Day 64/65 Tom Price

Jasper: In Tom Price, we did an awesome lookout which we could see the view of the mine which is what the whole town is made around.  We also did a really cool mine tour that we stopped and watched huge mine trucks go past.  Everything there was huge!!! Emily and I also went on a bush walk from the caravan park into the most bush I have ever done on my own.  We used the sun as a way of direction and I was teaching Em alot about bush survival.  We also made a shelter in a tip area from rocks, wood and any other thing we could find.  And another thing Em and I did is saved a lizard that was dying in the the tip area and we brought him back and put him in a plastic bucket and gave him some water.  The in a bit, he was back to full life.  It was awesome.

Kate:  I really liked the town of Tom Price.  I think Steve was a bit worried I wanted to move there.  It was a really clean, tidy and well cared for town with a really great community feel.  It stood out from all the other dusty outback towns we had seen.  The town is not only reknowned for it's mine,but also becaus it is the highest town in WA. (it's nicknamed the "Top Town" - cute!) 

The tour of the iron ore mine was interesting to drive into the mine itself and learn how it is dug out, crushed, sorted and "trained" out to the closest port. A typical train is 230 carriages long.  I thought we may have seen more of the mine by foot but alas no.  The obligatory hop off the bus for a photo in front of a "Big" piece of machinery then back loaded in again - all 52 of us.  However, the info and insight into the mine was well worth it.  Tom Price mine has the highest grade of iron ore in the world.  70% is the purest form you can find and this mine is 67% pure so it's an incredibly high standard. 

To explain the last two photos below, we found a really wierd roadside stop just before we arrived into Tom Price.  It seemed like a really big memorial site for anyone's loved ones.  There were lots of piles of rocks all with some sort of message or someone's name on them.  We assume it started as a memorial spot for local miners killed.

Lookout from Mt Nameless over Tom Price Mine (Hamersley Range in background)

Tom Price Iron Ore tour

Those huge trucks

Iron ore pouring out from conveyor belt

Th only place we were allowed to get out on the tour

Nice look