair tilts her head to one direction and returns Ketaki’s

people’s homes to make portraits.

gaze with the same curiosity directed at her. She is unafraid, selfassured and invites one to engage with her.

One of India’s finest photographers, Ketaki Sheth has had a distinguished career spanning over 25 years. She began as the

quintessential street photographer wandering the streets of Bombay

Devika Daulet-Singh

(now Mumbai), the city where she grew up, as an unobtrusive

Director of Photography, Photoink New Delhi, India

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Portraits from the Pilbara

In 2012 I was invited by FORM to the remote North West Pilbara region. I had never been to Australia. For a trip into the unknown it turned out to be rather special and certainly a dive into a lesser -known Australia. With no idea of what lay ahead of us, three Indian photographers and our curator were driven (quite literally) in three different directions, from Roebourne to Port Hedland, Marble Bar and everywhere in between, into an endless Martian red landscape that felt to me, like the end of the earth. Less mountainous than I had expected, nor anywhere as lush as I thought it would be after the recent rains, this land was dry, red, open, almost crater-like, with pencilled grass and giant anthills, abandoned cars its sole occupants. Even at 35 degrees, a temperature I was quite used too, it felt fiercely hot, as if the sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rays were directed entirely upon us. As we drove to Aboriginal communities and towns, past mining conglomerates, rising & falling salt pans and vast million hectare stations, it all felt like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle that seemed to fit together in a strangely snug way. The short experience of photographing the people and the landscape of the Pilbara is etched in my memory. I can vividly recall the faces, the conversations, the landscape. Flashes of unmarked territory, a stark and staggering landscape, a people so compelling and generous with their time in a light so harsh. Circumstances that helped me get to the heart of the subject matter. Chasing the light, following a lead, trailing a subject, I was at it non-stop. The experience was an eye opener, possibly a turning point in my career. I love conventional black and white photography; it is what I have done all my working life, the mystery of the wait, the magic of a darkroom and the feel of a silver gelatin print are all heady moments. Yet, for the first time, in the heart of the Pilbara, I felt the urge for colour and the digital precision of seeing the result of a captured moment instantly.

All photographs ÂŠ Ketaki Sheth Alec Tucker, Mingullatharndo Community

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Luke

I’m five years old. We live in De Grey Station. I love driving out on the station with Grandad, we go see if the pumps have water, and if it’s down we fix it, and sometimes we do that with my dad in his Hilux. My horse’s name is Hanna and she is not allowed in the house yard. We always brush it down after we ride. I talk to my teacher through a microphone and it goes through the computer so we can see her on the camera. My teacher’s name is Miss B, we tell her news, and she tells her news to us first, and then we do our activities. On school holidays, we go down to the river and go fishing - we catch barramundi or sometimes we catch bull sharks. I like to play in my room, there’s a whole mess of toys - I like to play with the outside toys and indoor toys. My dog’s name is Red Dog.

Red Dog & Luke Bettini, De Grey Station

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Rodney

It’s a good feeling to find gold, but greed ruins a lot of people. There’s a

I joined FESA and after three or four years I inherited the captaincy.

story in Marble Bar about a bloke who found a huge gold bar, he went

Most members are transient. In 2011 I won Emergency Volunteer

to the Iron Clad Hotel to celebrate and asked the bar tender to put the

of the Year. We attend to vehicle accidents, fire searches and

gold behind the bar then got blind drunk. He forgot about the bar and

search for people. My work involves labouring, concreting, fencing,

walked home where he passed out and hit his head on the pavement,

building, plumbing, operating trucks and backhoes - a jack of all

next morning he woke up with a giant lump on his head and thought

trades and a master of none.

he’d been mugged so he went to the police. I go looking for gold as a hobby on the weekends, but I still make money from it, the biggest piece was worth ten ounces, which would be valued at $ 16,000 and the nugget I’m holding in the photograph is worth $ 10,000. It’s the local Aboriginal people who know where to go; they’ve found bars worth about $ 100,000. I’ve been putting the gold away for my retirement, but if I want to sell I go to the Perth Mint and there are also buyers from Victoria and New South Wales. I’m in the process of buying a farm near Bundaberg, it’s a hobby farm; everything will be organic. I was born in Wollongong, New South Wales. I travelled around Australia with my family and back to Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. By the time I was 14 my parents had split. I moved to Alice Springs with my mother, two brothers and a sister. I was doing labouring jobs and over the years have worked all over Australia except Tasmania. I’d heard about the fishing and mud crabbing on the coast in Hedland so I decided to make a trip there. Working in Port Hedland I met my current boss, who showed me some gold nuggets in a jar that he’d found with a metal detector near Marble Bar which is in the main centre for gold in the Pilbara - gold is found in a 120 kilometre radius around the town. He offered me a job at Marble Bar Electrical, and I thought ‘why not’, I was going to stay for months and in that time I found some gold and bought a house; that was in 2003, I liked Marble Bar, it’s a quiet town.

Rodney Bruce, Marble Bar

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Sam

I’m a boiler maker on De Grey Station, we do the repairs of stock crates, erection of cattle yards, and repairs of old stock yards. I mainly work in the workshop and if there are repairs needed anywhere on the station that’s where I go. Before I came out here I was working in Port Hedland, I moved up here in 2009 because of work opportunities. I grew up in Mullewa, which is one hundred kilometres east of Geraldton; it’s mainly a farming area, with a lot of cropping and sheep. My parents had a station outside of Cue and I have always preferred the bush. The wet season is pretty good in the Pilbara; it’s good to see the pasture go to green. Last year when the river ran we had whole trees floating down. I do a lot of pigging (chasing wild pigs) with my American Bulldog, Bully. We probably go once a month and get a camel for dog meat, or we will get the ribs, or get the back straps (scotch fillet) we get that and bring it home, cut it up and put it on the barbie. There are heaps of camels which are regarded around here as vermin, as they do so much damage to the infrastructure. A lot of people shoot them out of the chopper to get rid of them, whereas we shoot them to eat. There is pretty much one spot where you are 99 percent guaranteed they will be. They can get pretty nasty; they spit at you and they have a hard brisket between their chest, so if the dog is trying to attack them, they will drop on their forelegs and squash them with their brisket. I do a lot of crabbing too, which is fun, I’ve almost had my finger bitten off a few times. The crabs have swimmers at their back end, you grab them by that, or put your foot on their shell and grab their claws. You catch them in the net and then you put them in the esky.

Sam Thurkle, De Grey Station

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Erzsebet Katai

My name is Erzsebet Katai. I was born in 1965, when Hungary was

to take in turns who is sleeping and when. Most of the time we had

under a Communist regime. It was a challenging lifestyle in many

to line up before we could get to the showers. Usually it was a cold

ways, for many people. Soon after I become a married woman, my

shower and we had to hold a door in front of each other for a little

husband and I decided to look for a better standard of living with

privacy. We received three meals per day, but only a few people

better opportunities. We learned from people that our neighbour

could gone downstairs to bring our food up. It was like when a sheep

country in Austria was operating as a transit country for refugees

paddock is opened up with everybody trying to get out ﬁrst.

ﬂeeing Communist regimes, so we started organising ourselves to

After two weeks because I was married we transferred out to motels

leave our country in the hope that, one day we would be able to come

where we have been provided with a basic everyday necessity. The

back to visit our families.

food that we received often was not enjoyable- the cheese had mould

As we lived so close to the Austrian border, our area was patrolled

and the milk and jam were made runny with a lots of water. When

regularly by the army. We had to be very careful not to say anything

we reported it to the hotel manager, the answer was very simple, if

to anybody about our plan of leaving the country because the

you don’t like it, go back where you come from, special food for special people.

consequences could bring problems for people. One of the hardest

There was a padlock placed on the heating system, so when winter

days came when a taxi arrived and we had to leave our small ﬂat.

arrived the room temperature could be kept on the minimum. Many

We packed our 22 years into three suitcases. I looked back as the taxi

of us bought a cheap heating source to keep warm. But that never

was pulling away but my ex husband encouraged me not to do that

stayed with us for too long, because we had unexpected room checks

because that would make leaving harder.

and it was conﬁscated from us.

Before we reached the Austrian border our taxi driver sensed our

Finally, we had an opportunity to write a letter to our family back in

intention and kindly offered his help to take us back free of charge,

Hungary, to explain where we were. Some people were supportive, but

but we declined. At the border we were very lucky because the army

some were sceptical about our future. After three months we called

person was called away for a phone call before he could ﬁnish

for a interview at Vienna where lots of question were asked about why we left our country and what is our expectation for the future.

searching our baggage.

For a long time we dreamed about making Australia our new home, We found ourselves alone in the foreign country without the support

because we learnt so many great things about this country that we

of our family and friends. Without speaking the German language it

had fallen in love with it. After almost two years of waiting for our

was difﬁcult to make ourselves understood. Shortly after we arrived

refugee status, our visa ﬁnally arrived. It was time to say good bye to

to Austria we managed to get to a huge building where thousands of

the friends we made at the camp. Saying good bye is never an easy

refugees from Eastern and central Europe were seeking refugee status

thing to do.

between 1945-1989. The ﬁrst two weeks were the hardest because on For a few days afterwards, buses came and transported us to the

our arrival we were checked over like criminals. Later on, we learnt

Vienna airport. At the airport, I met the lady who is now my best

some of these checks were necessary for Interpol.

friend. Then we began a long journey to Australia. After many hours We received a blanket, a cutlery set and a plate then we were shown

of ﬂying and crossing continents, oceans, countries and deserts we

to our room where eight men resided. For our own safety we decided

arrived to the Western Australian capital city, Perth. Erzsebet Katai, South Hedland

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Luckily, a Hungarian translator was waiting for us at the airport with a mini bus. We were very relieved that finally we arrived to our new home country. We received a three bedroom flat at Tuart Hill. It was huge compared to the home we had left behind in Hungary. After two weeks, we received our first unemployment so we could pay for our power usage and other expenses. We had free English lessons and a fridge stocked right up to the top with different kind of foods and some we had never seen before. We were given three months to stand on our own feet and to also move out of the hostel. Shortly after we arrived to Australia, we found a job and bought our first Datsun car and moved out from the hostel. Over a year, we slowly made our way to Port Hedland and it become my home, from 1989. Since then we raised our two girls but our marriage came to an end five years ago. One of our daughters lives with my ex husband in Cairns and my other daughter stayed with me here at South Hedland. We are still on friendly terms and I hope it stays this way for our daughters benefit and for the sake of the history we shared together for 22 years. As a community member I was involved with our Well Women’s Centre and the Living Together project. With my kids growing up I was involved with their school life, by helping out in their classes. After they went to the High School, I completed my Teachers Assistant Certificate so I was able to support them further. I am very proud of my girls in every way and enjoyed every moment of them growing up. For over three years I have been involved in a new relationship and it seems like I have found my soul mate in Frank. I love my work and I enjoy the lifestyle that the Pilbara can offer. We definitely made the best decision to immigrate to Australia. I just learnt to love Port Hedland. Port Hedland means to me, home, more than home, everything. The freedom we were expecting was small, but now, the country has given us much more than what we were expecting.

Celia Sandy, Roebourne

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Narelle

I like being isolated and I love the wide open spaces, I love the

I have three children, Luke is ﬁve, Grace is three, and Clare is one.

richness of the environment, the colours, and the country feel and

Luke is enrolled in Port Hedland School of the Air that includes online

people in town, the friendships I’ve made. This is a real place of

lessons plus home tutoring, I do this, but I also have a Governess, a

opportunities – if there’s something you are interested in, you can

home help tutor. My Mum and Dad come up for three months of

go out and create it, there is always support for your idea, people to

the year.

support you, there is a good sense of community. Hopefully I will

I love horses, I’ve always worked with horses, I like the training and

be here for the rest of my life and hopefully one of my kids will take

that side of it, we also breed Australian stock horses – they are what

over running the station.

we use, they work cattle; they are very athletic.

I was born in Subiaco, in Western Australia. I grew up in the northern

In my spare time I paint and hold art camps here on the station once

suburbs of Perth, at the time it was semi-rural. I’d always been a

a year - I have a Diploma of Counselling incorporating Art Therapy.

pretty adventurous girl, and spent most of my youth in the bush

I completed 12 months of art lessons with local artist David Hooper

around home.

and attend any workshops I can run by The Courthouse Gallery. Art

I met my husband, Mark, through a friend at Pannawonica Rodeo.

and riding horses is something that fulﬁls and rewards me which

We were introduced; we talked on the phone and eventually, about

is important for busy mums. I love my life out here and sharing it

three months later he asked me to come up on the station. I loved

with amazing people we meet along the way. This place is ﬁlled with

it instantly; it felt like home. That was in 2005.

opportunities if you are open to creating them.

De Grey Station is a cattle station; we breed Brahmin cattle and sell to the live export market and to local markets. We have just under a million acres. Our neighbouring station is Pardoo. We are 80 kilometres away from Hedland. We’re lucky: at the last station I worked on, Mount Elizabeth, we were eight hours from Derby so we had to get all of our food delivered by truck or mail plane. Living on stations has taught me to live in the moment; each day is a different challenge, a different reward. I’m actively involved in helping run the family business – we have approximately 15 people who work for us in the mustering season. We have station hands who help with the mustering side of things, we use horses and motorbikes for mustering the cattle in, and my husband ﬂies a helicopter. We have a cook who makes food for all the station staff, we generally have a mechanic and/or a boiler-maker, building yards, building gates, ﬁxing things. It’s seasonal work, and generally goes from March until October every year, the rest of the time is too hot, or too wet. We work the cattle in the cooler months; it’s much nicer on the cattle as well. Narelle Bettini and family, De Grey Station

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Marshall

I was born on a station called Wyloo, at a windmill, Mirdawandi, I think it’s about 140 miles south east of Onslow. We set up Mingulltharndo or Five Mile community with some of our family as a place to shelter and provide refuge to our people in town (Roebourne), away from alcohol and violence. We didn’t actually choose this spot, we looked at several spots, we got the authorization for this particular place way back about 21 years ago. We house families that are in need, which is short term in most circumstances; the numbers vary from 40 - 80. We set up a nursery growing native plants as part of the plan to try and bring in a small amount of income to assist the community costs. The nursery comes under Pilbara Indigenous Enterprises, and it’s been operating for three years now, we’re just starting to experience larger orders from companies to rehabilitate trees. Most of the people living on Five Mile work in the Roebourne community, they leave from around 8.30am, which is when school starts. I work for my brother four days a week, so I’m part time away from the community, but I’m always ﬂat out working on maintenances or other projects that’s we’ve held onto trying to ﬁnish. The people living at Five Mile work in town, Beth my wife is involved with the Roebourne Community Resource Centre, working on everything that needs to be supported in Roebourne community. Recently, they had Are you ok day?, Working to raise awareness about mental illness. The numbers of suicides were going up in 2012, we had this event that took place in the basketball court and the Roebourne school oval, to get information out about how to get assistance, if you’re at risk of suicide. Five Mile is quiet, there is no noise, no violence, everyone respects our conditions about alcohol and never in 21 years have there been alcohol or drugs. We’ve never had any problems. Our rule is not to stop anyone who comes here drunk, but ask them to be quiet and restful.

Marshall Smith, Mingullatharndo Community

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Margaret

For the ﬁrst few weeks I cried when I arrived in Port Hedland, the

In May 1990 we came across to Broome where he got a teaching

dusty landscape seemed bleak, by comparison to the lushness and

position in the Catholic School. We had a real adventure in the

colour of Broome. I believe that when you come to the Pilbara you

Kimberley’s, we spent 15 years there, and Jim got work down here, in

cry, and when you leave it you cry, it literally has an energy all of its

the Pilbara SES, at that stage I was working with a deaf student as an

own, you look around and think there is nothing here, but it has a

interpreter, he was an amazing young man and I wanted to help him

powerful energy.

get through his studies, so I joined Jim later on.

Through the Well Women’s Centre I met Kathy Donnelly and Irene Coffin, who introduced me to acrylics and were an inspiration. Kathy was the first person who believed in me and she gave me a glow inside, made me determined to continue on – I loved the feel of paint moving on canvas. Over the next eight years I fell in love with the colour and rugged beauty of the Pilbara, it’s amazing to see the rock formations, which are millions of years old. You can see the folds; it tells its own story. There is an active energy here, it awakens you, that is what I did with my painting, it woke something inside me and I met so many artists here - people who bounced ideas off each other. People in the Pilbara are magical, the artist community is amazing. I had always painted, but I had never been trained. I used gouache and cheap water colour paints, I never signed the paintings, I didn’t think they were worth anything. I put no value on them, I had no confidence – the Pilbara gave me confidence. I was born in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland in 1954. I came to Australia when I was married with six children, there was a bad recession and we were looking for a new life. We applied in 1986 and got through in 1989, it took three years and a lot of money, it was a difficult process with many medical checks and a lot of paperwork. One of the questions that my husband Jim had to answer was: Do you have a criminal record? To which he responded: Is one still necessary? Which didn’t go down too well. We arrived in Sydney during June 1989. From there, Jim got a teaching position in a small town in New South Wales.

Margaret Cahill, Port Hedland

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Roebourne

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Chelsea Churnside, Wickham

Cheryl Manurung, Marble Bar

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Nicole Dhu

I was originally born in Port Hedland and came to Marble Bar when I was eight or nine - now I’m 32. I have four children. Since those days, the people have changed and moved away. I went to Marble Bar Primary School. I’ve got my Dad and sister here and most of the town is family. The kids were born in Port Hedland - there’s only a nursing post here. I like the heat before the rains come, and when the rivers start running, I like to go down to the Coongan River sometimes. Every day is different for me, I worked as a cleaner for a while, but mostly now, I hang out at home, go visiting people, and have a cup of tea.

Danika Dhu

I go to Marble Bar Primary School and I’m in year seven. I like science and when I’m older I’d like to be an artist, I like painting. My teacher’s name is Miss Megrail. In our class, there are nine and in the school there are about twenty, roughly. I hang out with my mates and go to the swimming pool, it’s open all year around. I like going to the shops because I like the lollies. I play footy and basketball. My brother likes football too. We go to Hedland on the weekends sometimes - I’ve been to Perth, it’s big and noisy. I like Marble Bar, it’s small and easy to get around, I will probably live here when I grow up.

Dylan, Danika and Jimmaya Dhu, Marble Bar

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Shammika

I’ve lived in Port Hedland for five years and before that I was in Cunderdin near Perth. My family is Noongar and I go down sometimes for my school breaks. We went to the Pilbara for a holiday, but my Mum thought it was so pretty, so we stayed. I like hanging out with my friends and going to the skate park. I’m 12 and go to the Port Primary School, but next year I’m turning 13 in February so I’ll be going to the High School. My favourite subjects are sports because I like playing football. I go for the Fremantle Dockers One day, I’d like to be a police officer or someone who works in an office.

DreAnnah

I’ve lived in Port Hedland for 13 years, I’m Finnish and Aboriginal. I go to Hedland Senior High School and I’m in year eight – sport is my favourite subject at school and I like to play netball. In my spare time I go to the skate park, and I do boxing with my Uncle who has a gym. I don’t know what I’d like to do when I grow up.

Shammika Ware and DreAnnah Murros, South Hedland Skatepark

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Pilbara Impressions

The Greensnake mine, an open pit of earthy reds, whites and

of Australian iron ore, China, is slowing down economically and no

beneath the mud, black manganese ore, was almost overwhelming

one knows just how much that will affect the Pilbara and its FIFOs.

in its strange and silent beauty. On assignment for Monocle, the But the socio-economic impact of the resource industry has already

international magazine I’ve been with for the past ﬁve and a half

made a deep mark on Western Australia. To start off with, having an

years, I was standing perched on the edge of the mine. This was my

abundance of resources has created a lopsided economy where it

ﬁrst trip to the Pilbara and the story was already shaping up to be

almost doesn’t make sense to go to university when you can make

the most fascinating I’d ever worked on.

Mining towns such as Karratha and Port Hedland do have a brighter future as local government, in partnership with the mining giants, are focused on creating tangible quality of life by building swimming pools, schools, new housing, cultural centres for its people.

a mint straight out of school at a mine. In addition, prices for just I was tracking Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) miners from where they boarded

about anything (housing, food) have soared to unprecedented highs

their commutes in Perth to their day-to-day lives at the mines.

as a result of the mining boom.

Catching a plane ride with a group of FIFOs working at mine site Now money is being funneled back into local communities through

Woodie Woodie, the location of the Greensnake pit, 1,500 km

the programme Royalties for Regions but there’s still not enough

northeast in to the deepest of the Pilbara, I was quite sure I would

big-scale people-centred development to match the enormous effort

ﬁnd a bunch of tough blokes blackened from mine dust, welling up

poured into the sector by its workers. The reliance on FIFOs is

from dark holes in the ground.

reinforced in tandem with multi-billion dollar resource projects Some Woodie Woodie miners turned out to have big muscles and

being given top priority. The nature of ﬂy in ﬂy out work is transient

lots of tattoos but the majority of FIFOs are simply men and (a

and so become the whistle-stops that FIFOs move through.

surprising amount of) women who pull long shifts, staying away Mining towns such as Karratha and Port Hedland do have a brighter

from home for weeks at a time, sometimes working the mines for as

future as local government, in partnership with the mining giants,

much as eight months of the year trying to make a better living for

are focused on creating tangible quality of life by building swimming

themselves and their families.

pools, schools, new housing, cultural centres for its people. Several FIFOs I interviewed told me they feel a deep connection to Though these are small ﬁrst steps, they are being taken in the right

their place of work - they are hooked on the bush and its surrounding

direction. While the FIFO workforce will have to grow to meet the

red landscape, which to me appeared desolate yet mystically

world’s insatiable demand for resources, it may one day hopefully be

appealing. Many are also out there among the elements to pursue

permanently settled in the wondrous red world that is the Pilbara.

distinguished careers as geologists – the ones I met at Woodie Woodie were loving every minute they got to poke around in the ground to see what resource-rich treasures they might ﬁnd.

Liv Lewitschnik is Monocle’s Hong Kong Bureau Chief, monocle.com Over 100,000 people work in Western Australia’s mining industry, tapping everything from gold to salt to oil to the largest export: iron ore (the output of which is set to double by 400 million tones each year in the next ﬁve years). As it stands the world’s largest importer

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Martin Parr

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Port Hedland by Martin Parr

Before I arrived into Port Hedland, I was given many warnings. It’s dirty; it’s ugly and all covered in red dust. The reputation of Port Hedland is not good, to say the least. So you can imagine my very pleasant surprise when I arrived and found it to be one of the most interesting, engaging and surreal towns I had ever experienced. We know the primary function of the town is its port, where most of the iron ore, and other commodities such as salt, and copper nitrate are shipped to a waiting China. This simple procedure supplies much of the wealth that Australia now enjoys. To facilitate this, the port is very big and the industrial contraptions to help load this on are often quite beautiful, despite their functionality. These structures are inevitably rust coloured from the iron ore and this too, is quite stunning. The people who are living there are nearly always involved directly or indirectly with this business. The population is also swollen by the Fly in and Fly outs (FIFOs), who will often stay for between a week or a month and then ﬂy home for a break. They stay in hotels, caravan sites or even large scale digs where all food and lodging are provided. Many people wear high visibility and this town must have the highest density of this clothing in any street, of anywhere in the world. This too has a certain appeal. The photos you see here are a selection of the many portraits I made in the town. From the wonderful Deputy Mayor, to an Aboriginal Mother with her kids at the DIY store, to the service at the C3 Church in South Hedland, the range of people living and working in this town, show remarkable variety and character.

All photographs © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos / No Worries Mosque, South Hedland

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Vaughan Price, Captain, Fire Brigade, South Hedland

I’ve been in Port Hedland since 1996, so about 17 years. I never had any set plans, it was more like, see how it goes, but I definitely didn’t plan to stay for as long as we have. I’m originally from Harvey and an apprenticeship for a Heavy Duty Diesel Fitter brought me up here. I am now a Maintenance Planner with BHP Billiton at Nelson Point. I’m Captain of the South Hedland Fire Brigade, and have been for about six years now. I joined up when I first came here. I got involved in the fire brigade when I was in Year 11, it appealed to me back then and once it’s in your blood you can’t stay away.... I get a great sense of reward and satisfaction from helping out the community. It is a 100 percent voluntary role and the brigade usually attends around 220 call outs per year, but it has gone as high as 300 calls a year, so you’re basically looking at one call every one or two days. We’ve got an excellent crew of around 25 men and woman who all play active roles. Our core role, the serious side of what we do, is mainly scrub fires, property fires, motor vehicle accidents and hazardous chemical incidents. There is also the social element and we’ve got volunteer fire fighter championships that take place throughout the state in Perth, Albany, Esperance, Bunbury, Northam, Exmouth, and Karratha. Basically, we are the furthest team north competing and it goes all the way down to Esperance and across to Kalgoorlie. Then we have Victorian teams that come across and we sometimes go interstate. We use traditional fire fighting with reels or carts; we basically simulate how we used to fight fires prior to having motorised appliances. It’s an event, there are a number of fire hose simulations that you have to do, and the quickest time wins. We do quite well. We won our grade in Perth last year and the year

Volunteer Fire Brigade, South Hedland

before as well.

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Finucane Island

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Mud-crabbing with Tubs and Tracey Saggers, Port Hedland

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Daniel

I have worked for the MG Kailis Group for four years, as their Stock & Logistics Manager at their Exmouth operations, looking after wholesale, retail, and logistics. We have two trucks working the Pilbara route, which go from Pannawonica to Karratha, and then through to Port Hedland. It is an 800 kilometre drive from Exmouth to Port Hedland and it’s a four day round trip. All the fish and prawns we sell comes from the Exmouth Gulf, MG Kailis run nine prawn trawlers and two fishing fleets, we sell red emperor, coral trout, squid, prawns, bugs (which are similar to Moreton Bay Bugs); and spangled emperor, basically all your tropical species. There is a huge market in Port Hedland for this type of fresh fish. MG Kailis took on the actual trucking about three years ago, but the truck has been running for 15 to 16 years through Onslow Seafood, which was owned by Mick Manainmifis who is about 70 and still cuts fish. I moved to Exmouth about four years ago from Adelaide, where I was also born - we had family in Exmouth who were involved in MG Kailis. I just fell in love with the place, the coast is gorgeous, and it’s all still so alive unlike the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. The people are the highlight - everyone’s friendly.

Daniel Breton, Port Hedland

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Beryl

I was originally from York and then lived in Perth. I came here in May 1961 when I first got married- my first husband was working here. My eldest son had asthma, and the doctor’s said the weather was better for him, but in actual fact, it didn’t make any difference at all. I came up for two years, but I’m still here. I remarried and we were together for 38 years, but my husband just passed away. When I first came I worked at The Esplanade Hotel; we used to have a lot of fun. I’ve done a little bit of everything - at The Pier Hotel, All Seasons, and Dempster’s Store – a general store and cleaned the nurse’s quarters. You used to be able to go down the street and know everyone, people got on well, but now the atmosphere has changed. I’m President of the Country Women’s Association (CWA). This is a nation-wide organization, there is one in every state and we formed in 1922. We’ve also been in Port Hedland for a long time. I heard about CWA so I joined, all the women meet and support each other. It’s not as big as it used to be, I’m the only old one left; but there are lots of nice ladies and we help in town wherever we can. We have emergency accommodation at the hospital, we have get togethers, we do barbeques, raffles, and sell Easter eggs. We also do craft - I knit and crochet. I volunteered at the Port Hedland Hospital Auxiliary Shop for 17 years. I love the races and my family is involved too. My daughter is on the racing committee; my older son trains horses and races them. I have four children and a foster daughter, and many, many grandchildren and a few great - grandchildren. Most of them live down south now but two grandchildren live here with their wives and children. I wouldn’t live anywhere else. I like the place, my daughter lives five doors down and she won’t leave.

Beryl Adamson, Country Women’s Association Port Hedland

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David

One of my favourite sayings is from John Lennon: ‘life is what happens

Throughout my life, art and painting have remained a constant, and

when you’re busy making other plans’. My determination is not to just

I dedicate one day per week to spend doing artwork. My ‘studio’ is a

let life happen while I’m making other plans, but to enjoy it. I’ve

side room at the Church where each Sunday, the canvases and tables

been in Port Hedland for 23 years - it was going to be a temporary

have to be pushed to one side. My family are fairly artistic too, though

thing; we followed my girlfriend Lil’s parents up from Whangarei in

most of them are musical. My kids have grown up with me painting

New Zealand. I come from a country that is hilly and green, whereas

in the lounge with a big roll out blind so I didn’t get the carpet covered

here it is ﬂat and red so it’s like earth and Mars. But I love this rusty

with paint, which I usually do anyway. Almost all my clothes get paint

country! We had always meant to move on, we got married, then

on them, much to my wife’s angst. I am mostly self-taught, and I’ve

travelled, but came back here and started to have a family. Lil’s Mum

learned through books, through practice, experience, and through

and Dad were staying here and it was of great value for the children

teaching art. I started by trying to reproduce exact copies of what I was painting, but since then I have been trying to push away from

to have their grandparents around.

photorealism, be a little bit more abstract. What I’ve noticed about For 10 years I was a manufacturing jeweller, an occupation for which

myself is that when I’m looking at an artwork, I love to see simplicity:

I had trained in New Zealand, but which, during the 1990s, I began

simplicity but effectiveness. Anything worth watching in art – whether

to ﬁnd less fulﬁlling. At the same time, my involvement with the

it’s a gymnast, or a diver, or something of beauty – they make it

local C3 Church in South Hedland had grown. I had been raised in

look so easy and yet it’s only because they’re putting all the effort

a Christian family so when I ﬁrst came to Hedland I sought out a

beforehand; and so I like to see that in art: I want to make it look easy,

church to join. I loved the place. I saw Pastors come and go, and

but at the same time, attract the eye, and take you to a happy place.

realised this is disruptive for people, but I knew that I would stay on. I decided to re-train, this time as a Pastor. Our church values connection with community, we exist to serve the community. Love People, Worship God, Serve the World. C3 has about 100 churches across Australia and our tagline is, Your Best Life. My main role is preaching on a Sunday, and to raise up leaders and teams. We offer support on all aspects of life - ﬁnancial, family, and emotional. We host youth groups, groups for ‘Young Adults’ Mums and pre-schoolers - one of our most popular programs is one called ‘Mainly Music’, and many others. Some are recreational and some are spiritual. We are involved in the local markets, festivals, and ‘Sprees’, including the ‘Welcome to Hedland’ night. It used to be held at the beginning of the year. That’s because typically people would come for a year, or a cycle of years, and there would be an exodus in December, but now there is an inﬂux and exodus all year round, so it’s a little later in the year. We are heavily involved with the Carols

David Hooper, Port Hedland

by Candlelight, which now has over 2,000 people attend.

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Ship Crew Portraits, Port Hedland Seafarerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Centre

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John and June

John Van Uden: I first came to Port Hedland in the 1960s to deliver a boat domiciled in Onslow. The person who was supposed to take over as the Master of the Vessel didn’t turn up on time, so I was asked to stay for a little bit longer; the wages were good, the pay was good. Forty eight years later, I’m still here. I happen to like Port Hedland very much and the only way I’ll leave it is in a body bag. When I first came, I spent three years living in the Esplanade Hotel in Room Number 25 and so did the rest of my crew as I became the manager of the outfit. The Esplanade Hotel was a hotel of business people, whereasThe Pier Hotel was the blood and guts place. Those who drank at the The Esplanade didn’t go to The Pier and those who drank at The Pier didn’t drink at The Esplanade. The marine contingent, the boat drivers, the shipping agents, the marine contractors stayed at The Esplanade, whereas those at The Pier were involved in the inland railway site. The Esplanade still holds the Australian record for the most amount of beer sold in a two hour period, because there were sessions then. Often two people would fight each other one on one for two hours and when the four o’clock session started, they went and sat at the bar to have a beer together and said, ‘that was good, wasn’t it.’ The rules and the law were extremely different to what it is now, your word was rule, business was conducted on a handshake and nobody reneged on a handshake. It was a place of honesty, you never asked a person where they came from, or what they did before they arrived in Port Hedland, you never asked them if that was their real name, if they wanted to tell you, they would tell you, but if not, you minded your own business. All of the North West was the same. If you broke the rules, you were outlawed by local society; those who wanted to cheat or lie were run out of town, either by the police of the peer group. The police had a job to do, but more of an overseeing role, rather than enforcement. Social life was just superb, there was always a party happening, and virtually anyone was invited. John and June Van Uden, Port Hedland

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I was in Port Hedland for about ﬁve years before I met June.

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June Van Uden: I was sent up to Hedland with the Education

Rock Shed in Port Hedland which was made out of Tiger’s Eye. June is

Department. I came up in 1972 as Deputy Principal at Cooke Point

good at finding the stones – I find the area and June finds the stones.

Primary School and I was there for 28 years. My mother had also

We traded mainly with Aboriginal people. If you had a stone in your

worked in Hedland she came up on a boat when she was 19, because

hand and said ‘this is what I’m looking for,’ nine times out of ten they

she couldn’t ﬁnd work in Perth. She felt sorry for the chooks because

would be able to locate them for you. We worked together in harmony,

they didn’t have any feathers due to the heat.

we had mining tenements together. The Pilbara is truly remarkable for stones and it has to do with its age, it’s the oldest land on earth.

My staff at school were very dedicated and keen; there were always games of softball or basketball going on, it didn’t matter if it was

Everyone in the Pilbara has always been interested in base metal, iron

summer or winter, the staff would be out there. It was pretty busy

ore, copper, nickel, but we have rubies, emeralds, carnelian, we have

because people were coming in and out of town, kids would come

so many different types of stone, the whole country is really an open

in the morning and then in the afternoon, the parents would come

book when it comes to semi precious stones.

and collect them, because they couldn’t get work, or couldn’t get The other really exciting thing that June and I have done, is to ﬁnd

accommodation, so they would head off further north. There would

petriﬁed rain drops – there is only one other place they are found in

be more transient people when there was a boom. There were

the world and that’s in New Zealand.

always different nationalities, a lot of eastern Europeans, Yugoslavs, Croations, and Thursday Islander people. When I ﬁrst came I had to share a house with two other ladies, only men got their own houses. Neither of my roommates were teaching, one worked for Centrelink and the other one was attached to the Health Department. When I ﬁrst came up, most people working here were given a house; mainly they were four bedrooms, and one

We love the Pilbara for prospecting, and every day there is another place to go, another pool to ﬁnd, another ridge to climb. My favourite place is one mile gorge, it is magniﬁcent. It’s a series of small waterfalls down a gorge, from the top to the bottom, it’s not really accessible, so when you do go there, you’re by yourself.

bathroom, all air-conditioned at six or eight dollars a week. When we got married, we bought a house opposite the Hedland Motor Hotel. John Van Uden: What June isn’t telling you - there is a library in Port Hedland named the June Van Uden Library, June also volunteers at the South Hedland Library, Meals on Wheels, and at the hospital. Both of us are now retired. Most of my career I owned a marine and dive company, but when I got a bit too old to do diving, we went into semiprecious stones. We were totally vertically integrated. We had our own mining tenements; we did our own mining, our own processing, cutting, polishing, our own retailing and wholesaling through the

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South Hedland Police Station

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China

I used to get called Chinky and Chinaman at school, then Little China

We have a real mix of people coming here, all different nationalities

when I was boxing, I used to hate it, but now I like it. I even had a

and ladies too, because life can be tough for them too. The building

band called Made in China, I was singing in it, but now I just do a bit

we train in is the ﬁrst hospital built in Port Hedland - lots of Aboriginal

of karaoke. I’ve always been involved in sport; it’s always been part of

people were born here, it is over a hundred years old, and its all heritage

my life. I was adopted - I never met my parents but I know I’ve got bits

land - I got permission from Aboriginal people to use this building.

of everything in me. I worked at The Pier Hotel for eight years as a resident compeer for I had a couple of ﬁghts as a boxer around Melbourne, and then I was

the dancing girls. These days I work in the hospital as an orderly – I

ﬁghting up here in the late seventies. I used to take part in the big

also help people with a bit of counselling if they need it. Once a

North West competition, Golden Gloves & Iron Gloves that was held

year I also play Father Christmas, I ride all around Port Hedland on

at The Pier Hotel. People from all over the Pilbara would come there

my Harley Bad Boy, I’ve had it since 1995; they’ve stopped making

to ﬁght. They would look at you, and say, okay, you’re as big as him,

them now.

jump in. After a few years I found out the weaknesses of the other boxers and I won the last year it was ever run; now it’s held under the West Australian Amateur Boxing Association. I had a step father who played for North Melbourne who influenced me to get into boxing as defence, because he used to bash me a bit. Arriving in the Pilbara with all that dust was quite a culture shock, but it was the best thing that could have happened, it grounded me. I spent 17 years in Karratha, and some time in Roebourne - that’s an excellent community, there is so much history there and it will never change. I’ve been in Port Hedland for 20 years. China’s Gym has been going for about 11 years; I wanted to get the kids off the street, keep them out of trouble. Boxing makes them stronger in the mind - it gives them discipline, and self confidence because I’m very strict. They can look forward to something- some of them are pretty good, in the future they could be champions, if you push them a little bit. I teach them to walk away from fights- educate them as much as I can about self-respect. When they finish with me they are very tired and if they get in the ring here, I tell them they’re Lewis Kew Ming aka China, China’s Gym, Port Hedland

not to do it out in the street, what they learn here, they keep here. I get the parents involved, train them too. It’s good cardio and keeps you healthy and ﬁt.

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C3 Church Meeting, South Hedland

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Father Tom

I came to Australia with the view of staying for a short time and then

housewife and was very involved in the family, we are 14, 11 from the

going back to my country, Tanzania. I am a Roman Catholic Priest a

same Mum - seven boys and four girls, my parents are good Catholics.

member of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers, or (Spiritans)

We adopted three more children. My Dad passed away in 2004, which

entrusted with the care of St John the Baptist Parish in South Hedland.

was a big loss for the family and Mum died in 2010. Through out their

After my ordination I was assigned to work in a minor seminary with

lives they worked so hard to make sure, we got good education, they

a High School for seven years, at the end of my time I was tired and

were very inspirational and a great model in life. For this we are so

was looking for a renewal course. It took me nine months to get the

grateful to God.

visa to come to Australia and I arrived in October, by this time the People in Port Hedland are friendly and accommodating. There is a lot

short course was not available so I was asked to supply this parish

of richness in terms of all the cultures and I love to relate, to all these

for six months, that was in 2001, so I have now been here for 12 years.

different people, who accept me, in spite of my accent. We face some

There are two reasons for this, ﬁrstly, it is hard to ﬁnd someone to

difﬁculty with the transient population and FIFO doesn’t encourage

replace me, and I also started getting involved in the community, with

the growth of communities. Another big change for me was, where

both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. I have a real passion

I come from, we may have 100,000 people at a mass, here there is

towards the Indigenous community. I do quite a bit of work with

usually around 30, or 100 at the highest for a holy communion, Easter

Maureen Kelly, she gives a lot of support at Yandeyarra and with St

or Christmas.

Vincent de Paul, which is a shop for selling clothes.

With the parish there is very good involvement- we have people who

My ﬁrst impression of Port Hedland was that it was so hot, where I

do a lot of volunteer work, to build up our parish community, people

come from we have a cool climate, when its 28 degrees we complain.

are very generous they are always ready to help when there is a need.

I come from an area with big trees , here it was just shrubs and dry,

We have a charity walk, where some of our members climbed Mount

not green at all. I thought, could I manage to stay here? Tanzania is

Kilamajaro, that included Tom Stephens with his family and last year

a very unique and peaceful country, with the highest mountain in

we had a group of 14, accompanied by Kelly Howlett with the money

Africa. I came from Kirua Vunjo in Kilimanjaro Region, it is a small

being used to support orphanage and schools in Moische.

village where the villagers get involved in cultural activities and also produce coffee and maize banana, they have small projects for

We have a very good parish team with Sister Jane Ablett, Father January

poultry, and zero grazing, which provide them with daily food and

Mkude and Father John Martin who give a lot to the community.

income. Today, many have abandoned the coffee farms because the price for coffee has gone down. When I was a young boy, I offered myself to the church and started to help the poor. I did my studies and ﬁnished training at university

Father Tom Kessey with Parishioners, Port Hedland Seafarer’s Centre

when I was 29; it took me eight years of training in Tanzania to become a Priest. I belong to the third generation of Catholics in the Moische area. My Grandfather was ﬁrst to join the Catholic Church. My Father was a teacher, training young men, my Mum was a

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Anil Kumar, Trident Swift, Port Hedland

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Port Hedland Seafarerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Centre

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South Hedland Skatepark

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Colin Matheson Oval, Port Hedland

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Cassia Primary School, South Hedland

Garden centre, South Hedland

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Tom

I was born in Sydney; after completing school I started, but did not

add on additional texture and new layers, ﬁnding my way into the

complete studies for the Catholic priesthood. During those studies I

multicultural community of the Pilbara.

got involved working with Aboriginal people in Redfern, and in 1977 I went to work in Kununurra in the North East Kimberley. It was here

Through Val Gaddes in Port Hedland I was introduced into the

I became intensely involved in the struggle for Aboriginal land and

community of the Cocos and Christmas Islanders who had settled

voting rights. As well as working on the ﬁrst three election campaigns

in large numbers in South Hedland and beyond. I was soon a much

for Ernie Bridge for the state seat of Kimberley (and the related Court

welcomed guest at the celebrations and the marriages of these many

of Disputed Returns and the Electoral Act (‘Kay’) Inquiry), I worked

Malay families, and the smaller number of Chinese families from the

at putting together the Kimberley Land Council, which ﬂowed

Islands. Added to the family celebrations came the religious feast

from a huge dance meeting at Noonkanbah Station in May, 1978.

days and a new understanding of Islam and its calendar of prayers,

Following Ernie’s successful election campaign in February 1980, I

and fasts and feasts and life. I remember Mustapha Bin Amat starting

was arrested on charges (that were subsequently withdrawn) that

his Malay language broadcasts on Radio Station 6NW broadcasting

alleged ‘persuading and inducement’ of Aboriginal voters to cast

from Kennedy Street in South Hedland; I remember work starting

postal votes, through which I ended up, brieﬂy, in the Wyndham

on the construction of the South Hedland Mosque; and the opening

Prison. I was somewhat stunned, but comforted by an Aboriginal

celebration some years later. The Filipina women, through Nanette

prison mate, the boxer Norman Horace with the words ‘People like you,

Dunn were the next to add me into their community life in Hedland

who work with people like us, have to expect to end up in places like this!’

and beyond. Not far behind came the Torres Strait Islanders and little by little, I found links into the multicultural world of Italians, Croats, Greeks and Macedonians.

I ﬁrst came into the Pilbara on my way back up from Perth (where Steve Hawke and I had been meeting with lawyers, preparing for our anticipated court appearances). Peter Dowding, newly elected

Beyond doubt my memories of life in the Pilbara and the Kimberley,

as the MLC for North Province asked us to drive his white Range

and the North West more generally, are ﬁlled with the sense of

Rover up to Port Hedland. Steve fell asleep at the wheel while driving

multicultural richness spread across the vast canvases of these huge

north, writing off this vehicle somewhere north of Geraldton; after

and beautiful landscapes. Today, change, rapid change, is a deﬁning

embarrassed calls to Peter we pressed north on a Greyhound Bus,

feature of Port Hedland: it was a comparatively sleepy port into which

which was then involved in a double fatality crash south of Karratha.

I walked in the early 1980s; iron ore prices had fallen and the pressure

We eventually limped into Karratha, somewhat traumatised and

was off. Community life was big. People had homes and gardens and

in my case, with a permanent back injury. We were met by Union

families and played sports and volunteered and even occasionally

Organiser Bill Donoghue. He and his wife Judy generously looked after

went on strike. This has all changed now.

us both in their home before taking us on to Port Hedland, where we

Strong community life was the rich texture of life in Port Hedland in

stayed next to the Mining Union ofﬁces on the western-end of Kings

the early 1980s: strong and lasting friendships, memorable outings

mill Street, in what was then Geoff Schaeffer’s old ‘war-time military

that shaped and moulded the participants. Road trips down to

igloo’ that he ran as a transient hostel; it has since, relatively recently,

Cossack for the Australia Day Bush Dance with Mucky Duck and

been demolished.

Hon. Tom Stephens MLA, South Hedland

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others! Dancing all night until the back pain was unbearable and

My memory is awash with faces, names and images of those who

hospitalisation, the consequence. Train trips down to Newman on

people my 35 year connection to the North West. The Pilbara Bush

board the ‘Sundowner’ added to the texture of Pilbara life. Sunset

Meetings of the early 1980s saw me discover new faces, strong

departure and midnight arrivals, with much fun and conversation

characters and warm friendships with men like Herbert Parker and

on board. Occasional trips out to the towns like Goldsworthy; and on

Peter Coppin; and from these bush settings out into the white snappy

to Shay Gap. Visits in the early 1980s to the towns and communities

gum territory of the inland Pilbara to meetings with Don McLeod

of Telfer, Wittenoom and more easily to the nearby community of

and his Strelley Mob. These ﬁrst settings, these ﬁrst landscapes,

Finnucane Island or the busy half-way pub at Whim Creek; these are

these ﬁrst links are the most memorable for me. Later, I was able to

now largely all things of the past.

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BMX Track, Port Hedland

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Black Rock Caravan Park, South Hedland

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Bharat Sikka

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Bharat Sikka: The Pilbara Portraits

While his approach to portraiture is always the same no matter

as specific entities, regardless of their societal moorings. Gregarious,

where he may be in the world, the New Delhi-based photographer

affable and generous, the photographer relishes a genuine interest in

Bharat Sikka doesn’t expect the same results wherever he is. Sikka is

people and new situations.

intensely aware of the nuances of location, how the particularities of

The Pilbara is a massive area in the North West of Australia that is

places and the people that inhabit them are realized through details,

sparsely populated but has become the economic engine of the

colors, textures, and mise-en-scène, the French term for ‘placing on

country. Iron ore and other precious minerals are mined in and

stage.’ Mise-en-scène may be the best way to describe Sikka’s process,

exported from the Pilbara, changing the area profoundly. Little of

as it refers to not only the setting and the placement of objects

these impressive numbers matter to Sikka, who concentrates on the

and accessories within the picture but also to the positioning and

simplicities of human interactions: the nourishment of family, the

direction of the people within the constructed image.

camaraderie of friends, the initial suspicion of strangers that can be

Sikka approaches life as if it is a performance within a constructed

turned into trust. One might expect a photographer to then see the

set, taking nothing for granted, attentive to everything, valuing all.

Pilbara as some sort of litmus test for the ‘new Australia’ or evidence

His photographs, documents of people living their lives, are richly

of the effects of globalisation. Yet, Sikka’s pictures aim to portray

nuanced yet never artificial, always patient and sumptuous no

individuals found here, occupying spaces of their own making or

matter how seemingly little he may have to start with.

design, implying no condescension by photographing these spaces of happenstance and humble means. How dissimilar Sikka’s portraits

Sikka’s subjects usually pose as if they are not posing, there is a fine

are from those of the photographers Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas

line between the candid and the self-conscious portrait. Most of the

Ruff, who want to continue August Sander’s project of categorical

portraits Sikka shot in the Pilbara are in homes or places of work,

typology through the erasure of context and reduction of means.

so the familiarity with place enhances a feeling of comfort and an

Sikka will have none of this. He appreciates people and all their messy

atmosphere of honesty.

foibles, acknowledges the problems and anxieties of daily life, finds solace in the portrayal of determination, even stubbornness.

Sikka studied photography at Parsons School of Design in New York and then apprenticed with the well-known Indian photographer

Australia is, apparently, the oldest land mass on earth, the first to

Prabbudha Das Gupta. Sikka then went on to pursue both a career in

solidify from a soup of dust and gases some five billion years ago.

commercial and fashion photography while always shooting a wide

Within Australia, the Pilbara has some of the most ancient geological

variety of subjects of his own interest and for his own pleasure. This

formations yet discovered, dating back some 2.5 billion years.

naturally led for these bodies of works to be exhibited in art galleries, independent of commercial exigencies. Perhaps Sikka learned the

The photographer records not the vicissitudes of geo-politics

art of making his subjects comfortable through his commissioned

but the nuances of body language and the pride conveyed in daily

work, enabling his subjects to inhabit their own mise-en-scène more

labour and peaceful coexistence. In this way, Sikka’s Pilbara portraits

completely, resulting in these satisfying images. In each case, Sikka’s

are about globalization, but one that has nothing to do with

subject confronts the photographer knowingly, taking a collaborative

telecommunications and the circulation of capital and everything

responsibility for the construction of the image.

to do with the commonality of human experience and the warmth of the heart.

Portraiture is, of course, often associated with identity, even the construction of regional or nationalistic categories. Sikka seems to resist these larger parameters, preferring to approach individuals

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Peter Nagy, Director Gallery Nature Morte, Berlin/New Delhi

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The Pilbara is such a beautiful place, the challenge was not having the immensity and splendour of the region consume the portraits. I didn’t want to produce picture postcards of the landscape. There had to be stories, there had to be people. When I take pictures I try to project the way I see things and I found the Pilbara to be an extremely interesting space that intrigued me a great deal, there were many people who seemed to be searching for something intangible and others who were longing for a new life like the different migrants working in the region, or the gold prospectors driven by a desire to ﬁnd gold. Even the popularity and presence of so many Chinese restaurants was something I hadn’t expected. I was able to meet a lot of Aboriginal people through Sharmila (FORM Curator) and I felt an inexplicable connection with them, it was something that I’ve never experienced before. Many of the people I met were surprised that I had come all the way from India and in some ways it was very emotional. I felt that this was a place where I could return again and again. Bharat Sikka

All images © Bharat Sikka / Looking for Nyamu Traveller, Roebourne

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I was born in Port Hedland. My Dad started working here and met my Mum, then they got married, so I didn’t have much choice. Dad was from Kalgoorlie and Mum is from Thailand. I have a brother in Thailand, a brother in South Australia and a sister in Perth. I speak Thai fluently, I go every year or two to a placed called Naklua. Mum has a lot of brothers and sisters, there are 12 and I always liked to get away from Hedland to visit them and spend time with family. I sometimes feel that I’m two different people- I have a serious life over here, I have to stay focused on my career, and in Thailand I feel quite peaceful, I can lose my focus and drift off. My Thai family are Buddhist – and in Naklua we always go to the temple. I see a lot of truth in Buddhism, I see a lot of truth in every single religion. When I was younger I thought I’d like to live in Thailand, but I grew up and realized that I could have a better life here. I finished school then worked at the Post Office as a Postal Services Officer at the front counter, I loved my job, it’s where I met the best of friends and I was really sad to leave. I recently finished my Diploma in real estate, which I’m going to practice in Bridgetown. My Dad is retiring, so Mum and he are moving down south and I’m going with them, if I could afford my own house I might have stayed here, its good to be in real estate in Port Hedland, but I think it’s time for a change. Our house is sold now. I have just given away my birds; I had budgerigars. I started with one which my Dad found in the bush with a broken leg, he brought it home for me, and then after it died I bought another two, that was when I was about six years old. The two became 20 and then they bred, so the cage kept getting bigger and bigger, other birds have come along, they are all budgerigars. You grow to really like Port Hedland, it’s a nice place to grow up, you get close to people easily. I like going to the jetty near Marapikurrinya Park, although I used to be scared of the water, and I didn’t like to see the water when you walk over it. I have played the piano since I was ten years old and was taught by Jan Gillingham who is a great member of the community and likes to get involved with lots of things around town. She introduced me to the Pilbara Music Festival and every couple of years I would perform there. It’s a really popular event where musicians that have moved away from Hedland come back to perform every year in September. I’ve always been a really shy and quiet person and performing really helped me open up. I think the town has improved a lot, they are building up a community, and there is more to do now- it used to be hard to find things in Hedland; but now there are shops and you get more entertainment. I love the cyclones here, as long as it’s not a category five, like being stuck in the house for 12 hours and getting sent home from school or work. I love rain, I think that’s because it is so rare here, like this place is cursed not to rain, if often gets completely cloudy and then doesn’t rain.

Eva Jane Hawke, South Hedland

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Annelies

I am 26 years old and have been living in Port Hedland for almost two

Having a business in an area that is so remote has its challenges, fresh

years now. Back home on the east coast, they think the Pilbara is just

produce is difﬁcult so we are exploring alternatives in hydroponics

red dirt, and dozens of big mining pits with dump trucks, but I always

and growing our own food. If this is successful we will know exactly

say, actually, there’s more to it.

where our food is sourced and what is going into it.

I went to university in Melbourne and studied a Bachelor of Photography

One of the advantages of living in a small town is the amazing support that I get from the community and even other restaurant owners. Everyone is so excited to have us in town and we are so happy to be here.

at RMIT. After ﬁnishing, I needed to get some money together so I moved to Tom Price for a year where I worked in recruitment. After Tom Price, I went back to Brisbane, spent a year there, and then got the travelling bug again and went off to India. I never thought I’d live back in the Pilbara, but, in my last weeks of travelling India, I got a call saying, can you come to Port Hedland and train some of our recruitment staff? I initially came for a six week contract, and a year later, I’ve had two jobs and I’ve now have started a successful food business. From a very young age I have lived and travelled the world and developed a passion for food and wine. After having an opportunity to hold a market stall at the FORM West End Markets I discovered a huge community demand for a variety of food. Soon after, my business, Las

In the future we would like to have a permanent space; however the

Patronas Mexicana was started. The name comes from a special short

cost of renting a commercial space is outrageous. So for now, we will

ﬁlm that I saw at a Future Short Film Festival at The Courthouse

stay on wheels.

Gallery. It’s a story of a group of elderly women who, for the last 17 years, have spent their days making food for poor immigrants who

I have always been a city girl, however the space and pace really

travel North on the trains, looking for work and the opportunity to

makes me appreciate the Pilbara, but the thing I love most is the

create a better life for themselves. I thought this was a really cool

opportunity that have been presented to me as an entrepreneur.

story of people working together, helping one another, community and friendship. I have had a Mexican Taco Truck custom built in Sydney and a great team of designers from Solitare Creative, to create a brand that is ﬁtting with the cult dining experience that I want to create. This is a craze sweeping the US and UK, so I wanted to bring it to Port Hedland too. In the truck we have an iPad that allows customers to send orders straight to us as we’ll as an iPhone app currently in production.

Annelies Elizabeth Oldham, South Hedland

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Leanne Sampson, Marble Bar Travellers Stop

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Dannielle

I grew up a couple of hours south of Perth, in Harvey. I started working

My partner, Clayton and I both worked together. The ﬁrst time I saw

in mining when I was 18 at Cadjeput, operating mobile plant equipment.

Clayton, it was just these dusty feet sticking out from underneath

I came here in 2001, purely to work – I’d been living overseas and I

the truck. It is one of those classic Pilbara Stories, I met him in a

was broke. Town was really quiet then, there was mainly a lot of dirty,

trucking yard opposite the whore house in Wedgeﬁeld – it was the

contractor work, not like the plum jobs that are around now, there

most unromantic place you could ever meet your future partner. We

was no FMG here, and no smaller mining companies; it was just

bought the renovators delight; I love our little shack because it has

BHP Billiton.

character. When I ﬁrst moved here, everyone lived in an old ﬁbro, but now there are new houses and new streets. Now we have two kids,

I ﬁrst worked with a guy from Laverton who had an earth moving

Eddie (four) and Angus (two).

business, and we did shoulder grading where you clean up a side of the road, getting it ready for wet season, so you could see for ‘roos.

My business started when I had Eddie. I decided to grow veggies. I’ve

My claim to fame is that I drove one of those big, ancient rollers from

always been a mad gardener; I am often in the back corner of my

Newman, back to Port Hedland, it was like driving a tractor and it had

house, under the fruit trees. I just love how the whole vibe changes

no brakes at all, we’d do three kilometres one side and three the other;

when you grow a garden. I started reading what to grow, and when to

it took about four weeks. We would camp on swags by the side of the

grow. I had a few attempts, but everything just died, or I was growing

road. I’m scared of snakes, centipedes and scorpions, so every night

the wrong things, it took me about a year to get it going. Finally, I got

I’d get tyres and signs to make a bed as high off the ground as I could,

there, and now I sell heirlooms, the old fashioned varieties that you

and every time I heard something I’d want to go home. You’d come

can use again, year, after year at the Hedland market. People liked that

back to town and look like one of those kids out of Mad Max.

they could save the seed and get all these different varieties and grow things here that were hardier. If I grow beans and they do really well,

When the Rapid Growth Project kicked off, people started coming

next year they’ll be better, they’ll adapt to the climate. I love growing

to town for work, I got out of earth moving and started doing trade

rare types of vegetables and it became a challenge to grow the weirdest

assistant work with Monadelphous and I did that for four years. I was

thing; there are 100 types of tomatoes, you can grow pink ones, purple

the only girl and I used to get heaps of, why aren’t you home, making

ones, stripy ones. For the Thai and Indian ladies I grow okra.

babies? or, your husband lets you do this? I’m like, I’m not married, and it wouldn’t matter what he thought, because I’d still be doing it anyway.

I like to think I’ve played a part in changing the culture here, where

Although you do get a hard time, they are really good mates. It was

people would say nothing grows, but then, they’d come to my store

like having a big crazy mob of big brothers and dads and granddads.

and say I didn’t know I could grow this up here. They just need advice and encouragement to know you can actually do it. I nearly thought about

You meet a lot of hardworking people; they didn’t really care what

not doing my market stall this year, and there was public outcry from

you thought about them and they weren’t here to impress anybody,

some of the customers.

they were just here to work, to make money for their families or themselves. They were from everywhere, all around Australia; you

That’s the community spirit here, if you do something out of the square, people will really try and support you. They really get behind you; I don’t think in all honesty I’ve done what I could have done in another place.

meet people from places you’ve never heard of. We knew a lot of people who came with nothing; they had no education, no qualiﬁcations. A lot of people say they wouldn’t have had this opportunity anywhere else in Australia, so you put up with the dust and the crap that goes with living here. A lot of people would say ‘we’re going next year’, and then they’d still be here two years later, stuck in the Port Hedland time warp thing.

Dannielle Aggiss with her sons, Eddie and Angus, South Hedland

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Tristan Saylor, Roebourne Basketball Court, Roebourne

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Bruce

My name is Bruce Monadee I’m about 69, if I was still young I wouldn’t be sitting here I’d be out somewhere - but I can’t, because I’m a diabetic. I was born first of the first, 1945. I grew up mostly around this area, Roebourne. Roebourne is my hometown and I’ve lived all my life here. I’ve never lived in other towns like Hedland, Onslow, or Marble Bar, but I’ve been around there in my young days when I used to travel around. I spent all my teenage years here in Roebourne. When I got to around 18 I traveled a bit, to areas, that I’d never been, just to see it, people invited me in their homes. I traveled a lot to Marble Bar, to see my brothers and sisters because they are part of my family, our fathers and mothers were there. When I knocked off school I had a job already waiting for me at Mount Welcome Station. The boss said, ‘oh when Bruce Monadee finishes school a job is waiting for him’. Riding horses, going out and looking at the mills every week, just to check them, if its okay, that’s what all the station work was about, at shearing and mustering time it’s different. I never was short of work. Every time I used to break for holidays from Mount Welcome, I’d start right into the job working with Old Solomon James, sometimes I used to help out my father working at Tommy Lee’s, doing Chinese work. My father used to drive trucks, up and down; I used to give him a hand driving the trucks sometimes. We used to stay in the Roebourne village, but after Mum passed away I moved into Cheeditha. I’m a pensioner now, and like all the people around the Pilbara I play cards, we have a game. You can’t just sit around one place and look at the wall.

Bruce Monadee, Cheeditha

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Rosie

I was born in Port Hedland District Hospital. I like being around my friends and families who live at Cheeditha, and I come here to spend the weekends because I live in Karratha, I’ve got my own house there. On an average day, I go ﬁshing, or go out bush with family. I hope something good will be happening for the next generations and they’ll make a good environment in Cheeditha and other places around the Pilbara.

Rosanna Helen Pat, Cheeditha

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I’m from the North Island in New Zealand. I was in Perth and applied for a job on Seek.com, and BHP Billiton moved me up here to be an electrician. I didn’t know about the Pilbara before I came to Perth, but I knew there were a lot of mines in Western Australia and I had some friends in the city so it was a good base. I met someone who I went to school with here, but I didn’t know they were here; I just bumped into them. I was driven to move over to Western Australia basically because there were more opportunities, and I needed a change. I came first and then my family came later once I had a house and was settled. I still have one of my children in New Zealand who is with their Mum. I didn’t like Port Hedland at first, but after being here for a bit, then it grew on me. I like getting out into the outdoors, and I’m starting to enjoy it as opposed to the city life. I start work at 7am, at Nelson Point, I mainly do maintenance work, but we also do whatever is required. Then I finish at about 3.30pm, I do a bit of gym work, then have tea and watch television. I didn’t want to do FIFO work, I’d rather be with my family. My partner works at Skilled Recruitment, at first daycare was an issue and we had a friend’s wife fly up here from Perth to watch my son, Shia, until he could get into it. We were lucky that there was a new daycare facility and my partner went early and signed up, we’ve heard that others have had to wait six months and even up to a year. Our friend has moved back to Perth, and we pay $500 per week for day care, so that is an expensive cost for us. I’ve done a year now and my contract is two years, but I may end up here a bit longer than that, it’s a good change.

Tristan Slight and his son, Shia Slight, South Hedland

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Gloria

My father brought his family from Burma to Australia 43 years ago.

Committee, also on the National Advisory Committee for Home

We were part of the Anglo-Burmese community which means my

Hardware Group and spokesperson for the South Hedland Business

heritage is part European and part Burmese. My Grandfather wanted

Association. I’ve been appointed to many boards, but the one that

us to immigrate to England, and he wasn’t happy that my Father

is closest to my heart is the Youth Involvement Council as I believe

brought us here to Australia; he made the best decision because I’ve

youth are the future and a major issue for the town. I also have a lot

been back to England and I tell you what, Australia truly is the lucky

of love and time for, arts and culture, sports and recreation. I play

country.

netball, touch rugby, golf and softball when my schedule allows.

I grew up mainly around Highgate as a child, and then Dad and Mum

Hedland is a unique place, it may not be aesthetically attractive

bought a place in Morley for all eight of us. In 1972, my Mum passed

straight away – but it is beautiful in the people and places you ﬁnd

away from cancer. I was nine years old and my father had seven kids

here. I’ve travelled extensively, and I can tell you that there’s a spirit

to bring up, lucky for him my older sister was 16 and knew how to

in Hedland that’s very community minded. If housing, education,

cook, and clean and she took over the house, when she got married

and health were improved more people would stay and we wouldn’t

my other sister took over the house, lucky there was only three of us

need to constantly be rebuilding community.

by the time she got married and I took over the duties. Currently the largest bulk export in the world Hedland is of vital After my mother passed away my brother moved to Port Hedland

signiﬁcance to the economy of the nation. It is hard, it’s soft, it’s

and the ﬁrst time I came up here was when I was 19 so that began

challenging, it presents many opportunities and rewards. Whilst I’ve

my association with the town. I trained and nursed up here from

been fortunate, it has not been an easy environment to be a woman

1980 to 1985, after that I moved back down to Perth for a few years

in business, however a challenge is good for everyone and Hedland

where I studied computer programming during the day, and nursed

has made me the person I am today.

at night. Then I got a call from two friends, they’d bought a business Hedland Hardware and Steel Supplies store and needed someone to check the computer system, so I agreed to come up for a six month contract. Turns out there was nothing wrong with the computer, but that’s how I ended up in the hardware, it was four letter F word called fate. I employed a friend, who used to run a restaurant, and the two of us ran it for 18 months, then I bought it in 1991 with my Uncle who had retired from the army. After ﬁve years I took over, and we’ve evolved from this little hardware store and big steel yard to where we are now. I’m now a Councillor at the Town of Port Hedland, I’m also on the boards of the Pilbara Development Commission, Pilbara Planning Gloria Jacob, South Hedland

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The Loneliness of the Long-distance Librarian, Pier Kelly

My ﬁrst job in the Pilbara was in the Port Hedland library. I had

strong willowy heroines, New Age mysticism and crypto-feminist

worked for council libraries in the past and had no illusions. Friends

themes. A truckie came in one day and borrowed a Barbara Cartland

imagined me whiling away the hours reading classic literature at the

audio book. A few weeks later he returned it, declaring it to be

circulation desk while telling people to be quiet with an imperious

amazing, and borrowed another. I pictured him behind the wheel of

glare. The reality is somewhat more banal. Fretting over the imagined

his rig, plying the 1,700 km of highway to Perth while listening to a

idleness of their library staff, local councils like to employ them as

sultry voice purring from the speakers. The bloke who operated the

outsourced labour for petty administrative tasks, from the processing

ore reclaimer, suspended all day in a burning hot cage, listened to

of rate payments, to dog registrations and parking ﬁnes. But the

poetry and young adult literature. And then there was the self-

dream of the monastic librarian, living a life a peace and reﬂection,

published literature from little-known Hedland writers, long gone or

was still somewhat attainable in the iron ore capital. It was always a

deceased. Hour of the Cyclone is a racy thriller in which a bored South

pleasure to be on shift, enjoying the airconditioning and waiting for

Hedland housewife offers sex to a travelling salesman in exchange

something to happen. Since I was the only librarian on duty, visitors

for successive volumes of his encyclopaedias. Another local classic,

would often take advantage of forced intimacy to conﬁde their hopes

The way of cross, is a Tudor-era love story with a Christian message.

and private grievances.

The longer I stayed in Port Hedland the more I came to realise that entire town, and not just its library, was an imaginative space for its residents – restless, dreamy, perpetually reinventing themselves.

Like a priest in a confessional, I heard the life stories of sailors, nurses, truckies, miners and police ofﬁcers. Often they would complain about the town, or complain about having to leave it. The demure waitresses from the Japanese restaurant would sit on the kid’s chairs in the play corner chatting loudly and rolling mountains of cigarettes.

Those outside the orbital inﬂuence of the mining companies appear

A towering and tattooed South African man in ﬁlthy overalls gave me

to ﬂoat in zero gravity from one job to another. In such a small

regular lectures on the social organisation of termite mounds.

community acceptance of eccentricity is the default, more so than in

One of my favourite regulars was a middle-aged man who worked

the supposedly more sophisticated capital cities. After all, little good

on the salt hills. An extraordinary fantasist, he once told me that he

can come from confrontation when there is no escape from those you

had devised a revolutionary method for making fuel from algae and

disagree with. Only outsiders romanticised Port Hedland as a brutal

was about to become a multi-millionaire. One afternoon he admitted

frontier or a rugged, timeless heartland.

discovering a bikie gang operating a powerful drug ring from the local

Tim Winton’s classic Dirt Music describes the town in a handful of

hotel. He was seriously fearful for his life. When he didn’t show up the

vivid words: ‘a badlands of power pylons, rail yards, steel towers and

next day, or the next week, I started to get worried. Was it all a tall tale,

smokestacks…Pre-fab buildings stained with iron dust.’ Clearly he

or had he really been murdered? Perhaps he skipped town? Several

didn’t know about the native plants that can cure cancer and how

months later he wandered in, unhurt. The bikies were long forgotten

much sex our encyclopedia salesmen get. Needless to say, it was one

but senior Aboriginal men had just showed him the whereabouts of

of the least-borrowed books in the library.

native plants that could cure cancer and he was now trying to get a Piers Kelly has authored books for Lonely Planet and writes regularly for

jump on the drug companies.

Crikey. He worked in Port Hedland as a social worker, teacher, and volunteer

As for borrowing habits, I had assumed that miners would be drawn

ambo, but it was his experience as a librarian that revealed the inner life of

to the technology and gargantuan machines of science ﬁction.

the iron ore capital.

Instead, they were almost all devoted to fantasy novels with their

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Carmen, South Hedland

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Alum Cheedy, Harding River, Roebourne

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Murray Millwood, Marble Bar

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Scott

I came up to the Pilbara two years ago from Newcastle, mainly for work. I was at a crossroads in my life and wanted the experience of working in Hedland. I lived and went to school in town when I was younger, and then we went back to Newcastle for High School. I think the place was more laid back then, now it’s a little bit different. I have always enjoyed building things. I finished school in year 10 and knew that school wasn’t for me, so I got an apprenticeship in cabinet making. When I leave Hedland I’d like to get into furniture design or industrial design. I arrived in Hedland and found work pretty quickly. For the first two months I worked for the council mowing lawns, then I was offered a job with Pilbara Construction. We do a lot of the building for BHP Billiton and some other big companies – at the moment we are doing a lot of maintenance work, fixing up the older houses and building new houses in South Hedland and at Pretty Pool in Port Hedland. We start work at 7am and I’m usually home by 5pm: it depends on the job at the time. I mainly install kitchens, but also do other jobs like hanging doors and shelving. I’ve learnt a lot of new skills doing this job because I get to work on many different things. Before Christmas it got a little quiet, which was related to the drop in iron ore prices and the general slow down that the town experiences over the summer and Christmas period. I meet a lot of people through work; it’s more difficult to meet people outside of work. Most of the people I’ve become friends with have been here for a while and are staying on, however I do find that it is very transitional I have seen friends come and go. I’d like to be here for another few years to enable me to set myself and my partner up financially. I enjoy listening to music, mainly Triple J and that kind of alternative style – it was really great this year to see everyone supporting the first North West Festival, it acknowledges that there are a lot of younger people who enjoy good music and want to have a good time. I love the fishing up here, and the freedom of being able to drive anywhere you like, there are not a lot of restrictions, and you can see many beautiful things.

Scott Boyd, South Hedland

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Kevin

I like to collect books about the history of the Pilbara- it’s pretty hard

motorbikes - a 1927 Norton, and a 1925 Harley Davidson. I’ve also got

country; there’s been a lot of bloody murder. I came up here from a

an F Series Valiant. I can’t resist, I pick up anything that’s old - signs,

farm down South where things weren’t too good. I decided to come

old engines and knick knacks.

up north and make a fortune. I was going to spend six years here, I’m a Councillor of East Pilbara Shire; I represent the North East ward,

and it’s been 40 years now. I went to Goldsworthy Mine to work in

which goes all the way out to the desert, to Kunawarrijtji, Punmu,

the explosive division and then went to Shay Gap. In 1993 they shut

and all those communities. We have about six different zones, it’s

Shay Gap, that’s when I got interested mucking around with gold.

about 500 kilometres wide and 1200 kilometres long, it used to be the

These other blokes I knew were always looking for gold and then

biggest shire in the world, but apparently now Greenland has taken

they asked me to peg some ground for them and I borrowed a metal

over, but I reckon half of it is under water. I hate the cities - I hate the

detector. It took six months before I found anything, then I got a bull

trafﬁc, I can feel my blood pressure going through the roof when I

dozer and found a lot more. I had two other partners, we got a lot

visit Port Hedland.

of gold, probably about 500 ounces, which today is worth $500,000, back in those days it was only $400 dollars an ounce. I got out of that partnership and came to Marble Bar where I got my own leases. Back in the 70’s and 80’s it used to be easy to peg a lease, there was a lot of ground available, you would give the mines department the paperwork, and they would grant you a lease. I found a 60 ounce piece once - that’s been my golden moment, back then there was no tax on gold in Western Australia. Now, it’s getting harder to ﬁnd untapped places, it’s really been hammered and the number of people with metal detectors has risen big time. There could be the odd place where gold turns up when it’s not expected, but there are no big bonanzas. I’ve got a house which is two kilometres out of town, we don’t have 24 hour power, but I’ve got some solar power, some panels and batteries and a generator. I built myself a bush (Spinifex) shed, it works like a Coolgardie safe, you put Spinifex inside a netting and make that into walls, then you get some water to run down, and, hopefully a little bit of breeze, so there’s your air conditioner. In the old days everyone had them on the station, it’s better than roasting in 43 degree heat. I grow a few of my own vegetables, it worries me getting them from the supermarket with all the spray they use to kill the bugs. Everything grows up here, tomatoes, spinach, even cauliﬂower, all that stuff, the only thing that won’t grow is broad beans. As a kid we grew up on a farm, always had motorbikes, I’ve always liked them, I collected a few

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Kevin Danks, Marble Bar

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Alice

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m about 55. I was born at Bumaji, now I live in a new maya (house) in Roebourne. I do painting and art.

Alice Guinness, Roebourne

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Nanna Pansy

I was born around 1943 at Mount Cedric, that’s other side of Mallina, the old road going to Yandeyarra. My father’s country is Whim Creek, Mum’s from Shaddock Station, she born there. I grew up in Cheeritha Station. I was about 14 when my mother had her last child and after she had a baby we lost her and we were stuck with my Aunty. We lived in the old reserve. When I went to school, I had a job at Tom Lee’s, working in the shop, pulling all the bread out from the oven - before working there I was at Mount Welcome Station, me and my sister Violet, wash the dishes, sweep the ﬂoor. These days I mainly do survey work, I used to go walking in the team, but not now, I can’t walk, I’ve got arthritis. I like to go out bush, my son takes me with the family, and we go to Cheeritha. I’ve got two sons, Michael and my youngest son. I’ve got my grandsons living with me now. These days in Roebourne we’ve got a swimming pool, new houses, but we need a new shop, and we need more houses.

Pansy Hicks, Roebourne

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Younghin Ha, Port Hedland

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Nanna Violet

I was born in Cheeritha Station in 1948, I had seven kids, I only got four left, three passed away. When I was six or seven years of age we moved into town, because Mum passed away I went to school in the old court house. I live in Roebourne, where I like to do painting of all the bush tucker, wild beans, wild melons, all the vines ﬂowering on the banks of the rivers. I like to go ﬁshing; go around talking to people have a yarn, have a cup of tea. It’s a good little town to live always; everyone knows the family, wherever grandchildren are, families looking after them. We’ve got a lot of booming mining companies; they should look at the needs of the town, the children in this community. I like being with family, being with friends, helping them, to look at a better way of living and working together, that’s what I like to do - look at options, what can we do to help each other, every beautiful, different day. I get up every morning to face the day and what comes out of it. I just take it one step at a time - just take the day as it comes.

Violet Samson, Roebourne

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Pilbara Underneath

When I started working in the Pilbara two years ago, I expected that

individuals who were informed and engaged with Indigenous

I would learn a lot on the job about the profound signiﬁcance of

people in the Pilbara, I met more who didn’t access, and had no real

the Pilbara to its Indigenous communities. What I didn’t know was

appreciation of the reality of the region’s communities.

that I would learn more about its people on the drive home, when Aspects of the townships they described were familiar from

the work day was over. As an anthropology graduate, my role was

impressions of my ﬁrst trip to the Pilbara; the glare of white-hot

to record Indigenous cultural land values to inform development in

sun off 200 identical 4WD work vehicles in the airport parking

the region. While I travelled a lot throughout Western Australia, the

lots, the cut and paste mine-site housing visible from Newman’s

majority of my work was out of Karratha, Roebourne, Port Hedland

Radio Hill, the absence of dining options, the heat, the ﬂies and

and Newman. My typical work day would be spent on Country with

everything else one imagines of the Pilbara’s towns from the relative

the Elders who spoke for that part of the Pilbara, recording cultural

cosmopolitanism of Perth. It was very much a Pilbara informed by

values of a speciﬁc tract of land or sea.

the business of doing mining. What I didn’t hear about was the dayIn the car on the way home, the pressure of making decisions about

to-day, urban presence of the region’s Indigenous communities

Country was off, and talk would turn to what people were having

that was so familiar from my time in the Pilbara. While there was

for tea that night, or whose relative had been out kangaroo hunting

a lot of talk about the Secret and Sacred narrative of the region, I

the evening before and had some extra meat going. Sometimes an

never heard about the role that the local BP played in Roebourne’s

Elder wanted to be dropped at the art centre so they could ﬁnish the

community as the single provider of fuel and ready-to-eat food,

day painting, or would ask for an escort to the supermarket while

or the multi-house family complexes that make up a lot of Port

there was the opportunity of a ride home and a day’s pay in their

Hedland’s Indigenous housing.

bank accounts. When the infrastructure of mining is so visible in a landscape, it A few of the Elders were frail enough that they needed assistance

can be easy to forget that there is a much older story of occupation

getting out of the car and into their homes, where I’d often meet

of this land. When I drove through the region’s urban landscapes, I

their grannies (grandchildren) and end up taking the bin out or

was always appreciative of the depth these every day, unromantic

making a cup of tea for them. Sometimes, especially after a number

aspects of Indigenous life inserted under the Pilbara’s mining story.

of days with the same team, someone would bring in a photo of themselves with their ﬁrst child, or a copy of a poem that they had had published in the local newspaper. Though I had anticipated

Clea Tibbs Johansson, Anthropologist

that my working day would be educative, it was these in-between moments, the ones squeezed around the ofﬁcial parameters of getting the job done, that were invaluable in teaching me about the Pilbara’s Indigenous cultures. When I met people who worked from the other end of the industry, it often felt like they were talking about a different Karratha, Newman or especially Roebourne to the one that I knew. While I’d met many

Trevor James Pearce aka Skinny Jinna junna, South Hedland

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Allen

I lived in Port Hedland for 29 years. I was born in Perth and moved

Since this is a smaller town, everyone seems to know everybody, and

up here when I was nine years old. As children we would be running

when you go out to get milk, instead of ten minutes it can sometimes

around innocently through town, we were always barefoot even on

take two and a half hours because you run into so many people

the hot bitumen roads, and when the rains would come, the ditches

you know. I used to feel that if Port Hedland got trafﬁc lights I’d cut

would ﬁll up with water, and we’d come home covered in mud.

them down because it meant that the place was getting to big, but then you get older, your ideas and situations change. My family is the

My Dad worked for the Adelaide Steamship Company, maintaining

most important part of my life, my two daughters live in Darwin with

tugboats and channel markers in the port, and that kind of thing. I

their Mum- and I also have a little boy, Sebastian and a stepson, Mark.

went to Primary School and High School in Hedland, then, went on to TAFE for a few years and became an ofﬁce equipment technician. I did nine years worth of that work, then went to work for one of our customers, the Port Hedland Port Authority (PHPA) on their IT computer systems. I start work at 7.30am or 8am in the morning, everyday there was something new, there were so many different aspects to the job from ﬁxing printers and photocopiers, to making sure that all the employees are connected to the network, to communications on the ship loader. PHPA manages the largest tonnage bulk commodity port in the world, we ship out more minerals than any other place. It is a company that I’m very proud to work for. I have been with them for nine years and the job came with a house on Sutherland Street that overlooks the ocean, it is the best feeling to come home and stare out at the ocean for a while. My mum was an Elvis fan and I was brought up listening to Elvis, but I especially love his movies, my favorite is Speedway. I’ve always enjoyed music when I was at school, I learnt to play trumpet and the clarinet, I can still play them, but not well. Now, I’m learning to play an electric violin, my fascination with it stems from a song with a dueling violin I heard by the Charlie Daniels Band called When the Devil Came down to Georgia. Growing up, I never thought I’d live in the city. I love the weather here it’s only a few months each year that is gets really hot and the cyclones come. During the other times, it’s literally paradise and overall, the weather is fantastic. Allen Trigg, Port Hedland

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John Elliott

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The Pilbara interests me because of the complexities of the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s culture, the divide between city and country, natural and manmade, young and old, permanent and transient. This is frontier country that attracts a certain type of person who I identify with. Everyone has a story and it seems to me that people in the Pilbara have more interesting stories and are in general more open to sharing their stories. The Pilbara is on the physical perimeter of Australia and seems to occupy a sort of metaphorical edge in the Australian psyche. People who have safe and normal lives seem to stay in cities.

I like the apparent lack of social strata in this part of the world. I like the democracy of photographing just about everyone who turns up in my life. The Pilbara is a great big melting pot of cultures from all over the world and makes Australia a richer place. I feel at home here and hope this comes across in my portraits. I never want my work to give the impression of being made by someone who was passing through. The Pilbara landscape is harsh and unforgiving and beautiful, pretty much like the people who inhabit this part of the world.

Much of my life and photography journey has concentrated on the Australian bush, and music about the bush. Being in the big sky country puts everything in perspective, the clutter of big city living seems to slip away and I find myself in a peaceful space out here that lets me think. The air travel to get here is also part of the meditation process. I use the flying time to leave the mayhem of my normal life behind.

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Everyone has a story and it seems to me that people in the Pilbara have more interesting stories and are in general more open to sharing their stories. The Pilbara is on the physical perimeter of Australia and seems to occupy a sort of metaphorical edge in the Australian psyche. People who have safe and normal lives seem to stay in cities.

John Elliott

All images ÂŠ John Elliott / Pilbara People

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Joy

Behind every good man is a good woman and in Port Hedland that

and with new baby Julie only weeks old (one of Joy’s sayings was “new

woman was Joy Haynes, supporting her husband Jack as he went

house new baby”), the family made the long drive in Jack’s FJ Holden to

about his passion of making Port Hedland the place to be. Jack held

Geraldton, where they added two more children to the brood, keeping

the position of Chairman of the Port Authority for 21 years and was

St John’s in Geraldton in business as well. Jack was Shell Manager

Shire President and a councilor for several terms. He was recognized

for the North West, and was often away, with Joy coping with many

with an OAM, Freeman of the Town and Western Australian Citizen

emergencies and disasters on her own - that’s when her resilience

of the Year. But what many people don’t realize is that a lot of Jack’s

really kicked in. She was very involved with various community groups

ideas and actions began with an opinion that Joy had. Joy, like Jack,

and enjoyed the fantastic social life that went with this.

was very strong-minded about the direction that Port Hedland should In 1963 Jack left Shell to pursue his love of the North West, and so

be taking and was very vocal in making sure that her opinion reached

started the next stage of Joy’s life. The family moved to Port Hedland,

the right ears.

into a house in Kingsmill Street overlooking the ocean. Port Hedland Joy followed local issues closely and read the newspaper (without

was a small town in 1963, with about 1,200 inhabitants; it had not

glasses), watched the news and listened to ABC North West every

yet commenced its iron ore phase, and was a very remote and hostile

day to keep herself informed as much as possible as to what was

environment to someone from a more comfortable region. This new

happening. While shopping, or at a social function, if she caught the

environment would have been a challenge to any woman, especially

eye of the current Mayor she would summon them over and have her

one with a large and young family. Joy rose to tackle the challenge

say. If the Mayor wasn’t around she would catch another likely person

with much enthusiasm and without complaint.

or councilor and voice her opinions. On regular occasions she would Joy was able to turn her hand to most anything. Her secretarial

request - she was a non driver - for someone to take her on a tour of

training between leaving school and joining the air force stood her in

the town. She liked to keep her ﬁnger on the pulse and check on her

good stead for her early jobs in Port Hedland, as a telephonist for the

domain…and I say ‘domain’ because she was like the queen of the

taxi company and post ofﬁce, and then as the Post Master’s secretary

town. She always got home very pleased with what she had seen or

for many years. She struck out on her own in the late ‘70s and took

the progress on a project.

over the kiosk at the swimming pool - her ﬁrst business venture and Joy was born Joyce Blanche O’Brien on 6 April, 1922, in Perth, to

her most successful. She worked very long hours at a time when

parents Zena and Clarence. She inherited her strength and resilience

it was the only pool in town. During the winter when the pool was

from her mother, who died from a congenital heart condition having

closed she would take her trips around the world; Joy loved to travel

been told she should never have children. She was educated at Sacred

and struck out independently on many occasions, to Europe and the

Heart in Highgate before joining the air force during WWII. Stationed

United States. Her ﬁnal business was her handcraft shop which started

in Melbourne she enjoyed the social life in the air force: 500 women

from very humble beginnings in a hole in the wall in Richardson Forum,

and 1,500 men! In 1946 she married a handsome Flight Instructor,

eventually growing to bigger premises in Hedland Arcade.

Jack Haynes. Joy loved to be involved in everything. She was an active community Joyce Blanche Haynes (1922-2011)

192 1 19 9 92 2

Their early years of marriage were spent in Subiaco, close to St John

citizen. She was a queen of Paradise, who only saw Port Hedland

of God’s, where Joy gave birth to four children in ﬁve years. In 1957,

through rose coloured glasses.

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Georgina

I was born in Onslow and I still live there now. I went to school in Carnarvon at the mission because my parents worked on Yarallooola station, so we got sent away to get educated. I’m a Martuthunira and Gurruma person and I still speak language. We’ve got our law and culture, and we’re trying to keep it strong into the future. I’ve got two sons, one who lives in Mandurah and one who lives in Rockingham. I’ve got six grandchildren. I don’t work currently because I’ve been a carer for my Mum who is on dialysis. In August last year I ended up getting sick with cancer, I’ve beaten it now but I’m still recovering from that, so she is in a nursing home. I’ve got my family living here in the Pilbara and my second husband, Brian Tucker. This is where I come from, it’s my country and, I could never ever live in another place.

Georgina Bobby, Pannawonica Rodeo

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I was born on September 28th in 1995. I’m originally from Inverness in Scotland and I’ve been living in Port Hedland for three years. I miss the family back home; I never had a say about coming to Australia. The heat was surprising in the first year, but then I got used to it. I’ve just finished Year 12; on a usual school day we’d start at 8.05am and finish at 2.15pm, before the extreme heat hits. Every Monday I have Cadets except school holidays. Now, I’m working at a Chicken Treat in town. I’ll probably spend a few more years up here; there are a lot of apprenticeships happening. My parent’s jobs took us here – from another rural town, Merredin. My mother is with a mining company and my step Dad works in Mental Health. I’ve got one brother who is 15 years older than me and lives in the United Kingdom, in York. Before I came to Hedland I never thought about going out to the water, but it’s where I feel most at home. I enjoy the sound of the waves, and the rocking of the boat. I’ve always wanted to join something different - so I joined TS Pilbara, part of The Australian Navy Cadets (ANC) it’s a voluntary youth organisation sponsored by the Royal Australian Navy. There are about 12 cadets and most join when they are 12 years old, staying up to 19. We do navigation, communications, first aid, drill, maritime history, firearms proficiency and other training. We usually go out on the weekends for boating, depending on the tide, we usually spend the weekend boating. BHP Billiton recently donated a boat. I like being on the coast and the storms are amazing up here. This is also one of the most multicultural towns I’ve seen.

Josh Pawlak, Port Hedland

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Zainal

My name is Zainal Alpin, I’ve lived in Port Hedland for 32 years. First when I come from the Cocos Islands I stayed in Geraldton for five years, working there for a couple, then I moved here with my brother. Hedland is the same as Cocos, we can go out and have a look at the sea, at the waves moving and we catch the same type of fish. I left Cocos in 1977. They told us if you want to have a fridge and freezer you have to go out from Cocos. The power only comes until 12 o’clock at night, so we had to use the small light with the oil. In Cocos we didn’t have any car, no motorbike, we use our body, walking here, running there. We didn’t have any freezer, nothing, every evening we go to get our own fish. Fish and rice, that’s all we have. Between 1970–75 we started coming from the Cocos Islands, most go to Katanning, some to Perth, some to Geraldton, and some come to Port Hedland. I did some work as a carpenter, some as a cleaner, gardening, that sort of work. I miss Cocos a lot; I’ve gone back seven times to visit my father. I’m now 56, my Dad is nearly 82. I fly from Hedland to Perth and then to Cocos - it’s nearly four and half hours. It would be much shorter if you could go straight from Hedland. My kids have grown up here- all nice and good, all healthy. In Hedland it’s been a good life, although I know it’s hot. Many people come from Thailand, Phillipines, and China, lots of people. Some Cocos families have moved away, they’ve gone everywhere. I also built a house in Geraldton and I’ll move down there. When we wake up we can still see the ocean.

Zainal Alpin, South Hedland

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Arnold

I came to Port Hedland on February 23rd, 1962. I was born in

to Katanning, they are wonderful people, their contribution is

Cottesloe, educated at Subiaco Convent, and then passed my degree

great. People here get on very well – they’d rather work together,

in accounting. I ﬁrst worked in a very small town at the base of

than work against one another. The only thing I miss today is the

Mount Tom Price, which was one of the original deposits of iron ore

community children; all four of my kids went to school here. In the

found in the Hamersley Ranges. When my contract ﬁnished, I had to

early stages, it was really a community town; the killer was when

drive over to Hedland to catch an aeroplane back to Perth. The next

they decided to do FIFO.

ﬂight was eight hours away, and I was waiting in the hotel when I was approached by an American geologist, from Goldsworthy

I’ve had 28 years serving in the local government; I’ve been the Shire

Mining Proprietary Limited about a job. I said, ‘oh, no I’m going back

President, Deputy Mayor, and Deputy Shire President. I’m Managing

to Perth’ but when I went back, I looked around and said, ‘I can’t stay in

Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, Treasurer of The Port Hedland

this heap’ so I called him back. I worked with them for 14 years.

Historical Society, and Board Member of The Seafarers. I got elected to Secretary of Port Hedland Turf Club in 1964 and I stayed for 38

For the ﬁrst two years we were still doing exploration, we used to do

years. The Hedland race track has been here for over 100 years. I

all the analytics of the iron ore as it was crushed. At this time, the

just love racing, we run a season here from May until August, and

Commonwealth had an embargo on iron ore, you could not export

it’s worth over a million dollars in tourism. People bring their horses

it because of the war, and at the time, Japan was the only buyer,

from Albany, Geraldton, Carnarvon, and Esperance. Those horses

China was not on the horizon. They eventually lifted it, and in 1964,

are stationed here and the jockeys ﬂy up on the race day. They get

Goldsworthy got its ﬁrst contract, it was only for about 10 million

good money if they win a race, and they spend the money here, if

tonnes, which they produce in about a day now.

they have a win.

When my time at Goldsworthy ﬁnished, I became a commercial

Racing in all country areas started from the pastoral industry,

entrepreneur. In the last 38 years, I have had 23 businesses in Port

where horses were used for rounding up cattle. The best horse

Hedland. I’ve had South Hedland Hair Dressing; I’ve had two fuel

I can remember was Red Warrior, born and bred at De Grey Station,

companies, a steak house, restaurant, and cafeteria. I started off with

trained by the owner of the station, a chap called Billy Cane, who was

a delicatessen which I bought in 1975; it also had a bakery, and a

a jockey at the same time. He won three Port Hedland Cups. He was

news agency. I ran that for three years, including during the worst

one of the best horses I’ve seen in my life. He was still rounding up

cyclone that the Pilbara has ever had in 1975. We didn’t have power

cattle, still doing his fence run, and still won three Port Hedland

for almost two months, the whole of the railway lines were ﬂattened,

cups. Back then, the weight of the jockey was heavy; some were

parallel to the streets, and power could not be distributed through

60 kilograms.

the streets, because it was just so unsafe. But I was fortunate, I had a power lead which was coming from the port, I thought, we can’t

I’m a life member of Port Hedland Turf Club, I’m a life member of the

sit here and do nothing so I arranged for a company in Perth to

Marble Bar Turf Club - this club is purely social, they have one race

supply me food by air. During those months, everyone lived mainly

a year and a ball that evening. People came in from the stations and

on barbeques, our street had a wonderful community spirit; each

met all the other station owners, the Dalgetys and all those types.

household took a turn, so you only had to cook one night a week.

Nobody should ever miss it. I won the Marble Bar Cup last year, for the second time. The horse’s name was Endearing Charms.

If it hadn’t been for people, I wouldn’t be here now, it’s an advanced Arnold Carter, Port Hedland

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community, we have the second biggest Muslim population next

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Betty

I reside at Indee Station, but I also have a house in Dongara which is

a few people when I moved up and a lot of our friends come here

a ﬁshing village just south of Geraldton. My late husband retired in

to visit, which is lovely but we hardly ever go out to other places.

1986, we had moved up here to give some friends a hand on De Grey

Because of this I travel a lot; I try to go away once a year and went to

Station. We helped get the station going and lived here for three

Europe this year with my niece from Marble Bar for a month. Next

years, over that time we would help with the muster every year.

year I will go to Alaska with a friend before my health deteriorates.

Then my husband and I were in a terrible accident. My husband I have always been interested in art, I used to paint when I was younger

was killed and I was very badly injured, 46 per cent of my body was

and my father was a great artist and a clever man who always spoke

badly burnt. I was by myself for four years after that and being a

of art in the house and encouraged his eight children to draw and

workaholic I found life pretty boring, until Colin invited me to open

express ourselves. When I married my ﬁrst husband we lived in

this tourist business with him at Indee Station in Port Hedland. I

remote places so I created a hobby in art, but sadly I do not paint

already knew Colin and he knew my husband. He had lost his wife

anymore. I keep my love of art alive by travelling and reading books. In

years before, so we came up here and started the tourist business,

Dongara my husband and I always went to the theatre, which I loved

seven years later we got married, sort of, a Pilbara romance. Colin

and that is one of the things I miss most about living in a remote area.

has three children and four step children, and I have two.

Isolation is a challenge, I miss being in developed areas where you We wake up at 4am in the morning. We have some drillers that live

can drop everything and go out, but the peace and quiet is something

in a camp here, they work three weeks on and one off, so they have

that keeps me here.

to have breakfast and their lunches packed every morning. At the Indee Station has catered to tourists for 14 years people for one night

new camp, Indee Village, they can cook their own meals, which is

but they end up staying for one month. We usually have artists, bird

making life easier for me. After breakfast there are always chores,

watchers and we also have a lot of people on low incomes, such as

such as looking after the animals, gardening and cleaning. I have

pensioners or elderly people. All people who want to stay must do

two women to help with these duties. When tourists stay here, the

something for the accommodation, for example, swap labour. We

girls help with the maintenance of their rooms.

believe if you’re kind to someone, they will be kind to you. Happy The drillers are digging for lithium which was found in the

hour is at 5.30pm where tourists are invited into the station owner’s

neighbouring property and there is another mob, who hope to

home, it’s wonderful to open our home to others and it’s our social

start a gold mine on this property. It’s more to search for minerals

life. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

because of the slump in iron ore prices. The mining resources don’t really affect the station at the moment; however you cannot get any money for cattle, so you need a second income, that’s why we look after drillers. Indee is a cattle station with over 3000 cattle and the station is 401,000 acres, which is not that big compared to De Grey, which covers one Elizabeth (Betty) Hanstrum Indee Station

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million acres. Colin has been here for 50 years, so he already knew

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Colin

The word ‘Pilbara’ is romantic to the people in the East. I still love the place after all these years; I always tell people it’s paradise. Indee Station was formed around the 1900s; it was originally part of a larger station, and they cut it into four. I’ve heard it was Aboriginal for the edge of the crabhole country which is possible, because there are crab holes. I’ve been here more than 50 years. I designed the house; I made all the bricks by hand, over 5000, and eliminated the white ant problem. My design is cyclone proof. We get a lot more warning for cyclones these days, Cyclone George in 2007 was a little bit different, but I think something went wrong with the warning system. Sometimes when the cyclones hit the coast they veer South, but George hit the coast and veered South West. We’ve had tragedy here. I lost my ﬁrst wife in 1992. In ‘68 we had the Vicker’s Viscount crash; the MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight on New Year’s Eve, one of this state’s worst civil aviation accidents. The family members would come to see the place where the plane crash-landed. The wing fell off, which caused the crash. Thank God for the iron ore, you are not making any money in the cattle industry by sending them a couple thousand kilometres south, it’s not worth your time. All the changes are good for the place, it keeps us going. These days, I wake up at 4am and cook breaky for the miners; I still work in the mine two days per week at 5am, otherwise I’ll head back into bed. No health issues up here, I’ve been very physical living here not using machines. We get tourists come to visit from all over the world, mainly from the eastern states.

Colin Breirly, Indee Station

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Vicki

I’ve been here since the end of 2005 and I’m originally from New

more time in jail than in school. We aim to work with them the year

Zealand. My Mum was doing outback nursing in the Kimberley’s

before high school to explain how things happen in the high school

and in November 2005 I went to visit her in Mulan and Balgo which

environment as well as building their conﬁdence and literacy.

are remote communities where I did some relief teaching then some

South Hedland Primary School brings eight selected students over

youth work. I stayed over the summer for three months then I came

for an hour and they learn in smaller groups. It is our intention that

through Hedland to see my dad for three months and that was

we compliment the great work already being done by the Education

seven years ago. For most New Zealanders it seems they end up in

Department. We also provide attendance bus services during the

Hedland because they know someone already based here and wish

school terms to transport families that have low attendance rates.

to explore the many opportunities available. We run a Youth Accommodation Program (YAP) which provides I got a job at the Youth Involvement Council (YIC) which is a not for

crisis accommodation and case management for youth aged 15-25

proﬁt community organisation that provides essential youth services.

who are homeless and often have complex issues. They get help with

I started at the Youth Accommodation Program and since then have

direction and we can teach them life lessons to recover and move on.

worked in every program across the organisation but I never thought

We also have the Lawson Street Youth Centre which operates as a

I would end up running YIC. With the help of a dedicated team and

semi structured drop in centre every afternoon for youth aged 10-17.

a supportive Board of Management I manage ﬁve main programs,

The well known Mingle Mob program is also a vital service, however,

four annual events and a new program that is set to start in 2013. We

we struggle to secure ongoing funding for our street patrols.Working

provide support to all youth but work primarily with the Indigenous

with children who have challenging circumstances can be difﬁcult

community. Our youth workers encourage youth to become engaged

and sometimes feels like you’re not getting anywhere very fast but

with their community and familiarise themselves with pockets

it’s the small wins we have to stay focused on. Feeling like you can

of the community that are foreign to them. They accompany our

make a difference to a young person’s life is a great feeling.

youth to places they wouldn’t usually go including other community I think it is important to have breaks from work. I travel home once

organisations, the local library and various sporting associations.

a year to New Zealand as food for my soul. Bali is also close and it is

The main aim is to improve life pathways into the future and we

a great place to relax. Work will always be there but I am learning

understand that education is a key to this.

to keep a healthy balance so I can continue giving 100 percent to my BHP Billiton supports us in all our annual events and two programs

job. I deﬁnitely love my job and Hedland but I also look forward to

named Birds and Bees and Education. Our education programs

moving home at some stage and helping my own people.

started in September 2010 with seed funding from BHP Billiton and we are pleased to have signed a three year contract with them at the end of 2012 securing ongoing success for these programs until 2015. ‘Ready Steady Be Deadly’ works with 8 – 12 year olds to ensure these young people make a successful transition into high school because that is where many of them are falling out of the formal education Vicki Tree Stephens, South Hedland

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system. Our ‘Deadly Dreams’ program targets children who spend

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Joyce

My name is Joyce King-well, that’s the name I had when I was a young girl. I used to work at Yarraloola Station, clean the house, work in the morning and wash all the plates and things, you know, the station life. I had two kids at Yarraloola Station, the two eldest ones, and then two were born in the old hospital in Onslow. I was born at Bumaji, it was a ration camp, before my mother and father used to stay there, I don’t remember much, I just know where I was born, and my brothers and all my sisters been there. I never had my Grandfather, but my Nanna get buried at Bumaji, my Mum’s Mother and Grandfather’s wife, my Grandfather, Dingo man. A lot of people got buried there, we went back there a long time ago with my partner, with Bigili. My Dad used to work on the station with sheep, a long time ago, he was at Pyramid station, helping shearing; we used to go and stay at Pyramid and help there when I was a young girl. My father been everywhere, he had a Ngarluma friend and worked with Ngarluma people, he used to go to Croydon with my Mum, he had two wives.

Joyce Hubert (nee King), near Roebourne

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Maureen

Maureen has won NAIDOC Female Elder of the Year (2012) for contributions

I always wear a dress and my beads and do my hair up nice, then

to community service, and was nominated for an Australian of the Year

Aboriginal parents explain to their mob that I’m a flash person and if

Award (2012). She is a health and education advocate, regularly attending

their kids go to school they can end up a flash fella like that. I want

conferences around the world, including the World Indigenous Peoples’

my culture to say ‘I am beautiful and I am good’ because they will be.

Conference on Education held in Peru, South America.

The phone never stops ringing for advice or support, they say, my kid’s in trouble I need help, or my son needs a reference for a job. If people expect too much from you they will take it, everyone needs a break and you

People call me MK. I was born in Port Hedland, and I have been away from the place a little while, but I came back eventually, for family

have to reward yourself and to know that a break is coming up; you know you can survive the tough times when you’re in demand.

and the lifestyle. You can’t leave your country; the red hills, the dirt and the rivers. In Port Hedland there are no traffic lights, people bother to say hello or pull up next to you if you’re broken down and ask if you need a lift and check if you’re okay. There is very little class structure; in Perth there is that definite class structure which I notice in sporting clubs and restaurants when I visit. I was the first Aboriginal Justice of the Peace in the Pilbara, and I worked with the Government for 37 years, but for the past few years I have been running my own consultancy business with my partner, she lives in Two Rocks and is flying up tomorrow. We have been delivering Parent and Community Engagement programs to the communities surrounding Port Hedland and beyond. This program is about education; we engage parents and teach them about leadership, financial literacy, school partnerships, and aspects of governance, for example, how to run effective meetings. We touch on sexual abuse, all sorts of issues. We get people to achieve three goals over the year and they have to tell each other what the goals are to help them reach and achieve these. We are constantly questioning our methods to make sure we are teaching the right way and that there are positive outcomes. It’s the only way to achieve goals, we have their respect and they have got our respect. We do the real stuff with communities and we are

Maureen Kelly, South Hedland

receiving accolades because of our success in best practice models. Anybody can come to the workshop but we prefer Aboriginal parents to attend. It’s a satisfying job and it keeps me busy, the money is not as much as I would make working in an office job, but it does have freedom, and flexibility.

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Merv

In 1948 there was only a population of 250 people in Port Hedland and town was only one mile. In those days, the full bloods had to get out of town at sun down. I’ve seen all those days. I planted gum trees at Merv’s Lookout, in memory of the 29th Garrison Battalion, North West detachment, which had been formed from Citizen Military Forces in 1942. I came here at 16 with the Guerrilla Warfare. The army took over houses, shops, schools and town halls, they were on guard duty, labouring and coastal defence; including walking along the coastline from Port Hedland to Broome searching for Japanese activity. Merv’s Lookout is historically listed, in my opinion they can’t build over that. Not in my time. I was a casual labourer to start with, going out bush, well sinking, working for the store men, down at the esplanade, lots of things. I came into town and I ended up being a wharfie. I was part of the The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) strikes, me and one of my workers lay down in front of the trucks, we won the round. I seen a bit of change on the waterfront. I worked there until the age of 65, then retired. In those days of being a wharfie I saved one old blokes life. I’ve lost many friends, some from sickness, some I had to part ways with and leave. They get older, pass on, or shift down to Perth for medication. I don’t like Perth, it’s a bloody rat race, but I’ll probably have to move one day, they’ve got me a button to wear around my neck, an emergency one, in case I break my leg or something like that. I’ve got a pacemaker in here. I can’t run down the beach like I used to; I used to skip rope, I was a very active man once. I’ve lost my wife Betty. I met her here; she was married and had two daughters before she met me; her and her husband had a job in Marble Bar. They parted and she came to Port Hedland and that’s how I met her. My wife had Alzheimer’s disease for five years. She passed away two years ago. I managed to get her into the Pioneer Cemetery. Every Saturday I go the RSL shop in Port and do a couple of hours, pressing labels for prices of things, after that I go and see Betty, give that plant a bit of water, go home and watch the footy. The loneliness is driving me mad, if I didn’t have the TV, I don’t know what I’d do.

Merv Stanton, Port Hedland

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Branko

When I left Macedonia - I had applied to come to Australia and when I arrived in Sydney in 1969 - the first thing I noticed was the city, how big and tall the buildings were. I also took note of how much money was in Western Australia in the mines so I came to Perth to get a job up North and work for a couple of years. 40 years later, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m still here. In 1972 I went back home to get married and returned to Port Hedland with my wife. The company provided us with accommodation, they gave us a two bedroom flat, when my family expanded, we moved into a larger house that was fully furnished. The fridge was also full of food to last at least one week and rent was only six dollars and fifty cents. Back then there were a lot of people from Macedonia, there were also Serbians, Croatians and people from Montenegro. Together we would catch up and organise for our native music to travel from Perth to here. First I was an Electrician, then I was employed to work on the railway line for BHP Billiton, which I have done for the last 40 years. I was kept in Port Hedland because of the work and company. BHP Billiton really look after their workers, we would come with limited education and they put us through school and learning. My job was flash butting the railway line, which is a huge operation and we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use any welders or machines, we would use the railway line tracks by banking them together and join strings of 400 metres of railway line in the process. In 1999 I took the package that was offered to retire, which was a lot of money, so I had to take it. My family and I shifted back to Perth, but then in April 2000 BHP Billiton called me to return and do the same job, offering me more money. I now live a Fly in Fly out lifestyle.

Branko Christos, Perth Airport

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Trish

My role is Coordinator Community Development for the East Pilbara at the Pilbara Development Commission. The Commission is a State Government statutory authority; until recently we had a small team of about 12 people based in Hedland and Karratha however that has changed since the Pilbara Cities program was recently transferred to the Commission. We have about 22 people now based in Hedland, Karratha and Perth. I’m originally from Melbourne, and I first came up here to the Pilbara in 1979 and worked in the travel industry for about eight years. At the time, there were about 87 nationalities in the town, lots of different people and it was a smaller community and everyone knew each other. I lived here for about 12 years, our children were born here, and then we moved down to Perth in 1990. I returned in 2003, so I have been back for about 10 years now. I came back to work on the Port Hedland Enhancement Scheme, which was a joint venture between State Government and BHP Billiton, to improve the amenity of the town. Things have changed quite a bit since I first came to Port Hedland, particularly over the last few years and the town is growing rapidly. The Pilbara is just a really nice place to live, you have Karijini, four hours inland, and you’re six hours from Broome, which may seem like an eternity to some, but for us, that’s close. It is beautiful country, it gets into your system and it’s lovely living here on the coast.

Trish Barron, Cemetery Beach, Port Hedland

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Steven

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m from the Cocos Islands and been here four-and-a-half years. I arrived to Australia in 1975 and went to school in Katanning. Then I went back to Cocos Islands for 20 years and returned with kids and a family to Perth. A company offered me a job in Port Hedland and I had never been here before. I like Hedland but I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like the weather itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too hot and dry. I work for a The Water Corporation and look after the waste water, which is a big job. We start in the office then go out to the field, to service leaking pipes, and the treatment plant. In 2008 the town was not much, but the population is starting to grow and I get more work, now I am very happy living here. I like relaxing and fishing. We get together with other people in Cocos population; there are about 600 left. There used to be more, but now, there are no jobs. Most people if they leave Cocos will come to Australia. I miss the island sometimes, because my family is still there. I have a wife and girl and boy.

Steven Razekin, South Hedland

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Tahira Anayat, South Hedland

Kaye Henare, South Hedland

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Diana

My name is Diana Rae Boyd, I was born in Cowra, Central New South

a lot of recycled work. I’m going out into the bush and collecting

Wales, but Newcastle is pretty much home because my family is

Spinifex and grass, and feathers, and bits of drift wood and

there. I have a 92 year old Grandma; she’s there with Mum and

attaching it to card which goes under a box frame. If I find some

Dad, and my daughter. This is my second stint to Hedland, we’ve

interesting wood, it turns into a bird. I walk along the river bed and

been here for two years come October, it has gone so fast. The first

pick up the most amazing roots and bits and pieces. I’m not making

time, the kids were little and we made friends really quickly through

a huge amount of money, but the encouragement I’m getting from

school and sporting groups. We came to Hedland because we wanted

everyone is great. I sell at the FORM markets and people turn up

to offer an adventure for the kids, we had a few friends who were

to buy my work; everyone tells me they love it. I’m finally getting

living in Gove at the time and we wanted to do something similar.

recognised for what I really want, and need to do.

The first time we went back to NSW, I was not ready to leave, because I

I can’t go a day without picking something up and doing something.

had this humongous network of friends. There are a set of mountains

The inspiration is the open spaces, the, different light and the sky.

just out near Marble Bar, and I cried until those mountains, I was just

I love going to Titchula, right out at the other end of De Grey Station,

really sad to leave. When I’d see the Pilbara on the telly, it was like; oh

it’s absolutely pristine, the most gorgeous place. It’s towards Broome,

I want to go back there. I just thought we’d left such a lot of ourselves

down a dirt track for about an hour, it’s pretty bumpy, but you come

behind, the whole place got in our bones, I feel like I can be myself

out and there are Mangroves and a creek on one side and a stretch

here. Anyway we’ve arrived back again. This time, my son, Scott

of beach on the other. I love going out picking things.

followed and three other boys turned up with him, so we had a full house for a while, it was chockers. We just had people everywhere, eventually they left and now it’s just back to my husband Paul and I, Scott and his girlfriend, Annelies. I’ve been through seven positions since I’ve been in Hedland, the first job I had was in an office, in this tiny little donga, and I lasted three weeks there. And then I was with BHP Billiton for about nine months, it was a great job, but I’m not an office person, I felt I was a caged bird, literally and I would put my diary under my arm and I’d pop around the gardens to pick frangipanis- I would spend my time drawing birds. Finally, after eight or nine jobs, my husband said, just stop working. Diana Rae Boyd, South Hedland

Now, I’m just totally into my art, that’s all I’ve ever really wanted to do. Even as a little girl, I only got tins of paints for Christmas, I never wanted to play sport all I wanted to do was paint or craft. I’m assembling found twigs and sticks, and bits and pieces; I’m doing

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Selina

I’ve been here for 22 years now, so I must be a local. I ended up here

There are a lot of homeless people in town and part of this is due to

because my husband was working here. I married him in 1990, in

overcrowding because there are no other places to live, especially for

Singapore but I met him in Rockingham, down South, where my

my Indigenous clientele. We have a lot of overcrowding and this leads

Grandparents used to live. We came up here straight after we married.

to anti-social behaviour, which can contribute to domestic violence

My parents have been here a couple of times from Singapore and it’s

and then homelessness.

so different for them. I come from busy hustle bustle, everywhere there are shops, here the shops close at five, but there is more night life than there used to be. It has only been over the last three years

At some stage, I would like to retire down South, perhaps in a coastal area, somewhere to fish and enjoy the tranquillity of the sea.

that the town has changed and grown rapidly. It used to be very quiet, but now it’s busy. Now I don’t like to drive to Port Hedland because there is too much traffic, too many trucks and everyone is impatient. We never thought we’d be here a long time, my husband said five years, after five years he said another five and we are still here. Hedland is my home now and all my children were born here. I have three children; a girl and two boys. They all live in Perth right now, my youngest boy is in year 12, my girl is in university, and my other son has an apprenticeship. I think they prefer the lifestyle up here and I hope they move back up here one day. But they have an opportunity to get a good education in Perth. I am missing them a lot. When the kids were growing up we had a lot of quality time together. As a family we would go to the beach, look for fishing bait, fishing, swimming and we would take the four wheeler for a spin but that can’t happen now because there’s a lot of projects and a lot of land has been cleared for housing. Now the off road trails are limited. I work as a Tenant Advocate. I pass on information about any legal changes under the Residential Tenancies Act to the tenant. For example, someone could come in asking for assistance to apply for a Department of Housing house, I help them with that or if someone received a letter about eviction, I will help them to appeal on their own grounds. Private rental in Hedland is not affordable for most people with low or medium income. There is a long wait for people on Public

Selina and Amer Bilton, South Hedland

housing as most tenants are long term tenants. The lack of affordable housing means that people are often forced to lead more transient lifestyles as they move between houses and other forms of shelter.

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Martin Parr is a member of Magnum, photojournalism’s premier

Ketaki Sheth began taking pictures on the streets of Mumbai, almost

agency; an exemplary figure in international art and a dominant

20 years ago, under the guidance of renowned Indian photographer,

force in European photography a large retrospective of Martin’s

Raghubir Singh. She has received the Sanskriti Award for Indian

work was initiated by the Barbican Art Gallery in London, and

photography and the Higashikawa Award, Japan for Best Foreign

has since been shown in the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía

Photographer. Bombay Mix: Street Photographs was shown at Cité du

in Madrid, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris

Livre in Aix-en-Provence, France. Amongst her shows are Gateway

and the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. Martin was Guest Artistic

Bombay at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem; Bombay, Maximum City,

Director for the Recontres D’Arles (2004) and curated the Brighton

Lille, France, Sepia at Seven and Faces at Sepia International, New York.

Photo Biennial (2010) and has been awarded the Erich Salomon

A Certain Grace: The Sidi, Indians of African Descent will be out in Spring

Prize (2006). Martin has been collected by the world’s leading art

2013 published by Photoink.

institutions including Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the

www.photoink.net

Victoria and Albert Museum, London. www.martinparr.com John Elliott is an Australian photographer, writer, creative, producer and social documentary maker. John has been lauded as a chronicler

Photographer Biographies

Annet van der Voort was born in The Netherlands; she currently lives

of Australian culture, the bush and music. He has compiled Australia’s

and works in Drensteinfurt, Germany. She has been represented in

most extensive country music photo library and has authored a

the Rencontres d’ Arles, France; Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands;

definitive pictorial history of Australian Country Music. He has been a

Mois de la Photo, Montréal Canada; Museet for Fotokunst, Odense,

board member of the Australian Centre for Photography. John has been

Denmark; NGBK, Germany; and Getxo Photo Bilbao, Spain. Annet’s

regularly exhibited at leading Australian museums, including solo

work can be found in numerous books, international publications

shows at the National Port Gallery, Canberra and group exhibitions

and in the collections of Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, National Museum

at the Queensland Art Gallery.

of Photography Bradford, Museet for Fotokunst Odense, Deutsches

www.elliottcountry.com

Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt and Nederlandse Gasunie Groningen. www.annetvandervoort.com

Bharat Sikka has a rare mercurial creativity; he photographs landscapes and portraits; moves between the studio and the street; from highend commercial photography on assignments for magazines such as, Wallpaper, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, I.D, Vogue, Vogue Homme International, Details and Time Magazine to directing advertisements in a cinematic style as a Creative Director. Sikka’s distinct mode of visual storytelling lures the viewer into an illusory world that collapses boundaries between art and life. Sikka studied at the Parson’s School of Design; His portfolio consists of the series, ‘Indian men’, ‘Matter’ and ‘Spaces in Between.’ Since his first exhibition at the Artists Space in New York, his work has been displayed in numerous national and international exhibitions, including the National Museum of India. www.bharatsikka.com

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FORM gratefully acknowledges Principal Partner BHP Billiton, whose

Published by FORM

partnership with FORM over more than nine years has enabled

ISBN: 978-0-9872624-3-1

strong community and cultural outcomes such as Pilbara Stories and this publication. Edited by FORM - Andrew Nicholls, Sharmila Wood & Kate Antonas Thank you also the photographers and writers featured in this

Curator Sharmila Wood

publication, Martin Parr, Ketaki Sheth, Annet van der Voort, Bharat

Sikka and John Elliott; essayists Liv Lewitschnik Bureau Chief Hong

Folklore Brand Storytelling

Kong MONOCLE, François Hebel Director Les Recontres d’Arles, Peter

Printed by Optima Press

Nagy, Director Gallery Nature Morte, Devika Daulet Singh, Director Photography Photoink and Dr Nonja Peters Director of History of Migration Experiences (HOME) Centre at Curtin University. Thanks

FORM - Building a state of creativity

also to Piers Kelly and Clea Tibbs Johansson who have shared their

357 Murray Street

experience of the Pilbara.

Perth, Western Australia, 6000 T +61 89226 2799 F + 61 89226 2250 mail@form.net.au

Pilbara Stories has emerged from the generosity of people living in

www.form.net.au

and around Roebourne, Port Hedland and Marble Bar who have

Acknowledgements

graciously shared their stories and given us an insight into their lives in this special part of the world – thank you to all participants.

Other FORM websites

In particular, thank you to Cassia Primary School, Baler Primary

www.courthousegallery.com.au

School, Garry ‘Gazza’ Robert Silcock JP-CD, Tony Miller Site Manager ESS - Port Haven, Narelle and Mark Bettini De Grey Station, David

www.discoverthepilbara.com.au www.thepilbaraproject.com

Dare Parker, Leny Davis, Faye Harris, Bob Hewitt Director FotoFreo, Alan Mower and Col Brown Port Hedland Seafarer’s Centre, Roger

Principal Partner of FORM:

Johnston Port Hedland Port Authority, Lisa Lock BHP Billiton, Bradley Derschow, Tubs, Tracey Saggers, Shaun Spicer, Vicki Stephens Youth Involvement Council and Andrew Dowding who donated his time to interviewing people in Roebourne and Port Hedland. A special thank you to Kate Antonas, without whom, this project would not have been possible.

Project delivered by:

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