Cyclone Rusty approaching Port Hedland. Watch its development

[Tony Morcom]

[Captain Kong]

Thanks for that Tony , I saw some of it on Al Jazeera TV News.
I have lost the sound on my computer so didnt hear the commentary.
It does get real bad up there in the season.
In 2007 I drove up there from Perth and when in Karratha, I asked a local where the good pubs where, he told me the Whim Creek pub was a good one, Where is that? I asked. Just up the road, about 150 miles away. so we drove across the desert for the 150 miles and found the Whim Creek Pub. I went in with Anne and ordered two cold ones. Temp around 45c, Sorry mate, the boss said , no beer, the beer truck is two weeks over due.
We settled for two cups of tea.
Now the town of Whim Creek, on the map has vanished a couple of years before. the only building left standing was the pub. The whole town and all the wreckage disapeared in the big Cyclone. Wind speeds over 420 kph.
We carried on to Port Hedland and camped there before driving back through Marble Bar, hottest place in OZ, av temp, 50c.
then down through Tom Price. a Fascinating area.
I wonder if the refugee camp on the hill in Hedland will survive.
It was full of Afghans and others from the middle east, they were locked up but free to go if they went back to where they came from, but they were all staying put. maybe this Cyclone Rusty will change their minds.
Cheers
Brian.

[j.sabourn]

Brian, Dampier would have been closer, could have got there in 30 minutes, and pub and motel there called the Mermaid. Usually seamen and harbour workers as clientelle. Or maybe wangled your way into the yacht club there. Cheers John Sabourn

[happy daze john in oz]

Some good news on this one, it is losing pace at a rate of knots and has been downgraded to a catergory two storm.

[Richard Quartermaine]

Brian's trip up the West Coast of Oz brought back some pleasant memories of my three trips as a winger up the West Coast (all ports) to Darwin on the MV 'Koolinda' (Western Australian State Shipping Service) in 1948/49.

I had been taken off in an ambulance from Adelaide Steamship Co's MV 'Manunda' at Fremantle with malaria I had picked up in Papua New Guinea earlier in 1948. After leaving Fremantle Hospital I had to await the Manunda so took a few of trips on the Koolinda. She was a really friendly and happy ship and carried quite a few passengers. We called in to Geraldton, Carnarvon, Onslow, Port Samson, Port Hedland, Broome, Yampi Sound, Wyndham, Derby and Darwin with passengers coming and going at the various ports. Of course there was no other means of transport because the roads were often impassable and the air services were rather basic.

One couple were the owners of Halls Creek, a cattle station that I was told was bigger than the US State of Texas (it won't let me leave this page to check Google!!). Anyway they were saying how they used to dress for dinner every Saturday night to keep from going bonkers.

In Broome at low tide you could walk around the Koolinda as she was tied up against the jetty and in Wyndham there was an abattoir near the jetty and around the ship were the eyes of crocodiles just above the glassy water. It was mid summer and the temperature would hang around 110 Fahrenheit.

At Port Hedland there was then a regular government train service to Marble Bar, the hottest place in Australia where the temperature would stay above 100 Fht for weeks. The Esplanade Hotel in Port Hedland was the main building in the 'town' and it took at least thee schooners just to wash the dust out of your throat. Above the bar was a drawing of a pig's backside under which read "is your credit good? Pig's A**se it is!"

In Darwin, the Bank of New South Wales building had chinks out of the concrete from the Japanese air raids.

Some pictures attached and there is one on my album showing her on the mud at Broome.

I like the "West" and when we lived in the Far East we bought a house in Perth, WA for it was closer to Singapore and Jakarta than Sydney. No doubt would have stayed there but our daughter, Estelle got married to a bloke in Sydney.

Cheers!
Richard Q

[Trader]

I have been tracking my Greek mate who is on a 180,000 bulk carrier called Cape Alexandros. Yesterday they were about 12 hours from Port Hedland. Hope they arrived OK , I haven't looked today. Tracking with AIS.

Alec.

[j.sabourn]

The usual practice if an expected Cyclone to pass over or near to a port, the harbour master will have all the ships to clear the port boundarys. This was the usual practice in Dampier. Although Dampier has Cyclone moorings (buoys) in a more sheltered part of the large harbour area. I was caught out my first experience with such and was the last ship to clear the port and hoping to get onto one of the moorings. However they were all taken, and had insufficient time to get out into deep water. So went and hid behind one of the many islands there put out 16 shackles of cable and kept the engines on going ahead and rode the bad weather out. Our only damage was the loss of all our canvas awnings. However was never caught out again. Had numerous rows with camp bosses especially on seismic boats who wanted to carry on until the last minute. Most seamen in this area when home on leave when a cyclone was expected up North were sent up to man vessels which were lying dead at the buoys and get them out to sea, all rig personell used to be taken off to shore shelters and seamen put on rigs, what we were supposed to do God knows. The usual camp bosses I had rows with were usually from the UK and had no idea of what a cyclone can be like and thought Australia was the land of flat seas and blue skys. However for those unaware as soon as a Cyclone passes over the land its force starts to dissipate and finishes up as heavy rain downfalls , which is what the farmers in certain areas rely on. Regards John Sabourn. PS Must add this to the camp bosses and their seismic crew were sometimes out here for a limited time only, and had to adjust to Australian Rules, these crew were nearly always from the North Sea where they thought they ruled the roost, and did, as could hire and fire. I wll say it gave me great pleasure to inform these petty tyrants in some cases they obeyed my Rules which were backed by unions and owners alike. Petty I know but what comes around goes around. Cheers John Sabourn