Simon is ecstatic we are in train heaven. First up we had to go and check out the times of the ships coming into port. These ships are so big they are called Cape class as they are too big to fit down the Panama Canal. They anchored up just off Port Headland sometimes about 40 of them. The pilots are flown out in a helicopter to bring them into port. Its a tricky operation as the channel is narrow and when fully loaded the ships have less than half a metre of clearance under them. It takes 24-36 hours to load one ship and it takes 3 trains which are 264 wagons each wagon holding 130 tonnes of iron ore. These trains are almost 3kms long. There are three different sets of tracks as there are three different miners (BHP, Roy Hill and FMG) they are all independent of each other they do not share anything. They have their own tracks, trains, loading equipment, berths etc. Ít really is quite amazing to watch even if you are not into trains the sheer size of everything is mind boggling. The money going through here is ridiculous $270 million per DAY or annually $95 Billion and that is just BHP!!

The Dampier Salt operation is here too which is owned by Rio Tinto. Amazing to see mountains of salt.