Last year, the Australian film Red Dog told the true story of a loyal dog befriending a worker at Ham-ersley Iron and becoming a popular pet of the Pilbara community, so much so that there is now even a bronze statue of him in Dampier. The movie was the most popular Australian film for 2011 at the box office and has become the highest selling Australian DVD of all time.

Even cruise ships have started visiting the area, and five more are scheduled to dock at Port Hedland in the coming year. The Port Hedland Port Authority (PHPA) said the recent visits by cruise ships had proven to be very successful for the port and the cruise operators involved. The town of Port Hedland and the Chamber of Commerce have also reported positively about the economic and social benefits that were generated for the local com-munity by the visits.

Not only is this a great opportunity for the port and the town of Port Hedland, but also for the hundreds of tourists who will get the chance to witness operations at the worlds largest bulk export port first hand, PHPA chief executive Roger Johnston said.

The area is booming, largely fuelled by a thirst for Pilbara iron and the gas beneath the waters off the coast.

Having already seen massive growth during the latter half of the last decade, record investment growth continues

unabated, with total new private capital expenditure in Western Australia growing by 21% in 2010/11.

In March, the Western Australia De-partment of Mines and Petroleum noted there was $125 billion of resource projects under construction or committed in the Pilbara and its offshore areas, while a further $83 billion of projects were under consideration.

For the Western Australia Department of State Development Prospect magazine (www.dsd.wa.gov.au/documents/Pros-pect_June_2012.pdf), Western Australia premier Colin Barnett wrote: The re-sources sector is certainly nothing but diverse and changing. However, with rapid development comes the resultant pressure on companies to fill thousands of vacancies.

Its satisfying, then, to see industry is embracing employment change on two

fronts, with increasing employment of women and indigenous Australians. This has helped Western Australia create 40,000 new jobs over the past year, four times as many jobs as all other states combined. This is a direct result of the more than $17.7 billion in contracts going to local companies since the government launched its local content framework in July 2011.

It is expected that over the next few years a further 50,000 construction jobs and 15,000 permanent jobs will be created in the region. In April, Rio Tinto launched a massive recruitment drive seeking to fill some 6000 positions for tradespeople, engineers, planners, project professionals, geologists and operators.

That same month, Fortescue Metals Group non-executive chairman Andrew Forrest celebrated his Australian Employ-ment Covenant (AEC) filling 10,000 indig-enous positions, and the Generation One campaign to provide a doorway for local indigenous to find gainful employment on resource and associated infrastructure projects continued to give results. The Australian reported that in the Pilbara, indigenous employment had reached 10%, compared to an average of 1.5% around the rest of the country.

With a project hoping to deliver first iron ore in 2014, Gina Rineharts $7 billion Roy Hill project in the Pilbara expects 8500 positions to be filled during the construc-tion phase of the mine and associated infrastructure.

In late May, the federal government granted the Roy Hill project its first En-terprise Migration Agreement (EMA). The federal government set up the EMA program to allow for overseas workers to fill skills shortages on large resource proj-ects. It has also established an Australian job website where companies and recruit-ers looking for overseas workers through the EMA will be required to first use the Australian jobs board to demonstrate suit-ably qualified Australians are given first opportunity.

A spokesperson for the Roy Hill project said: Where these jobs cant be sourced from Australia, our EMA will allow for up to 1715 positions to be sourced from overseas. Once the construction phase is complete there will be 2000 permanent jobs for Australians for the next 20 years.

In the northwest of Australia, the Pilbara region is proving more popular than ever.

Danny Cameron filed these stories.

Red Dogs PilbaraAustralias best friend

The story of Red Dog, a popular figure of the Pilbara with his own Bronze statue, has become Australias highest selling DVD of all time.

Photo: DaviD Darcy/ roaDshow Films anD roaDshow EntErtainmEnt

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With so many projects in development, the communities around the Pilbara are also in a state of massive growth. To ad-dress the issues associated with significant growth on community infrastructure the Western Australia government has estab-lished the Pilbara Cities program. It aims: To build the population of Karratha and Port Hedland into cities of 50,000 people, and Newman to 15,000 people by 2035, with other Pilbara towns growing into more attractive, sustainable local communities.

Over $1 billion in state government Royalties for Regions funding has been com-mitted to transform the Pilbara by building modern cities and regional centres that can support and deliver a skilled workforce to major economic projects in the Pilbara.

In Karratha, the first element of a major $65 million central business district rede-velopment was officially opened in May. Developer Finbar opened its nine-storey Pelago West high-rise containing 114 apartments and commercial space.

The state government has also unveiled plans for a $207 million health campus in Karratha, the largest expenditure on health infrastructure in regional Western Australia to date. Around $150 million has been allocated to upgrade the existing Nickol Bay Hospital on the North West Coastal Highway, while $57 million will go towards a new hospital to be built in

the city centre. It is envisaged the facilities will be completed by 2017.

Surrounding Port Hedland Airport, the second stage of a tourist resort called The Landing is set to commence in August, after construction commenced on the first stage only last month. The first stage consists of a six-storey tower and a two-storey village, while the second stage includes another six-storey tower. The buildings are expected to be completed by mid-next year.

In South Hedland, the Royalty for Re-gions program and BHP Billiton Iron Ore have funded the $10.5 million upgrade and redevelopment of the towns aquatic centre, complete with a wave pool designed by Australian company Latitube.

Major infrastructure improvements are also occurring throughout the region. In February, Western Australias first domestic gas hub development in almost 20 years was opened. The Devil Creek gas plant, a joint venture between Santos and Apache Energy, is located on the Mardie Station pastoral lease approximately 45km south-west of Dampier and became the states third domestic gas processing plant. The project had a capital cost of $1.05 billion and the plant has a gas processing capac-ity of 78PJ/a.

Horizon Power is currently embarking on the Pilbara Underground Power project. In a region where cyclones are common

during the wet season, the project aims to provide a safe and reliable power supply by replacing ageing overhead electricity infrastructure with underground networks. The project covers Karratha, South Hed-land, Onslow and the remaining overhead network in Roebourne. An upgrade of the distribution voltage in Karratha from 11kV to 22kV will also form part of the project.

The Water Corporation of Western Australia has also announced that it would soon commence installing 5700 smart water meters in the townships of Port Hedland and South Hedland, and 7400 smart wa-ter meters in Karratha, Roebourne, Point Sampson and Wickham. The $1.5 million water efficiency program aims to save up to 1.15GL/a of water.

In between Karratha and Port Hedland, Rio Tinto is embarking on the $336 mil-lion expansion of the town of Wickham, close to the Cape Lambert port facilities, increasing the population from 2000 to 2600. The expansion will comprise 212 new dwellings on 174 lots, along with the installation of 198 new motel-style accom-modation units for fly-in/fly-out workers. It follows the commencement of the $43 million project to upgrade the towns wastewater and electricity infrastructure.

Just south of Wickham, a whole new port is being considered and the state government has established a team to

start the early planning, land acquisitions and pre-development of around 4300ha of land. The Anketell deepwater port and industrial precinct is planned to become a multiuser facility with an ultimate export capacity of 350Mt/a.

It is this race to continue to rapidly develop the resources export capacity of the region that is driving all other activity in the Pilbara.

Exports from the existing ports are con-tinually breaking new records and in 2011, Dampier and Port Hedland ports exported a combined value of $66 billion of product, an exponential increase from around $12 billion of product exported in 2001.

In May, Woodside produced its first LNG from its $15 billion Pluto LNG proj-ect near Karratha and last month loaded its first cargo aboard an LNG tanker for export to Japan.

Also last month, Rio Tinto announced $3.5 billion would be spent over the next

four years to complete the port and rail elements of a project to expand iron ore production capacity in the Pilbara to 353Mt/a by the first half of 2015.

Of the total $3.5 billion infrastructure expansion, $2.9 billion will be used for an additional two berths on the new Cape Lambert jetty and wharf, the replacement of the existing rail car dumper, and a rail capacity enhancement project which will include a significant amount of rail track duplication and rolling stock improve-ments. Around $570 million will be spent on a new gas-fired power station at Cape Lambert. A further $1.7 billion will be provided to extend the life of the Rio Tinto Yandicoogina mine to 2021 and expand its nameplate capacity from 52Mt/a to 56Mt/a. A wet processing plant will also be added.

BHP Billiton has proposed a $20 billion expansion of its own export facilities with the development of an outer harbour port off the shipping channel of Port Hedland.

The outer harbour development is expected to provide an ultimate export capacity of 240Mt/a of iron ore.

Fortescue Metals Group is in the midst of an $8.4 billion expansion project that seeks to reach 155Mt/a iron ore export capacity. It now has three of four berths operational at Herb Elliott Port in Port Hedland. First ore through its new processing facility at the 50Mt/a Christmas Creek mine is tar-geted for September and that same month pre-stripping of the top soil is expected to commence at the 60Mt/a Solomon mine.

The largest project under construc-tion in the region though, the $43 billion Gorgon LNG project, continues apace. The joint venture between Chevron, Exx-onMobil, Shell, Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and Chubu Electric Power, has a scheduled completion of 2015. The 15Mt/a LNG development is the largest single resource project undertaken in Australia. n

Arrival of first Gorgon modules

In a major milestone for Chevron Australias Gorgon project, the first pre-assembled rack (PAR) modules have arrived at Barrow Island.This is the first of 56 shipments of modules due to arrive

at site for the project. The pipe racks arrived at the islands new materials

offloading facility (MOF) and have undergone inspection by the projects quarantine team.

The PAR modules, which were transported from Indonesia, are now being moved to site by self propelled module transporters. They will eventually take their place in the east-west corridor area of the LNG plant.

Chevron said over coming months the Gorgon project site on Barrow Island will be transformed as more PAR modules and first train processing modules arrive and are placed on their foundation. n

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INDIAN OCEAN

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North West Shelfoil & gas fields

Varanus Island

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GuniYandarinya BudjilbidiDjilimbardiDjugerari

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Shire of East Pilbara

Shire of Broome

Lake Disappointment

LakeDora

Lake WaukarlycarlyPercival Lakes

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Shire of Halls Creek

Shire of Wiluna Shire of Ngaanyatjarrku

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Pilbara Planning and Infrastructure Framework

Strategy Map

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potential watersource

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gas pipeline

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