Pilbara Attractions

The Pilbara region, one of the hottest parts of the Australian continent, extends from Exmouth Gulf in the southwest to the barrier formed by the Great Sandy Desert, reaching from Eighty Mile Beach on the north coast into the Northern Territory. This area has the greatest variety of scenery in Western Australia, with gently undulating plains covered with spinifex grass and much eroded rump mountains. The deep gorges with their oases of green, rock pools and waterfalls were carved out over millions of years by rivers which have long since disappeared. The contrasts between the living green of the vegetation, the water and the bare tabular hills, their colors varying according to the minerals in the rock (iron oxides, copper, asbestos), in the hot, arid climate form the attractions of the two magnificent national parks in the Pilbara region (Hamersley Range National Park, reached from Wittenoom, and Millstream-Chichester National Park, reached from Roebourne).

The region enjoyed an explosive boom in the 1960s when the immensely rich reserves of iron ore in the Pilbara region began to be worked.