Wedge Street, Port Hedland
INTRODUCTION
The place that’s now called Port Hedland was once known by the Aboriginal
name Marapikurrinya, a beautiful word describing the handprint shape the
tidal waters made, long fingers of creek reaching in through the mangroves, a
handshake between ocean and land, between wet and dry. Marapikurrinya was
a place of abundant fresh water and food, a good meeting place for the local
Karriyarra people.
23
Crameri’s Billiard
Saloon Site
34
The Don Rhodes
Mining Museum
Crameri’s Billiard Saloon was located on the
corner of Richardson and Wedge streets.
It opened during the 1920s and operated
through to the 1940s. Will Crameri lost his
leg while working on the rams between
Roebourne and Cossack. He was a well-known
local businessman and jack of all trades,
including a knit maker, boot maker and barber.
He was also the telegraph operator at the
post office.
In 1953 Don Rhodes revitalised Port
Hedland’s economy when he was contracted
to transport manganese from the Woodie
Woodie deposit to Port Hedland’s for export.
Much of the equipment at this museum was
used in early mining ventures in the Pilbara.
The three locomotives were donated by
Goldsworthy and Mt Newman Mining (Now
BHP Billiton Iron Ore) and were previously
used to rail iron ore from Newman to Port
Hedland.
24
The Royal Flying
Doctor Service
25
Harbour and
Lights Cottage
29
Lions Club
Park
30
Pensioners
Quarters
Reverend John Flynn’s vision became reality
in the Pilbara with the opening of the Port
Hedland Royal Flying Doctor Base in 1935.
On its first day of operation the service was
called to Warrawagine Station, some 240km
away, to attend to an Aboriginal Stockman. It
was reported that the plane banked around
and landed gently at the station before
taxiing up to the front of the homestead. The
Royal Flying Doctor Service still has a base
in Port Hedland, located at the Port Hedland
International Airport.
The Harbour and Lights Cottage - residence
for the Department of Harbour and Lights
- had only recently been constructed when
it was hit by the 1939 cyclone that nearly
destroyed the town. It was reported that
at the height of the storm all buildings
surrounding the cottage were swept out to
sea. Whilst waves had lashed the roof of the
cottage and it sustained some damage, it
escaped relatively unscathed. The Harbour
and Lights Cottage was the home to Bert
Clarke, a watchmaker, Clerk of Courts,
Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages,
Lighthouse Keeper and Pilot of the harbour
launch the Sea Crest. He was also responsible
for maintaining the tide indicator tower, which
alerted incoming vessels to the rising and
falling tides in the harbour.
The Lions Club Park was the first green space
in Port Hedland and was opened in the early
1960s, during a resources boom that enabled
the town’s first reliable water supply. The
centrepiece for the park was a water feature
with a large clock sitting above the water at
the top of a fountain.
The single cottage remaining on this site is
the last of eight pensioners residences built
in 1906 to provide accommodation for single
men. Each cottage had a dividing wall that
created two units. Each unit contained a bed,
chair, table and cook top.
31
The Tamarind
Tree
32
The Spinifex
Express Railway
It is thought that the Tamarind Tree was
seeded by an early indentured Malay or
Indonesian pearling lugger crewman. The fruit
from the tree continues to be picked annually
and is used to flavour many dishes including
Malay/Indonesian curries. The tree stands on
the site of the former Port Hedland Primary
School oval and was used as a hiding place for
school children not wanting to return to class.
The Spinifex Express rail service ran between
Port Hedland and Marble Bar and was
officially opened in 1911. The rail service was
introduced to serve the Pilbara and Nullagine
Goldfields and local pastoral industry as well
as providing a passenger service between the
two towns. Along the route the train stopped
at Pippingarra, Poondino, Strelley, Carlindie,
Warralong, Coongan, Shaw Tanks and Eginbah.
The trip would take upwards of 10 hours and
rarely ran on time. The fact that there were
no less than five pubs along the route may
have contributed to the delays. The service
provided a fresh water supply for Port
Hedland by transporting water from the Shaw
River to the town. The Spinifex Express was
subsidised by the State Government, which
closed the service to Marble Bar in 1951.
It’s still a good place to meet, to explore, to visit and to live, and the metaphor
of its original name – an extended hand – is just as appropriate as it ever
was. Port Hedland stands as a location where historical and contemporary
complexities come together.
26
Medical Staff
Quarters
To the east beyond Port Hedland stretches the Pilbara, 502,000 square
kilometres of some of the most dramatic, remote, and powerful country you’re
likely to experience in Australia. It’s a region where the 21st century confronts
prehistory, where the raw materials for advanced technologies are found
in the planet’s most ancient rocks, and where the world’s oldest continuous
culture has lived for millennia and still calls it home.
The Medical Staff Quarters were built in
1930 and housed the town’s first doctor
and surgery. There were two nurses and a
matron who served at the local Australian
Inland Mission Hospital. Staff treated a
range of afflictions, from dengue fever, tooth
extraction, emergency childbirth and other
injuries. Hospital patients included a young
man who, against good judgment, decided to
swim across the harbour to Finucane Island
and back. Just as he was wading through the
shallows and about to exit the water on the
Port Hedland foreshore a shark bit him on the
buttocks. The injuries were quite severe and
in the absence of a doctor the local butcher
was called upon by the hospital staff to stitch
his wounds with kangaroo sinew.
In the towns of Port and South Hedland the dualities of innovation and tradition
daily play out against a backdrop of intense blue skies and rich red earth.
Clinging to the continental edge, where Australia looks outward to Asia and the
rest of the world, this is where life is lived large: where human experience is
more than a match for the scale of industry, and where the identity of a muchloved home holds equal weight and value to the countless tonnes of minerals
shipped out by the largest vessels ever to navigate the oceans.
Explore Port Hedland and you are uncovering the seams that bind together
many cultures and many stories; you are treading the paths taken by
traditional owners and immigrants, by people who loved and nurtured this
land and by people who helped to build it into the settlement it is today. You are
adding to the patina created by pearlers and stockmen, pastoralists and miners,
merchants and matriarchs, and walking alongside many cultures, chiefly Australian
Aboriginal, but also Asian, European, Middle Eastern, and more.
Through the stories of the Cultural and Heritage Trail, you learn that each
culture, aboriginal and incoming, has given something of itself to this part
of Australia and you realise something of it will belong here evermore. And
though a century or more may separate you from these people, you are
standing on the soil they loved, and which successive generations still love.
The original owners of the land understood the townsite’s importance as a
meeting place, and this connective energy remains a key part of what Port
Hedland is today. All who’ve subsequently come here have invested into this
spirit of community, and while you are here, whether for a few hours or for the
rest of your lives, you become part of it too.
And if you venture beyond Port Hedland into the more remote areas of the
Pilbara region (and it is to be hoped you do), you will discover how landscape
and place can inspire such fierce and powerful attachment, because you will
start to feel it within yourself. Spend some time in this extraordinary location,
become acquainted with the gorges and waterholes and the desert. This may
be the place where you meet the adventurer within you.
MAGS WEBSTER
27
Airline
House
28
Original
Primary School
In the 1920s early aviation pioneers such
as Charles Kingsford Smith stayed in Airline
House during stopovers on the Geraldton
to Derby air service. The aviators were
considered dashing figures by the local
population. Kingsford Smith or ‘Smithy’
would loop the loop in his plane over the port
to herald his arrival into town. He was also
known to be very musical and would sit on the
foreshore playing a banjo or ukulele. Local
aviator Len Taplin was once stuck in Broome
and, desperate to get back to Hedland to keep
a date with a young lady, Smithy offered Taplin
a lift in his plane. Because there was no room
for him in the cockpit, Taplin donned goggles
and a flight jacket, was strapped to a strut
and rode all the way from Broome to Port
Hedland on the wing of the biplane. He was
able to keep his date with the young lady, Ms.
Eileen Kain, whom he later married.
The state school opened in McKay Street
on October 1, 1906, consisting of a single
room. It was reported that when the school
was first opened students went on strike,
supported by their parents, as classroom
conditions were stifling and the school house
was deemed unsuitable for the hot climate.
These issues were eventually resolved
and the primary school remained the only
education facility in Port Hedland from 1906
to 1942. It closed during WWII due to bombing
threats and did not reopen until 1953. In 1961
the state school moved to a new building
located in Acton Street.
________
ABOVE (TOP TO BOTTOM):
Southern Cross at Port Hedland Airport
Small plane at Port Hedland Airport
Old Port Hedland Primary School
33
Lock
Hospital
The Port Hedland Lock Hospital was originally
established to coincide with the closure of
the Dorre and Bernier Island Hospitals off
Carnarvon. When the island hospitals were
closed an isolation hospital was established
that received patients from the region as
well as Dorre and Bernier Islands. Many of the
Aboriginal people who died as patients were buried
in unmarked graves in the hospital grounds.
Geoff Stocker
Roma Nylund
________
ABOVE: Crameri’s Billiard Saloon
The old Port Hedland Cemetery was opened
in 1912 and is of great cultural and historical
significance. It is representative of the
region’s multicultural heritage and contains
Aboriginal Shell Midden sites associated
with pre-contact history. The large marble
headstone at the centre of the cemetery
marks the grave of Keith McKay, the only son
of a local pastoralist who died as a result of
a plane crash in Port Hedland harbor in the
1920’s. The headstone was imported from
Scotland at a cost of some 500 pounds, a
massive sum at the time.
Cemetery Beach is a renowned salmon
fishing spot and a popular place for the local
community. Local man Vince Clarke often
spoke of his family’s fishing adventures in
Port Hedland where they would fish off the
reef and catch kingfish, blue bone and cod.
Many popular fishing spots around Port
Hedland are still relatively accessible and
include the public jetty at the end of Wedge
Street, the Spoilbank and Six Mile Creek.
ABOVE: Fishing in Port Hedland
40
Pretty Pool Beach
and Park
41
Aboriginal/Afghan
Water Source
Pretty Pool has always been a popular
community reserve and is still one of the
best swimming spots in town. Before the
area was developed, an outing to Pretty
Pool was considered a day trip by vehicle.
Many courting couples would spend their
afternoons at Pretty Pool, which was known
to some as ‘Tickle Belly Flats’. The Pretty
Pool area has a tidal range of up to 7.7m and
is an ideal place for viewing the Stairway to
the Moon. This beautiful phenomenon occurs
when the moon rises over the mudflats at
low tide, creating a stairway effect as the
moonlight shines on the pools of water left by
the receding tide.
The site was originally an Aboriginal water
source named Puriyakarranya (which
means ‘smells like the ocean’) and is of
great significance to Aboriginal people. It is
named and features in many local language
songs. In the 1920s it was used by Afghan
camel operators who camped at the site as
indicated by a surviving date palm located
100m over the ridge to the North West of the
well. It is one of several soaks in the town,
with others located at the Tamarind Tree and
Two Mile Ridge.
________
ABOVE: Afghan camels and cameleer
‘Before the war, Port Hedland had only one engine crew for the railway to Marble Bar a
hundred miles inland. When we went up in 1942 there were three crews as the train ran seven
days a week carting fuel to Marble Bar for the aeroplanes that came over from the eastern
states, fuelled, went over to islands held by the Japanese, bombed them, returned, fuelled
and flew back east. They never stayed at the Bar. The Japs didn’t know this and used to fly
over Hedland looking for the aerodrome at Corunna Downs, which was so well camouflaged
among the iron stained hills it couldn’t be seen from the sky. If they had known they would have
bombed the trains carrying the fuel.’
________
ABOVE: Old Port Hedland Primary School
BELOW: The Spinifex Express
‘The picture that emerges of Peter Hedland is that of a tough, leathery, cheerful
and utterly reliable mariner who would never be beaten by the sea... Peter
Hedland has always been described as a Dutchman but his descendants, some
of whom live in Perth, testify that he was a Swede. He was said to have built
the Mystery in 1957 at Point Walter on the banks of the Swan River. It is also
reported that, although he was referred to as Captain, he did not hold a Master
Mariner’s ticket.’
- Jenny Hardie
36
Fishing in Port
Hedland
Elizabeth Donovan, from Pilbara Journey, Through the 20th Century
What’s in a name - Peter Hedland
‘When we were going to school we had
about sixteen children. In the summer when
‘Dances were held at the Town Hall, and the boys
it was over 110 degrees we would be sent
helped polish the floor. The wax was spread around
home at lunchtime, but we were not allowed
with a sandbag; then the kids would skate up and
to roam the streets- although we could go
down in their socks to buff it up.’
swimming.’
35
Old Port Hedland
Cemetery
37
The SS Koombana
Lookout
38
World War II
Rifle Range
The steamship SS Koombana was a steel-screw
steamer ship of approximately 4000 tonnes
and was operated by the Adelaide Steamship
Company on charter to the Western Australian
Government as a state ship. The SS Koombana
made her inaugural voyage to Port Hedland
arriving on April 10, 1909 and serviced the Port
Hedland community for three years. On March
20, 1912 the ship sailed out of Port Hedland en
route to Broome, encountered a cyclone and
was lost with all 146 passengers and crew
aboard. It had been rumoured the she was
carrying a bounty of gold and a mysterious
black pearl called the Roseate Pearl that was
thought to be cursed. No records of gold or the
pearl were listed on the ship’s manifest. Despite
several attempts and intensive investigation
the wreck of the SS Koombana has never been
located.
The area at the location of the WWII Rifle Range
on Athol Street is known locally as Merv’s
Lookout. The Lookout sits on top of a ridge
directly over the muddy tidal flats of Pretty Pool
Creek. At low tide the remains of the rifle range
can still be seen. Sandstone rocks painted white
have been laid out in a line and mark out the
300 and 500 yard targets. Spent 303 slugs can
still be found around the site. Merv Standton
planted the trees at the lookout in memory of
the Port Hedland Battalion, in which he served
during World War II. This battalion patrolled the
coastline, by foot, between Port Hedland
and Broome.
________
ABOVE: The Koombana at Port Hedland
39
Port Hedland Government Buildings
The Port Hedland Civic Centre in McGregor Street was built in 1971 and replaced the Roads Board
building, which was located at 13 Wedge Street. The Port Hedland Roads Board was established in
1905 and the secretary of the local Roads board was considered an important position. In the social
structure of the town the doctor was considered the most prominent citizen followed by the Post
Master, Police Sergeant and the Secretary of the Roads Board. The president and members of the
Roads Board were elected from station people and local business operators. One of the longer serving
Roads Board secretaries was Mr. Robert Sutherland who came to Port Hedland in 1908 and remained
Secretary for 37 years.
42
Old
Causeway
43
Airport and
wartime bombings
A causeway was constructed as early as
1899, at a cost of a few thousand pounds,
to provide essential access to town across
the muddy tidal flats. Despite best efforts
continual tidal movement and inundation
during storms made it almost impossible
to maintain the route. Most of the goods
and passengers at the time arrived into
Port Hedland via the port. The railway line
between Port Hedland and Marble Bar was
opened well before the first motor vehicle
arrived into the town. It was reported in
the Hedland Advocate in August 1911 that
‘Mr. A. C. Neall had purchased the first car
in Hedland and that it would be running on
the streets very shortly’. By 1914 cars were
more commonplace and, despite poor road
conditions, people began using them as a
regular form of transport through
the district.
The original Port Hedland aerodrome was
located at the Port Hedland Racecourse.
During World War II it was recommended that
it be abandoned in favour of an area known
as Pippingarra Sands, 11km from the town.
On July 30, 1942, Port Hedland Airport was
bombed by Japanese air forces. The only
casualty from the raid was Private J. Adams,
who dived under his bed to take cover and
was hit by shrapnel from a daisy cutter bomb.
Port Hedland was bombed again almost a
month later on August 17. It is thought that
the Japanese were searching for the Corunna
Downs Air base near Marble Bar. Japanese
bombing raids took place up and down the
Western Australian coastline with little
success and Corunna Downs Air Base was
never found by enemy forces.
________
ABOVE: Shearing at Muccan Station
Discoverer’s
Guide
The Pier Hotel circa 1906
MAP
PORT HEDLAND
Taking
A portside desert town, a mining hub, a cyclone magnet…Port Hedland is many
things but for those who look closer, this town, perched obstinately between
the dove green of the Indian Ocean and great swathes of desert country,
yields many more intriguing stories about people, places, events, and even a few
local mysteries.
This guide maps a trail intended for anyone interested in gathering the
threads of Port Hedland’s history and drawing them together into a largerthan-life story about the town’s bright personality. A Catholic church that
was once a brewery, a train that carried bombs across the outback, exotic
trees seeded from foreign lands, and a ship that mysteriously and completely
vanished – discover these stories, hidden between the pages of Port Hedland.
In May 1946, hundreds of Aboriginal station workers from the Pilbara went on strike,
demanding better working conditions and pay. It was amongst the first large-scale
Aboriginal rights protests to occur in the Pilbara and was the result of several years of
planning and rallying, lead by Mr. Don McLeod and a number of senior Aboriginal leaders.
‘I didn’t coordinate the strike. The lawmen had a good tight grip on the whole business. It was left
to the blackfellas and I worked through them. The lawmen in the different districts were reference
points. Dooley Bin Bin, a travelling lawman, was my main man because he had the right to
travel around and no one could block him. Closer to the time I took Dooley out to the bush and
gave him ten intensive days and showed him how to make a calendar of the months and how
to mark the days off to the first of May. He dropped me off at each station to coordinate the time.
He went around on a pushbike. He was proud as punch that he had circulated the calendars.’
Don McLeod
Exterior of the Picture Gardens
08
Midi Bin
Brahim’s Trees
The first Catholic Church in Port Hedland was
established in Edgar Street in 1925. Before
becoming a church the building was home
to Hedland’s first brewery. In early 1907 the
Hedland Advocate reported that the first
shareholder’s meeting of Hedland Brewing and
Ice had been held with townsfolk being promised
ice and beer during February of that year. In
June 1908 the company made a request to
local shareholders to increase capital by 5,000
pounds. Less than a week later the company
wound up operations due to the lack of fresh
water. The building was sold and became a
printing shop. The Catholic Church remained at
that site until the 1960s, at which time Father
Middleton secured land in Sutherland Street and
established a new church and rectory alongside
the Presentation Sister’s Convent
and St.
The Sea Baths
Cecilia’s School.
Midi Bin Brahim was horn in Surabaya, Java
in 1880 and arrived in Australia in 1900 as an
indentured pearling lugger crewman. Midi Bin
Brahim planted a number of Albizia trees on his
block. These trees are a significant part of Port
Hedland’s history as they were planted at a time
when there was little vegetation and no reliable
fresh water supply in town.
‘One of the main turning points in Hedland’s
history, in my opinion, was the bringing
of fresh water to the town. Most people
have probably never experienced living and
working under conditions where you have
only salt water - water you can’t drink but
have to use even to clean one’s teeth so as to
conserve every drop of fresh water.’
Angus Richardson
THE Trail
The Stockman’s Strike
07
The Original Catholic
Church Site
Significant
Cultural &
Heritage Sites
01
The Port Hedland
Visitor Centre
02
The
Courthouse Site
Officially opened in 1988 as part of the
town’s bicentennial celebrations, the
Port Hedland Visitor Centre stands on
the site of the original Port Hedland Roads
Board Building. The Roads Board Building
was removed shortly after the shire of
Port Hedland relocated to new premises in
McGregor Street.
The original stone Courthouse building was
built in Wedge Street in 1905. It served a
number of purposes including being used
as a warehouse and single men’s quarters
before becoming the town Courthouse. The
Courthouse eventually relocated to Edgar
Street in the 1960s and the building is now
home to the Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery,
a stylish contemporary art space.
03
The Picture
Gardens Site
04
Old St. Matthew’s
Church Site
The Port Hedland Picture Gardens, built by
Charlie Bayman in 1936, were open every
night of the week during the beginning of the
resources boom of the 1960s. As part of the
1996 Centenary celebrations for the town,
the ANZ bank and the Centenary Committee
organised the repainting of the screen and a
mural at the original picture gardens site.
The original St. Matthew’s Church was a
simple weatherboard construction built in
1908. The church burned down in 1917 and
was rebuilt shortly thereafter. It was one
of the few buildings that survived a major
cyclone in 1939 that decimated most of Port
Hedland. After the cyclone the church roof
acquired a noticeable lean, which was never
corrected. In the 1990s a new Anglican
church was built in McGregor Street and
St. Matthew’s was sold. It served as an
art gallery and community hall until it was
eventually demolished in 2003.
‘The pictures were the highlight of the week.
We usually went with my father and we’d
have to sit on a blanket on the lawn in front
of the screen. They showed cowboy movies,
the Marx brothers, Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis - real family fun movies.’
Margaret Galvin
‘We had 35 people sheltered in the Post Office.
The veranda roof looked like being lifted off
with each blow of wind, and at one stage five
men were holding it down until it could be
secured by tying wire from the rafters to the
utility truck driven underneath the verandah.
Len Taplin patrolled the town keeping a watch
on the tide, because we feared a tidal surge.
And you wouldn’t believe it, the tide didn’t come
in. It was just phenomenal. A miracle really.
After the cyclone was over they took stock of
what food there was in the town because they
couldn’t get in across the causeway and there
wouldn’t be any ships for a while. There were
no communications at all and so my father,
Harry Carr went out with another couple of
men and they worked their way out through
all the mud and the slush and got out over the
Causeway. I think it was three days that we
were completely off the air. And of course
nobody knew. They didn’t expect Hedland to be
there when the planes eventually came.’
________
RIGHT: (TOP TO BOTTOM)
St Matthew’s Church
Banger’s Bungalow
Joyce Glass
05
Methodist
Church
06
Banger’s
Bungalow
The first Federal Methodist Inland Mission
patrol visited Pilbara stations in 1927 and the
Methodist Church was built in Edgar Street
in 1935. The church housed the Minderoo Bell
and relics from the wreck of SS Minderoo,
whose crew miscalculated the tides resulting
in the ship breaking its hull on a sand bar in
the Port Hedland harbour. The bell was given
by Captain McBride to the Reverend Stan
Vickery of the Methodist Inland Mission and is
still in use today at the Uniting Church in Athol
Street, Cooke Point.
W.T. Banger Pearl Trading Company is thought
to be the only pearling fleet operator based
in Port Hedland. Banger’s house was the
living quarters for the luggers crews and
the location from which the pearl shell was
packed and dispatched. The building was
relocated from the foreshore to Edgar Street
in the 1930s and is one of the few buildings
remaining in the town that was constructed
by Charlie Bayman.
09
The Old
Convent
10
Surveyor F.T.
Gregory
The original convent is thought to have been
used as an officers’ mess prior to the arrival
of the Presentation Sisters of Northampton,
who inhabited the building in 1942. Despite
hardships, the sisters opened the first
Catholic school at Port Hedland that same
year. One room of the convent was used as a
parlour and music room and one was used as
a chapel. The convent was eventually sold to
private enterprise and became a backpacker
hostel until its subsequent purchase and
renovation by BHP Billiton Iron Ore.
In 1861 Francis Thomas Gregory, a
surveyor with the Lands Department, was
commissioned by Walter Padbury to explore
the inland Eastern Pilbara and identify
suitable pastoral areas. Gregory returned to
the south with glowing reports of excellent
country and estimated that there were
two or three million acres of land suitable
for grazing. He also drew attention to the
possibilities of a pearl oyster industry. On
Gregory’s recommendation, Padbury then
took up the lease for De Grey Station, which
he abandoned some years later due to the
low price of wool, drought and the difficulties
associated with managing such a remote
station. Gregory went to Queensland in 1862
and for some years was the Queensland
Commissioner of Crown Lands. He went
on to become a member of the Queensland
Legislative Council in 1874 and died in
Toowoomba on October 24, 1888.
Midi Bin Brahim feeding chooks
Lot 1
19
Charlie Souey’s
Store
20
Police
Station
Charlie Souey or Lui Chin Sui was a prominent
local businessman in the 1930s. He started a
market garden at the Twelve Mile Well, then ran
a bakery in Morgan Street. Charlie Souey had
business contacts in Hong Kong and regularly
imported drapery, herbs and Chinese silks. His
business enterprise extended to serving Long
Soup from a window in his house - the first
takeaway food outlet in Port Hedland.
During the gold rush period of the late 1800s,
towns like Marble Bar and Nullagine thrived and
local police forces were established, however
policing in Port Hedland was almost nonexistent. The Northern Public Opinion reported
in April 1900 that the town ‘badly needed a
policeman’ and in 1901 the first police station in
Port Hedland was established, with Constable W.
Ketell the first water policeman.
BELOW: The old Port Hedland Post Office
Dempster’s Store
13
The Esplanade
Hotel
14
Lot
One
Built in 1904, the Esplanade’s exposed
stonework and elegant iron detail made it the
most attractive building in town. The building
consisted of 23 large rooms including a billiard
room, a dining room, fourteen bedrooms
and two bathrooms. The Hotel hosted many
functions and parties over the years.
Surveyor E.W. Geyer published the results of
the original survey of the Port Hedland town
site in 1896. His instructions were to lay out the
town site as close as possible to the site for the
proposed stock jetty. Lot One was the first Lot
of the Port Hedland town site to be surveyed.
The establishment of the port and town site
were necessary to serve the thriving Pilbara
goldfields and to replace the landing at Condon
Creek, which was silting and unable to service
the growing demand for larger quantities of
stock and supplies.
15
The Returned
Services League
War Memorial
16
Tide Indicator
Tower Site
The Returned Services League War Memorial
was constructed by veterans and members of
the local community in the 1990s. It pays tribute
to the men and women of the Pilbara who served
their country during the War. In World War II Port
Hedland’s Port and rail facilities played a pivotal
supply role for those defending the North West
of WA. The Spinifex Express, which provided a rail
link between Port Hedland and Marble Bar, carried
bombs, equipment and aviation fuel to Corunna
Downs which was then a secret joint US and
Australian air based located near Marble Bar.
During the town’s early years, the Harbour and
Lights Department signalled tidal movements
to waiting ships from a 16 metre steel signal
tower. A series of cane balls was hoisted up
the tower to indicate the depth of water in the
harbour. At night the balls were lit by hurricane
lights contained inside glass-fronted kerosene
tins. A black flag flying from the tower masthead
indicated a rising tide to vessel masters and a
red flag a falling tide.
21
Original Post
Office Site
The original sandstone post office was designed
and built in 1910 by local builder Charlie Bayman.
The building had a long veranda and a shop
front. Attached to the rear was a latticed
manager’s bungalow and the backyard housed
a crow’s nest, where people would sleep during
the hot summer months in order to catch the
breeze and escape mosquitoes and sandflies.
The original building was replaced in the 1960s.
‘When we arrived in 1937 we went to the
Post Office. It was a beautiful old stone
building in those days, with greenery all
around the verandahs. This brought a lot
of mosquitoes - you couldn’t sit still on the
verandah for the mosquitoes. My father
was the postmaster. Apart from him there
was a Postal Clerk, a Postal Assistant and
the messenger. We all did the telephone
exchange, covering the town and outlying
areas. We had a line to Marble Bar which was
very important, and some of the stations had
the phone connected through us. They were
very poor lines and it was extremely difficult
to get through.’
Joyce Glass
11
Sea Baths
Site
‘As young people we swam a lot and some
of the boys could have been Olympic divers.
They would climb the high cranes and divejackknife. All the young people went around
together; we were children for a long time.’
Ann Sibosado
There were two sea baths sites in Port
Hedland, one at the end of Wedge Street,
which was known as the Spit Baths and the
other at the junction of the original wooden
Port Hedland jetty. The Spit Baths were more
popular and bathing houses were erected
in 1912 for women bathers. The baths
were protected by netting on all sides in an
attempt to keep out, not always successfully,
sea snakes and sharks. During the hottest
summer months children were excused from
school and allowed to go for a swim.
12
The Pier
Hotel
17
Dalgety House
Museum
This historic hotel has a colourful past
as the local workman’s pub. The original
Pier Hotel was built in 1898. The hotel was
damaged by fire in the early 1900s and
during refurbishments a second storey was
added. In the late 1920s many young women
answered advertisements in metropolitan
papers for waitress positions at the busy
hotel. Contracts for employment were for
three years, including return boat fares.
In the 1970s the watering hole became an
international sensation when a feature article
in London’s Sunday Telegraph magazine
named it the ‘Toughest Pub in the World?’
The English merchant company Dalgety and Co
first established an agency in Port Hedland in
1899 and Dalgety House was built in 1903. The
House was used as the manager’s quarters
and a large warehouse. Dalgety House offers
a classic example of late Victorian Northwest
architecture, with partially enclosed verandas,
often used as sleep-outs and a dark, cool
living area in the centre of the house. The
Port Hedland Historical Society now owns the
building, which it conserved and established as
a museum in 2000. A visit to the House offers
turn-of-the-century furnishings and a collection
of artifacts, photographs and audiovisual
displays.
________
RIGHT: (TOP TO BOTTOM)
The Pier Hotel
Race day crowd outside The Pier Hotel
‘Going to Dempster’s Store
was like going into a shop
from the wild west- there
were leather cowboy
boots and stock whips and
old style dresses. Down
in the cellar there was
produce from the turn
of the century. It was a
great shop- you could buy
anything there.’
Dalgety House
18
Leap Park and
the 1946 Strike
Sculpture
Leap Park was constructed as a Port Hedland
Community development employment project
in the 1990s. The pathway feature within the
park is designed in the shape of a Bungarra
and the rotunda was constructed by volunteers
from the Port Hedland branch of the RSL. The
Aboriginal Strike Sculpture in Leap Park was
designed and constructed by local artists to
commemorate the strike by Pilbara Aboriginal
pastoral workers in the 1940s, who fought for
better wages and working conditions.
Gus Matheson
22
Dempster’s
Store Site
Dempster’s store began life as the Port Hedland
Hotel and later became Len Taplin’s Garage.
Len Taplin was a successful local businessman
and pilot who worked with aviation pioneers
like Norman Brearley, Bob Fawcett and Charles
Kingsford Smith. He was a pilot with the first
regional passenger air service in Australia. The
service commenced in 1921 and ran between
Geraldton and Derby with a stopover in Port
Hedland. The journey took one and a half days.
The fare was 13 pounds, which was around 10
times the average weekly wage at that time.