Hedland Happens

Not everyone likes Port Hedland. It doesn’t take much notice of tourists. It’s there to ship iron ore to China and Japan ... whether you agree with it or not. This morning we were sitting on the pavement, drinking coffee, when a huge ore carrier came sailing into Port, about 200 metres away from us, it seemed. The iron-ore trains, having travelled in from Newman, over 3 kms. long, were lined up ready to discharge their ore onto it. Everyone seems to walk around with great confidence in their P.P.E., knowing what they are doing. We find it all fascinating to watch. You can do a tour around the Port, which takes you around all the boats anchored in the Roads, waiting their turn to upload.

[PPE is technical ‘mining speak’ for Personal Protective Equipment. This means wearing a long-sleeved hi-viz shirt, long trousers, boots, sunglasses, hard-hat outside -- even the women who work in the offices have to wear it. This information courtesy of Angelique in Miles, who has to wear it to work there.]

I had a lucky break this morning. I went into a hairdresser to see if they could chop my locks off, and yes, they could do it soon. When I was called to the chair, I scored the young Italian female hairdresser. This immediately reminded me of growing up at Wandin North, in the Yarra Valley, where Rosetta and Stella, young Italian girls, had their very popular salon. [I’m not going to mention that this was 50 years ago!] Italians have a great affinity with hairdressing and they had a wonderful business.

This young lass today had been in Port Hedland only 4 weeks … said she was travelling around Australia. Wherever she goes she can pick up a job, especially when she says she trained in Italy. I used to work for Italian solicitors, and knew a few Italian phrases from having to type in Italian … but this morning I couldn’t recall any of them. I just had to thank Tina with a very lame “grazias”.

 

COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTRES

In W.A. the State Government has set up a network of Community Resource Centres in the regional areas. Here you can access Wi-Fi, computers, and lots of other useful information and things. In Broome, we went there for John to upgrade his iPad, which happened quickly with the good equipment.

I decided to help the young woman on duty by tidying up the display of brochures and promotional items. There were some printed calico bags in a box; she said You can have those.  I said I love calico bags, but I wouldn’t be greedy and would share them. Two other women, working on the computers, shyly asked if they could each have one. When we got to the bottom of the box, John found a padded bag just right for his iPad! Everyone was a winner – the young woman was glad to find homes for these items; we were all glad to receive what we did.

I wonder if Queensland Government will consider setting up a similar network with some of the mining royalties?

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