Photographers Christian Fletcher, Tony Hewitt and Les Walkling, along with Curator William L. Fox and painter Larry Mitchell return to the western Pilbara. Tony also returned in October to document Onslow.
Journey 4
September, 21 2010
Karratha
William L Fox
Writing
Return to the Burrup
When we fly back into Karratha, the weather report is for fine weather, although the AU Bureau of Meteorology website that Christian Fletcher brings up on his iPhone...
Journey 4
September, 21 2010
Karratha
Mollie Hewitt
Writing
We took the first flight up to Karratha and were welcomed by gusts of wind blowing dirt across the flats.
Unlike previous trips which have involved moving through places, we were based this ...
Journey 4
September, 21 2010
Karratha
Mollie Hewitt
Writing
Next stop: the lookout behind the Visitors Centre - a place to get our bearings and make plans. Unloading tripods and hauling large camera bags on their backs the photographers spread out: Christia...
Journey 4
September, 21 2010
Karratha
Mollie Hewitt
Writing
It was immediately obvious that these photographers have a wonderful team dynamic, a healthy playful rivalry accompanied by a willingness to share. It is more than just sharing their images – it ...
Journey 4
September, 21 2010
Karratha flood plains
Mollie Hewitt
Writing
We took a dirt track off the east road along the coast – a well worn car track that shines with use. Around a bend or two there is a natural salt flat, pink and dull, that has abandoned car bodie...
Journey 4
September, 21 2010
Dampier
William L Fox
Writing
Driving west out of town after lunch, we cruise through the newest pods along the plumb line of the town. The houses are wood, brick, and steel with steeply pitched, gutterless roofs raking low tow...
Journey 4
September, 21 2010
Dampier salt flats
Mollie Hewitt
Writing
We stopped at the place where the Dampier salt flats meet the highway, and walked along the paths that segment the small areas of salt between the road and railway line. Layers of colour, texture a...
Journey 4
September, 21 2010
Burrup Peninsular
William L Fox
Writing
Six pm and with an almost full moon finds Mollie and I sitting on rocks across from the small valley and the ammonia nitrate plant at the foot of the Burrup. The photographers are framing their sho...
Journey 4
September, 22 2010
Karratha
William L Fox
Writing
The Future Displacement
Early the next morning the photographers go off to take a tour of the new natural gas-fired power plant at Cape Preston that's almost completed, but not yet open,...
Journey 4
September, 22 2010
Dampier Archipelago
William L Fox
Writing
Our third stop on the tour is East Intercourse Island, according to local lore either named by William Dampier upon his visit in 1699 as a place to converse with Aboriginal peoples or, per what I w...
Journey 4
September, 22 2010
Burrup Peninsular
William L Fox
Writing
Larry and I spend much of the rest of the day digesting what we've seen, and find ourselves in late afternoon bouncing along the dirt roads of the Burrup looking for the rock art cemetery. We remem...
Journey 4
September, 22 2010
West Coast Hwy (on the way to Cape Preston)
Mollie Hewitt
Writing
On Wednesday we ventured to Cape Preston to visit the power plant that is under construction as part of the new magnetite mining project. On the way we paused at a truck stop - perhaps in an attemp...
Journey 4
September, 22 2010
Cape Preston
Mollie Hewitt
Writing
Upon arriving at Cape Preston, after going through multiple, various and excessive site safety inductions, we were allowed to enter the largest scale diesel and gas combination power unit in Austra...
Journey 4
September, 22 2010
Old Drive-In, South of Karratha
Les Walkling
Photography
Photographing the landscape as image, text or theatre removes it from its symbolic connection to the material earth. Landscape remains more than representation and the social practice that construc...
Journey 4
September, 23 2010
Karratha
William L Fox
Writing
When in doubt, go flying.
That's been my motto for several years: when the view from the ground is so thick with associations that it's tough to sort out what fits where, get in an airpl...
Journey 4
September, 23 2010
Burrup Peninsular
Les Walkling
Photography
Landscape is part of human activity, experience and discourse, but remains difficult to see, and consequently to theorise. I have engaged with two geographies; the places of landscape itself, and t...
Journey 4
September, 23 2010
Burrup Peninsular
Les Walkling
Photography
The Pilbara is a strange and confusing place to a stranger's eyes and ears. Inherited memories from previous encounters do little to stabilise the Pilbara's shifting ground. It swirls around my fee...
Journey 4
September, 23 2010
Burrup Peninsular
William L Fox
Writing
At one o'clock this afternoon Mollie and Larry and I again meet up with Shane Peters to wander about the Burrup. Today he's wearing a blue field shirt, nylon field pants with lots of pockets, and a...
Journey 4
September, 23 2010
Burrup Peninsular
Mollie Hewitt
Writing
Later, on our way to the rock art cemetery, as we drove up the out-of-the-way 4WD track, I could feel a quietness come over Larry and Bill. I guess I was somewhat prepared for this visit, after con...
Journey 4
September, 23 2010
Burrup Peninsular
Mollie Hewitt
Writing
We followed the moon to Hearson's Cove, apparently the best spot for seeing the ‘Stairway to the Moon'. People lined up along the beach to capture the light darting across the tidal flats and the...
Journey 4
September, 24 2010
Karratha
William L Fox
Writing
We drop off Larry at the airport in the morning, then wander around as the guys photograph the subdivisions and industrial structures around Karratha, like cement batch plants. Unlike the humungous...
Journey 4
September, 24 2010
Baynton West, Karratha
Les Walkling
Photography
The terrain shifts while the ground remains. The task is beyond iconography. The combination of emotional and practical imperatives. Embracing our cultural and physical inheritance. The formation o...
Journey 4
September, 24 2010
Dampier
Mollie Hewitt
Writing
Dampier would be the last stop of the Pilbara Project trips for the majority of us, however Tony would soon be returning to Onslow to complete the journey through the western Pilbara.
The ph...
Journey 4
October, 1 2010
Old Onslow
Tony Hewitt
Photography
The ruins of the police station at Old Onslow
