Australia's National Local Government Newspaper Online

Ecotourism adventure 2 billion years in the making

The world's latest ecotourism adventure, the Pilbara's 2.5 billion year old landscape not only abounds in mineral wealth but its breath taking gorges, beautiful coastline with over 200 virgin islands, hidden valleys, captivating national parks and prolific Aboriginal engravings offer a wilderness experience not to be missed.

The Pilbara boasts Western Australia's largest national parks, spectacular coral reefs on a par with the Great Barrier Reef and a proliferation of wildlife, including kangaroos, large eagles, humpback whales and turtles, often seen laying eggs on mainland and island beaches.

Covering over half a million square kilometres, the Pilbara with its enormous space is not affected by the hustle and bustle of many tourist destinations. Just as important as ecotourism is the growth of industrial tourism. Visitors to the Pilbara make the most of the diversity of experiences the region offers.

Despite being one of the most isolated areas on earth, the Pilbara is very rich. At its Ports and town centres, the wheels of industry are churning out enormous wealth. Annually, some 40,000 visitors to the region board buses at Tom Price or Newman to see the huge open cuts where iron ore is extracted and then loaded onto trains often over 2 kilometres in length.

Travelling hundreds of kilometres, the trains deposit the ore at Dampier, Port Walcott and Port Hedland. Here state of the art equipment loads the mineral wealth onto a multitude of ships, each year delivering enormous tonnages to lucrative export markets.

Also at Dampier, many thousands of people tour the visitor centre of the North West Shelf gas project - the world's largest producer of liquefied gas. Tourism is certainly a growth industry in the Pilbara. Overseeing the marketing and promotion of the world's latest wilderness and mineral wealth experience is the Pilbara Tourism Association.

A regional organisation set up by the four Councils, PTA liaises with and assists local tourist associations and tourism operators. In addition to State Government funding, the four Pilbara Councils provide four percent of their rate revenue to PTA activities.

Recent achievements of the PTA include a web site, promotional video and securing $20,000 funding from the Aboriginal Affairs Department to advance Aboriginal Tourism in the region.

For further information contact the PTA, telephone (08) 9140 2400.

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