The
Pilbara region is one of the oldest landscapes on earth. It covers a vast area of magnificent ranges, gorges and deserts. The
Pilbara is generally accessed by two major road arteries - the North West Coastal Highway, which is best for accessing the west of the region and the fringing coastline of the Gascoyne or the Great Northern Highway, which passes through
Newman in the east of the region.
This Trek Note however, explores the east side of the
Pilbara via the
Shay Gap offroad track departing the North West Coastal Highway near
Eighty Mile Beach (east of
Port Hedland). The route then traverses through abandoned mining settlements, remote gorges, and remote tracks to the east of
Marble Bar,
Nullagine and
Newman. This has long been an area with idyllic campsites, however major cyclones in the past have made devastating effects on Eel
Pool (
Running Waters) and the campsites at Carrawine
Gorge however these do regenerate. Please update current photos and descriptions when you visit in
Places.
(Note - further east of the
Telfer Road you can access Australia's most remote National
Park -
Rudall River and even further east along the Wapet Track pick up the
Canning Stock Route trek note near
Well 33 and the
Kunawarritji Aboriginal Community (fuel, supplies).
How to Use this Trek Note
- To download this information and the route file for offline use on a phone, tablet, headunit or laptop, go to the app store and purchase ExplorOz Traveller. This app enables offline navigation and mapping and will show where you are as you travel along the route. For more info see the ExplorOz Traveller webpage and the EOTopo webpage.
TIP | ExplorOz Traveller now features the NEW EOTopo 2025 mapset! |
Environment
The
Pilbara region can be divided into 3 distinct areas: a large coastal plain, inland ranges and an arid desert region extending into Australia’s dry centre (which on ExplorOz we categorise as the Western Deserts).
The
Pilbara is predominantly arid, with high temperatures, low and variable rainfall and high evaporation. The temperate averages 25°C in winter to 32°C in summer. The north-west of the region is influenced by the summer monsoon, bringing cyclones. The town of
Marble Bar in the eastern
Pilbara actually holds the record for the longest hot spell in the world with 160 days over 30°C. It is commonly referred to as "Australia's hottest town".
The
Pilbara is one of a handful of locations in the world where rocks older than 3.2 billion years are preserved at the surface of the Earth. Geologists call the period they were formed the "Early Archaean". No-one knows for sure when life first began on Earth, but looking at the rocks of the
Pilbara, scientists have found signs that life may have been present when the rocks were deposited - 3.2 billion years ago. The best signs currently available include structures known as
stromatolites or "layered rocks" of which there are numerous sites in the
Pilbara.
History
Based on archaeological evidence, it is believed that thirty distinct socio-linguistic Aboriginal groups lived in the
Pilbara region prior to
European settlement.
Although Dutch
explorers visited the
Pilbara coastline in the early 1600s, settlement of the
Pilbara region did not occur until the 1860s, some 30 years after the colonisation of
Perth. Pastoralism and prospecting dominated the region’s economy for about 100 years. The
Pilbara was declared a "Goldfield" in 1888 with prospectors flocking to Bamboo
Creek,
Marble Bar and the
Nullagine fields.
In 1968 the introduction of a pastoral award meant farmers could not afford to pay full wages to the station workers. This resulted in a massive movement of Aboriginal people away from the inland stations to the coastal towns.
Almost every imaginable mineral has been found and mined in the
Pilbara region, peaking with the nickel and iron boom times of the 1960s and 70s which resulted in the establishment of nine new towns -
Dampier,
Tom Price, Paraburdoo, South Hedland,
Newman, Wickham, Pannawonica, Goldsworthy (now closed) and
Shay Gap (now closed).
In the 1960s and 1970s, discoveries of oil and natural gas off the north west shelf were also made, and in the 70’s and 80’s the development of these resources expanded the region’s economy and
population enormously.
Today, tourism is playing an ever-increasing role in the regions economy.
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