Pilbara, Western Australia

The north west area of Western Australia, known as the Pilbara, holds many fascinating places to see. And no matter where you go, the trade mark red dust is everywhere, and gets everywhere through luggage and car.

The Karijini is made up of numerous gorges, including Hamersley Gorge, Dales Gorge, Wittenoom Gorge and surrounding areas. 

The pools at the bottom of the Dales Gorge are great for swimming, although the water is surprisingly cold considering the heat of the day when you get out of your car or off the bus at the top car park.  From the car park to the bottom is a long walk down, and the pools are very cold.

Walk further up from the main pools and you come to a lovely spot known as Fern Pool. 

The rock walls are draped with Maiden Hair Fern, and at the head of the pool are the falls.

Up to and during the 1960s the town of Wittenoom produced asbestos.  With the realisation that asbestos causes mesothelioma,  The mines closed down, and over the years the town has been nearly wiped out as buildings have been allowed to fall into ruin, or where the council have bulldozed them off the map.





Combined efforts of state, federal and local governments are attempting to relegate the existence of Wittenoom to history books and fading memories, with the eventual disappearance of even these old road signs to show that the town was ever there.

Unlike Wittenoom, Cossack is a town that, although it was dead in the 1960s, is growing again as a tourist location.  When we first visited Cossack in 1969, the Court House was dilapidated, as were the other buildings, and the only resident in the town was a single free-spirited person with the foresight to want to keep the town alive.  Now that heritage plays a more important role in the minds of many Australians, Cossack has come back to life, and beautiful buildings such as this can still be visited.