0:00:12 > 0:00:16Vibrant with colour, what sets this area apart from other remote
0:00:16 > 0:00:19regions of North Australia is the rock.
0:00:21 > 0:00:26The Pilbara - in the northwest corner of Western Australia, a vast,
0:00:26 > 0:00:30russet-red landscape, saturated in mineral riches.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33Not so very long ago, this was one of the wildest,
0:00:33 > 0:00:36most remote regions on the planet.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38And yet, today,
0:00:38 > 0:00:43threading their way through it all are Leviathans of the 21st century.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47Joining me on this exceptional adventure,
0:00:47 > 0:00:54palaeontologist Tim Flannery enters a hot zone from the Cold War.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56We're getting a significant reading of the Geiger counters.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58It's in the red zone, isn't it?
0:00:58 > 0:01:02- A salty harvest for marine biologist Emma Johnston.- Ah!
0:01:03 > 0:01:08We join an elite team of welders, who practice their alchemy underwater.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Er, conditions are horrible today. Pretty treacherous.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16And I help to park an ocean giant.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20- A metre between the bottom of this monster and the seabed?- Yes.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26This is the Pilbara, and this is Coast Australia.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57Our Pilbara expedition begins on the remote Montebello Islands,
0:01:57 > 0:02:01travels across the Burrup Peninsula east to Port Hedland
0:02:01 > 0:02:03and ends at Cape Keraudren.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16A day's sail northwest from Dampier and you'll happen upon
0:02:16 > 0:02:20the Montebello Islands, a perfect example of postcard isolation.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25And it's that remoteness which attracted the strategic eyes
0:02:25 > 0:02:30and secret slide rules of Britain's emerging Cold War warriors.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35Four years before Maralinga, this was to be the first
0:02:35 > 0:02:38site for British nuclear testing in Australia.
0:02:39 > 0:02:40With restricted access,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43this is a special journey for Professor Tim Flannery,
0:02:43 > 0:02:48who's on a mission to uncover the remains of Operation Hurricane
0:02:48 > 0:02:50and the chill winds of history.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55I've arrived on Trimouille Island in the Montebello Archipelago
0:02:55 > 0:02:59and I'm here with some trepidation, because this was the site
0:02:59 > 0:03:02where the British exploded their first atomic weapon.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05This place was covered in radioactive fallout,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09much of it falling in the form of a torrent of toxic rain
0:03:09 > 0:03:11and that means that even today,
0:03:11 > 0:03:14it's dangerous to linger on Trimouille for too long.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Britain entered the 1950s a diminished power.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22The Cold War was gathering anxiety
0:03:22 > 0:03:26and Churchill wanted to ensure Britain's place in the nuclear club.
0:03:26 > 0:03:31By 1952, they were ready to test their first bomb.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34What they needed now was a suitable site.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37Parks and wildlife senior reserves officer Dr Peter Kendrick
0:03:37 > 0:03:40has studied this little-known moment in Australian history.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42Why did their eyes fall on the Montebellos?
0:03:42 > 0:03:45- Well, it wasn't going to be Scotland, was it?- No.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49So the Russians developing the bomb frightened the West really badly
0:03:49 > 0:03:53and they were afraid that somebody would put a device
0:03:53 > 0:03:56on a ship and explode it in somewhere like the Thames.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00So they wanted to understand how to build civil defence
0:04:00 > 0:04:03to cope with that kind of scenario.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06So they chose this place because the lagoon here is like a large harbour
0:04:06 > 0:04:10and it gave them a whole pile of vantage points around the lagoon
0:04:10 > 0:04:14where they could put instrumentation to test the effect of a blast.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21In June 1952, the bomb was buried in the belly of HMS Plym,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24a retired British frigate, sailed from London
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and moored 400 metres off the beach in Maine Bay,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31much to the ignorance of the Australian public.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34We had a Prime Minister at the time who refused to share with
0:04:34 > 0:04:38his cabinet, with the government, that this test was going to occur.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42So to get you right there, the Australian Prime Minister hid from the people of Australia the
0:04:42 > 0:04:45fact that a nuclear weapon was going to be detonated on Australian soil?
0:04:45 > 0:04:49- Yeah, until it happened. - And his own cabinet colleagues?- Yes.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51The test would measure the blast impact
0:04:51 > 0:04:55and gamma radiation on a range of elements,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59including civil defence structures, fresh and canned food, to clothing.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03With favourable wind and weather conditions,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06the countdown began on the morning of October 3rd.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12The device - a plutonium implosion bomb, similar to Fat Man,
0:05:12 > 0:05:16the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.
0:05:17 > 0:05:22Five, four, three, two, one - now.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30Radioactivity can linger for millennia.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33A more obvious reminder of that first explosion
0:05:33 > 0:05:36is the crater in the seabed, still visible today.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45This is an old vehicle from the testing period, Tim.
0:05:45 > 0:05:46It's a Willys Jeep.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50And it was either put here on the island as a test object
0:05:50 > 0:05:53for the first test, or perhaps one of the later ones.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55- Is it likely still to be hot? - Well, we can test it.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00- We've got a Geiger counter.- Mmm. I can hear something.- There you go.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05- That's in the red zone.- Yeah.- Is that dangerous?- Stand back, I think!
0:06:05 > 0:06:08- You really... You really don't want to touch metal objects on the Montes.- Yeah, yeah.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12- You don't know where they're from, you don't know where they've been. - Yes.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14Four years later, in 1956,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18the second bomb was detonated on Trimouille Island.
0:06:18 > 0:06:25Eyewitness and broadcaster Ken Casillas was part of the supporting Australian Navy at the time.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29- Hello, Ken.- Hello, Tim. - Welcome back to the Montebellos. - This is an amazing feeling.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33This was my home for about six weeks in 1956.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37So, Ken, is this the first time you've been back in what, 58 years?
0:06:37 > 0:06:39- 58 long years.- How old were you?
0:06:39 > 0:06:43I was 19, and I'd heard about Nagasaki and Hiroshima
0:06:43 > 0:06:44and places like that and read about them,
0:06:44 > 0:06:48but I didn't really take much notice about atomic bombs.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50They did tell us we were going to see an explosion.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52We weren't briefed at all about it.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55We weren't told about any dangers of anything like that.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00We were wearing navy blue shorts and shirts and sandals and that's all.
0:07:00 > 0:07:01- Really?- Yes.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05Unlike the British scientists, who came well-prepared with
0:07:05 > 0:07:09protective clothing and all manner of radiation-detecting devices.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12What actually happened? Tell me about the day.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16We were all told to stand on the steel deck of the ship
0:07:16 > 0:07:18and face away from the explosion.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21'Three, two, one.'
0:07:25 > 0:07:29First thing we saw was this blinding yellow flash.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32As one, we turned around and then,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35- we felt the after-shock about a minute later.- Right.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37This huge booming sound.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41It was an enormous noise, sort of like a whiplash noise
0:07:41 > 0:07:44but magnified about 1,000 times.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47It was a tremendous shock and the after wave
0:07:47 > 0:07:48- sort of sent you back a bit.- Right.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51- And you tried to see the mushroom go up.- Really?
0:07:51 > 0:07:53It very quickly got up high in the sky
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and there was quite a breeze that morning and then the mushroom
0:07:56 > 0:08:00started to fade away with the wind blowing down in that direction.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04- Towards the mainland? - M'hm.- Ah, my goodness.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11Bizarrely, they were allowed back just two days after the blast.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15When we came back into this lagoon here, I saw tens of thousands
0:08:15 > 0:08:20of dead fish floating all through this wonderful beach along here.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22And then there were dead turtles on the beach
0:08:22 > 0:08:24and we used to wander into the water.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26We didn't know whether it was too badly contaminated,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28even though the fish were still there, dead.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31- It was a terrible sight.- Yes.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35After the third blast, costs and difficulties of testing up here
0:08:35 > 0:08:40forced the British onto the mainland, to South Australia and Maralinga,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43where testing continued until 1963,
0:08:43 > 0:08:47with ongoing consequences for the local population.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51So, Ken, have you had any health effects from that experience?
0:08:51 > 0:08:54I don't think I've suffered, even though several of my mates are all
0:08:54 > 0:09:00up in heaven now and several of them died reasonably young with cancer.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04- Oh, really?- Yes, yes. I always said, "Well, what happens happens."
0:09:07 > 0:09:09It was historical high-stakes, with winners and losers
0:09:09 > 0:09:15framed within the vexed question of "what price peace?"
0:09:15 > 0:09:18For better or for worse, the Montebellos, a barren scatter
0:09:18 > 0:09:22of islands off the Pilbara Coast, are part of that legacy.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34While the Aboriginal presence here dates back thousands of years,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38the Pilbara changed gears when big industry arrived in the 1960s.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45Today, Dampier is one of two Pilbara hubs,
0:09:45 > 0:09:50exporting petrochemicals, gas and iron ore to an energy-hungry world.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55There's another natural mineral being shipped out of here,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58and Professor Emma Johnson has come to Dampier to find why Pilbara
0:09:58 > 0:10:01is the ideal place for its production.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07You expect to see dunes on the coast, but this isn't sand.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11These are mountains of pure sodium chloride.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13It's essential for our bodies,
0:10:13 > 0:10:17it flavours our food and, in Roman times, it was currency.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20Salt has been part of human history since time began.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27In the Pilbara, before big business arrived,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29graziers would collect naturally occurring salt,
0:10:29 > 0:10:33deposited by the big king tides, as a lick for their stock.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40Today, salt is harvested here on an industrial scale,
0:10:40 > 0:10:44thanks to an inexhaustible supply.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Here at the Dampier Salt mines, they're turning seawater into salt.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54Our oceans contain more salt than anywhere else on the planet.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57One estimate claims that all the salt in the ocean would cover
0:10:57 > 0:11:02the Earth's continents to a depth of 125 metres.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08Someone who knows how to harvest it is chemist Shaun Triner.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11What's so special about the Dampier area for the salt?
0:11:11 > 0:11:13Well, it's really good, because those very high
0:11:13 > 0:11:17rates of evaporation, which is good for evaporating water and producing
0:11:17 > 0:11:20salt and low levels of rainfall, so it's a perfect location.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24This is the start of the salt production process, Emma,
0:11:24 > 0:11:26where we've got the water from the Indian Ocean
0:11:26 > 0:11:29coming in from this side and then it's moving through our pump
0:11:29 > 0:11:33station and into pond zero, which is the first pond in our system.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36The seawater contains every chemical element that occurs
0:11:36 > 0:11:39naturally on the Earth and what we're trying to do is simply
0:11:39 > 0:11:41extract the sodium and the chlorine.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Making salt's not just about chemistry.
0:11:46 > 0:11:47It's about the biology, as well.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Right behind me, there's a pond of a couple of thousand bream.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53They're feeding on crustaceans that are feeding on phytoplankton.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56It's like a bio-filtration process,
0:11:56 > 0:12:01whereby the nutrients in the seawater are gradually removed.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06The seawater is pumped through a series of evaporating ponds
0:12:06 > 0:12:10that stretch 22km and located between the Burrup Peninsula
0:12:10 > 0:12:12and Karratha township to the south.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14- So we're at pond two?- Yeah.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18We're just about starting the crystallisation of gypsum here.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20You can grab a sample.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24- Whoa!- Excellent.- There we go.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26Now we're going to test the density.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30So we pop the device in there, squirt up some solution
0:12:30 > 0:12:33and you can see we're at 1.09.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35Sea water would have been 1.03, or something?
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Yeah, that's right, so you can see it's concentrated quite a way.
0:12:38 > 0:12:411.21 will be the density when we're crystallising salt,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44so we're about halfway through the process here.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47This must be very salty by now. Can I have a taste, or is it...?
0:12:47 > 0:12:48You can certainly try it.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52- Eurgh!- Yeah, see?- Argh!
0:12:52 > 0:12:54That is really, really salty!
0:12:56 > 0:13:00It takes two years to go from the gushing pipes in pond zero to the
0:13:00 > 0:13:04sparkling stillness of the crystallising fields.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08So, essentially, the ocean water that floods in is a soup of different
0:13:08 > 0:13:11materials, and you're trying to concentrate it down into a broth
0:13:11 > 0:13:16and then evaporate all the water off and then get that little stock cube. Is that right?
0:13:16 > 0:13:19A perfect salt crystal is actually a perfect cube, so yeah,
0:13:19 > 0:13:21that's a good analogy.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26This has been growing for 12 months now and it's ready to be harvested.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32It takes 65 tonnes of seawater to collect one tonne of salt.
0:13:32 > 0:13:38This bed is about 30 centimetres thick and will yield 180,000 tonnes -
0:13:38 > 0:13:40enough to fill 72 swimming pools.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45But this salt isn't destined for the dinner table.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48In fact, only 11% of the world's salt is eaten.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52The bulk is separated into individual components of sodium and chlorine
0:13:52 > 0:13:56and poured into thousands of industrial products,
0:13:56 > 0:14:01such as paper, glass, fertilisers, textiles and chemicals.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05It might sound strange, but in order to be used in industry,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08Dampier Salt must be purer than the sort we eat.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11These coloured salts are considered the boutique food market.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15The essential trace elements in there add a lot of flavour to the salt.
0:14:15 > 0:14:16The difference is easy to see
0:14:16 > 0:14:20when you put it next to the gourmet salt from the Murray river,
0:14:20 > 0:14:22or France and the Himalayas.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25The calcium, the magnesium, the sulphate that we try to remove in our process
0:14:25 > 0:14:28actually stays in the salt in these processes,
0:14:28 > 0:14:30so, in food, they call those important trace elements.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33We just call them impurities in the chemical business.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35- You call them dirt!- Yeah.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37OK, well, let me try the French grey.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45- Quite salty.- It's very salty and quite tasty, actually.- M'hm.- Mmm.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Right, I was going to compare it with the Dampier Salt.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55- A lot less salty, isn't it? - It is. It does taste pure.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57What it actually is, is it's less bitter.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00The magnesium in the salt actually makes it taste better
0:15:00 > 0:15:03and because our salt really has very little magnesium left in it,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06it's got that... Less of a tang.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08What do you use at home?
0:15:08 > 0:15:10- I use this.- The Dampier Salt. - Absolutely.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14I haven't bought any salt since I've been with the salt business for 19 years.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16SHE LAUGHS
0:15:16 > 0:15:18Salts ain't salts.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20Low rainfall and plenty of sun
0:15:20 > 0:15:23and make this an ideal location for growing it.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27Combined with its two partner fields in Port Hedland and Lake McLeod,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30ten million tonnes are shipped annually -
0:15:30 > 0:15:34the world's largest exporter of solar salt.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39Salt was once traded ounce for ounce with gold. Those days are gone.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42But this essential mineral will continue to be valued long
0:15:42 > 0:15:47after Australia's other mineral riches have dwindled to dust.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07In northwest Western Australia, one element dominates.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12It's what puts the road into the Pilbara.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16Iron. It's one of the Earth's most abundant rock-forming features
0:16:16 > 0:16:21and particularly up here, with 80% of Australia's identified reserves.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26It's mined as iron ore, as Dampier port manager Nick Serle tells me.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29So this is iron ore. The main type of iron ore in here is
0:16:29 > 0:16:34- haematite so if we have a look here, you can see.- It sparkles, as well. - Yes, yes.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37So the way they used to check as to whether it was actually iron
0:16:37 > 0:16:41ore some years ago was to actually take the grey-looking mineral
0:16:41 > 0:16:43and actually scratch it and as you can see there...
0:16:43 > 0:16:45- It comes up red.- ..much more red.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50We start off by drilling a lot of holes
0:16:50 > 0:16:53and putting explosive in so we can blast the ore body.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01That's being picked up with massive diggers
0:17:01 > 0:17:05and put in enormous haul trucks and hauled to the crushing plant.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09It's then crushed down to material around this size.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13That's loaded onto massive trains. The trains are 2.4km long.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18That snake 300km to Port Dampier where it's unloaded
0:17:18 > 0:17:21and stockpiled, ready for export.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24So we see the two loaded ore cars coming in now.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28- But you don't need to take the train apart?- No, no.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32It stays all coupled together, so you'll see, it'll stop in a moment.
0:17:32 > 0:17:38And then these clamps will hold the top of the ore car as it rotates.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41There we go. So the clamp's on.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45- And that's dumping 230 tonnes every time.- It's unbelievable.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47Yes, pretty amazing.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52It's like watching two big giant hands just take two of the carriages and just go...!
0:17:57 > 0:18:01These stockpiles are around about 200,000 tonnes, which is
0:18:01 > 0:18:03also the same amount that the average ship takes,
0:18:03 > 0:18:09so one of the stockpiles you see here fits in one ship.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13On any given day, they can be 30 or more ships awaiting their turn
0:18:13 > 0:18:16to steam in and load up.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20I want to have a look at one of these ocean giants for myself.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22200.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24I'm heading out with port pilot Warwick Poulton,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27whose job is to guide these super-sized carriers
0:18:27 > 0:18:32into Dampier through the shipping channel and avoiding local traffic.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love time spent aboard boats.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42All sorts - yachts, cruisers, even Viking long ships -
0:18:42 > 0:18:46but never in my life have I set foot aboard a monster like that.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50That's a class known as a very large ore carrier.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52I've got to get me one of them.
0:18:55 > 0:19:01The Tom Price, 319 metres or three soccer fields long.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03It's like dropping onto an island.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09It was almost frightening to land on something this big.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12This is too big to believe.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Dampier Port. Good afternoon. Pilot on board.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32Vessel is west of seaboard, inbound for Parker point four. Thank you.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35How does it feel to take control of something this size?
0:19:35 > 0:19:37It's a huge responsibility.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40And you don't take it lightly,
0:19:40 > 0:19:42but it's good because I've got the support
0:19:42 > 0:19:45of all the bridge crew up here.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49- Hard to starboard. - Hard to starboard.- Thank you.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52So, Neil, there is a shallow patch in our channel
0:19:52 > 0:19:57so I have to be over there at 13.30 and the tide is going down,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00so we've really got to get it moving.
0:20:00 > 0:20:01When you come over it,
0:20:01 > 0:20:04how much water will there be between the hull and the sand?
0:20:04 > 0:20:08- About a metre. A metre, yeah. - A metre?- Yeah.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13- Between the bottom of this monster and the seabed?- Yes, yes.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18152 will pick out the tugs here off the north mark.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20We'll be using four tugs today.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23We'll put one satellite out because we need him
0:20:23 > 0:20:25as a break for this wind.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Look at that. Even the pilot's talking about how shallow the water is here.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31There's only a metre, a metre and a half beneath the hull
0:20:31 > 0:20:34and before you hit the seabed and that's why the mud here is
0:20:34 > 0:20:37getting churned up by the propellers.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39And the tug sitting there, fastened onto us with a rope,
0:20:39 > 0:20:41that's acting as a break.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45That actually there dragging the boat backwards to try and hold it
0:20:45 > 0:20:47and slow it down.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51Falcon, away to reduce to half. Midships now, please.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56Dead slow astern now, please, captain.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Can you let me know when the stern is clear of the bow of the other ship?
0:20:59 > 0:21:03I used to feel quite good about my parallel parking. Not any more!
0:21:05 > 0:21:08After an 8,000km voyage from China...
0:21:08 > 0:21:10We'll come alongside now.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15..this horizontal skyscraper is eased in by centimetres.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18A miscalculation here can cost millions in damages.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23And Neptune stop. That's it from me. I'll see you later.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29The Tom Price will take on 226,000 tonnes of iron ore,
0:21:29 > 0:21:33which will make enough steel to build three Sydney Harbour Bridges
0:21:33 > 0:21:38and that's just one of three shiploads today at this port.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41The numbers of big Australia.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44When I first encountered these ships and these machines,
0:21:44 > 0:21:49I was overawed by the size of them, and rightly so.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53But having spent some time watching the mining operation,
0:21:53 > 0:21:59what I'm truly struck by is just how small the efforts are.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03The only things that are truly huge here are this land and this coast.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18The Pilbara has evolved slowly over 3.5 billion years.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22The human imprint has advanced a little faster.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27Dr Alice Garner is setting out from Karratha to find out
0:22:27 > 0:22:31how this stretch of coast has changed in just a few decades
0:22:31 > 0:22:37from outback isolation to pastoral enterprise and now, industrial hub.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43Long before Karratha the town, there was Karratha station,
0:22:43 > 0:22:50a sprawling property owned by Bill and Normie Leslie from 1929 to 1966.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Their 300,000-acre station included
0:22:54 > 0:22:57an idyllic 65km stretch of coastline.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01King Bay was a regular escape for the Leslies and daughter
0:23:01 > 0:23:07Tish Lees - in the rowboat - who's written about her growing up in the Pilbara.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10It was a wonderful spot that Dad loved coming to,
0:23:10 > 0:23:15because it was a fantastic beach for catching the sea mullet.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18We'd barbecue those on the beach - Dad's catch of the day -
0:23:18 > 0:23:23and swim off the beach and so on, and it was a lovely protected area.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Presented with a film camera in 1936,
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Tish's mother, Normie, became an avid chronicler, creating a rare
0:23:32 > 0:23:38filmic record of life and times up here in the remote northwest.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Which island are we on?
0:23:40 > 0:23:43Malice Island, one of a number -
0:23:43 > 0:23:45I think it's 40-odd islands - in the archipelago.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50Do you have any particularly dear memories of this time on the coast?
0:23:50 > 0:23:55Um, yes. The special one was annual camp, catching crayfish.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57My father was an expert at that.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01Then when we'd go back to the camp, the crayfish would be put into
0:24:01 > 0:24:06a 44-gallon drum full of boiling water and that would be lunch and dinner.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10Three meals a day, actually, when I come to think about I!
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Tish's father, Bill, wanted to share the bounty of this
0:24:15 > 0:24:18part of Western Australia but, at the time, desolation
0:24:18 > 0:24:22and hardship were taking a toll on the sparse population.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Bill Leslie called a meeting of government officials and locals
0:24:29 > 0:24:33in 1945, where he famously announced that there were more people working
0:24:33 > 0:24:38for Myers in Melbourne than they were living north of the 26th parallel.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Good friend Lang Hancock, seen here with wife Hope,
0:24:42 > 0:24:44shared Bill's passion to galvanise the northwest
0:24:44 > 0:24:48and it wasn't long before their ambitions were realised.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52In 1952, Hancock discovered iron ore here.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55It was the moment that would change the Pilbara
0:24:55 > 0:24:57and the Leslies' lives for ever.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Tish, you were part of the early development of Dampier over here,
0:25:01 > 0:25:03what was your role?
0:25:03 > 0:25:04Karratha, the township,
0:25:04 > 0:25:07was built on Karratha Station
0:25:07 > 0:25:10and our homestead was only 20 miles away.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14So I was approached to take on a position as secretary,
0:25:14 > 0:25:15so I did all the secretarial
0:25:15 > 0:25:20work for the manager during the project, at the King Bay end.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26The iron ore rush drew people quickly.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28Infrastructure sprang up.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30A railway from mine site to port
0:25:30 > 0:25:33cut straight through the Leslies' property.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37Ironically, Tish's father's tireless campaign for the development
0:25:37 > 0:25:41of the northwest had made living there untenable.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44So, in 1966, they sold up
0:25:44 > 0:25:49and left with their treasured memories of a pioneering life.
0:25:49 > 0:25:50The transformation was huge -
0:25:50 > 0:25:55from absolutely nothing, to developing an iron ore mine
0:25:55 > 0:25:59200 miles inland and bringing it down by rail,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01shipping the ore to Japan.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05And that all happened in 16 months, which was pretty miraculous
0:26:05 > 0:26:08with the lack of communications and so on in those days.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11And a lot of hard work by a lot of dedicated people.
0:26:20 > 0:26:21Drifting east from Dampier,
0:26:21 > 0:26:26along the brackish deltas and muddy embroidery of the Pilbara coastline,
0:26:26 > 0:26:28are the occasional ghost towns,
0:26:28 > 0:26:33such as Cossack, that stand as memories of better times.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36And further along, just an echo of Condon -
0:26:36 > 0:26:41a seaward hamlet that history has almost forgotten.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43You wouldn't think, looking at it today, that this
0:26:43 > 0:26:46was once an international wool port.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48At the end of the 19th century,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51wool from the first pastoral lease in northwestern Australia
0:26:51 > 0:26:56went direct from here - the mudflats at the mouth of the Condon Creek -
0:26:56 > 0:26:57to market, in London!
0:27:01 > 0:27:04'Julie Hunt from the Port Hedland Historical Society is
0:27:04 > 0:27:07'intrigued by this memory from another economic era.'
0:27:07 > 0:27:09It's hard to believe now that this was a town.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12It had a pub, it had a post office, it had a racecourse.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14The pearlers would come here,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17people would come in from the stations all around.
0:27:17 > 0:27:18They would come from Marble Bar,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22because this was a really busy little town.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24Why did all the action happen here?
0:27:24 > 0:27:27The first station in the Pilbara was De Grey Station,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29just down the track.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31And obviously they were growing their sheep
0:27:31 > 0:27:33and they needed a port to export their wool.
0:27:33 > 0:27:39And this was the closest creek that they could establish a port.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42So if we were here when it was all going strong,
0:27:42 > 0:27:44what would we have been looking at?
0:27:44 > 0:27:47There was no jetty at the time, so the Arabella, which was
0:27:47 > 0:27:50a ship with...a flat-bottomed ship, would come up
0:27:50 > 0:27:54and it would rest on the mud here and they'd take the bullock wagons,
0:27:54 > 0:27:58loaded up with wool, all the way out onto the mudflats
0:27:58 > 0:28:01and start to unload it by hand, bale by bale.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03So the whole thing depended on the tide being out,
0:28:03 > 0:28:06- so that the wagons could move? - Absolutely.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09So it was done at low tide, and then they had to have it unloaded
0:28:09 > 0:28:12or have the bullocks moving back in before the tide came in.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16You know, seven-metre tides, they do move quite quickly.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20So that the wagon trains pulled by animals and men, would be
0:28:20 > 0:28:22- completely at the mercy of the incoming tide?- Exactly.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26And they would have had to have unyoked these animals here and sort
0:28:26 > 0:28:29of run in and left them to their own devices
0:28:29 > 0:28:32to find their own way ashore.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35You don't think of the wool trade being a matter of life and death.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38- No. No!- It was up here.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Exactly. Everything's life-and-death up here.
0:28:46 > 0:28:48The creek eventually silted over
0:28:48 > 0:28:52and a deeper harbour was found in nearby Port Hedland.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54But from 1895, for six whole years,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57the Arabella collected wool from here
0:28:57 > 0:28:59and delivered it direct to London.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04Today, technology has consigned a lot of the old ways to history.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08No more bullock-drawn wagon trains traversing great distances
0:29:08 > 0:29:10and treacherous mudflats.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14Nowadays, the livestock's journey to market is a lot less hazardous.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20I've come just a little further up the coast
0:29:20 > 0:29:22to the historic De Grey Station.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26Established in the 1860s, this was the first pastoral lease
0:29:26 > 0:29:30in the Pilbara and it grew the wool that was exported from Condon.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32Today, it's cattle country.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34And at one million acres,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37it's bigger than some small European countries!
0:29:39 > 0:29:43With 20,000 head to muster over such vast distances,
0:29:43 > 0:29:45THIS is the best way to do it efficiently.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52Mark Bettini is the pilot and station owner since 1996.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56Unlike the old days in Condon of raising the tide to load ships,
0:29:56 > 0:30:01his cattle are trucked to Broome for the domestic and Asian markets.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06While stock work continues, I have jumped in with Mark who is
0:30:06 > 0:30:11flying over to join his family at his favourite paddock, by the beach.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14I think, actually, this is what I always imagined Australia looked like.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17You know, it's just because there is no break in the flat terrain.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19You feel as if you are surrounded by the sea up here.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21Well, we are. It is almost a peninsula.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24Being so close to the coast, we always get a seabreeze.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26- That is the De Grey river? - That is the De Grey river.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28So, that's your main water supply?
0:30:28 > 0:30:30It's a 90km-long water trough.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32And to the left is where we put our weaners.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39Cattle roamed far over this Australian pastorale.
0:30:39 > 0:30:45With the luminous coastline beckoning, just beyond the flatlands of Spinifex and Salt Bush.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49How does it feel to look out and know that all of this is yours?
0:30:49 > 0:30:52All this million acres? Does it own you or do you own it?
0:30:52 > 0:30:55Well... I think that's probably more to the point.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57Oh, look at that!
0:30:57 > 0:30:58THEY LAUGH
0:31:01 > 0:31:04- You've got the sharks back there. - Sharks?- Yeah, I think so.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09'It's an improbable setting for a Pilbara cattleman.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13'But the station's 60 kilometres of spectacular seashore
0:31:13 > 0:31:16'offer Mark and his family the best of both worlds -
0:31:16 > 0:31:19'a big country with a wild coastal veranda.'
0:31:20 > 0:31:23When we first came here to the station by the coast,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26I was down here every weekend, fishing. I really appreciate it.
0:31:26 > 0:31:27You have got kids.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31Do you think that you will be able to hand this onto them?
0:31:31 > 0:31:32Will they stay here as well?
0:31:32 > 0:31:34I'll leave it in as good or better shape
0:31:34 > 0:31:35for the next generation, definitely.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37And if my kids, if that's what they want to do,
0:31:37 > 0:31:39I'd be more than happy to pass it on.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42- Crazy crab shell!- You all right?
0:31:44 > 0:31:47Off out there, to the west,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50is the almost endless Indian Ocean.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54In that direction, to the east, kilometre after kilometre
0:31:54 > 0:31:56after kilometre, of red sand.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01Isolation and merciless elements, they're the constants here.
0:32:02 > 0:32:07In these parts, the folk call themselves "Nor'Westers of the Pilbara Breed"
0:32:07 > 0:32:09and it's got a nice frontier ring to it.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13It's also salute to what it takes to make it here.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29The heave-ho of heavy industry is a constant
0:32:29 > 0:32:33backdrop for life along the Pilbara's coastal towns.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37But there's also much activity that's less obvious, churning within
0:32:37 > 0:32:41the intertidal flats that flank Port Hedland's mega structures.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43Pick the right time and tide,
0:32:43 > 0:32:47and a beach here becomes and ethereal canvas for marine ecologist
0:32:47 > 0:32:51Professor Emma Johnston to step into and wander through
0:32:51 > 0:32:53the eddies between science and art.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56It's dawn.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59And as the sun rises over Port Hedland's Cemetery Beach,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03this massive tide is receding really rapidly
0:33:03 > 0:33:06and revealing an enormous hidden reef.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12This reef supports a diverse habitat for a range of species,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15some of which have yet to be identified.
0:33:15 > 0:33:16Look at this!
0:33:19 > 0:33:22That's a little warty sea cucumber, by the looks.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24Haven't seen this species before.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28This little fella will be eating all of the muddy sediment that is
0:33:28 > 0:33:31sitting around here and then pooping out really clean sand.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34That's why we've got a nice clean beach - because of sea cucumbers like this.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43As a scientist, this intertidal zone is an endlessly fascinating
0:33:43 > 0:33:45array of complex habitats.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49But I'm not the only one studying the reef this morning.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53Renowned WA artist Larry Mitchell is also out here,
0:33:53 > 0:33:54looking for inspiration.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56- Hi, Larry.- Hello, Emma, how are you?
0:33:56 > 0:33:59So, you've been observing this particular reef for some years.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03- Has it changed?- I think it's perhaps silted up a little more.
0:34:03 > 0:34:08But it also has this kind of layer of mud which sort of hides
0:34:08 > 0:34:11a lot of the sort of intimate tiny little organisms.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13How do you study it?
0:34:13 > 0:34:17It's the patterning, essentially, that interests me superficially,
0:34:17 > 0:34:19but also causationally what creates that patterning.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Both the sciences and the arts begin with slow looking.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25You slow the looking down to a rate to which,
0:34:25 > 0:34:26in the case of art,
0:34:26 > 0:34:28to the rate at which I can respond with a brush.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31- And you slow the looking down in order to...- To count.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36To count, to analyse. As you say, quantify. And therefore understand.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39These sort of apparently nondescript locations
0:34:39 > 0:34:42unveil themselves really slowly.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45It's a muddy low-level reef, but it's absolutely fascinating
0:34:45 > 0:34:49in the context of the environment in which it's contained.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52Larry's large-scale realist paintings capture the stunning
0:34:52 > 0:34:55diversity of the Western Australian coastline,
0:34:55 > 0:35:00and command prices north of 100,000 from an international clientele.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06What is apparently random does seem to have this kind of diagonal
0:35:06 > 0:35:08perspective, lace work thing going on,
0:35:08 > 0:35:09almost like a man-made mesh.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12I suppose it's a combination of the way things grow and also the forces
0:35:12 > 0:35:16that are acting on them, whether it's tide or weathering or wind.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18And you see the same ripple marks 1,000 miles inland
0:35:18 > 0:35:21in sedimentary rocks, where there's been oceans before.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25That gets back to the time and change that's evident in the Pilbara.
0:35:25 > 0:35:26I mean, even the beach has a red tinge
0:35:26 > 0:35:29because of the dissolved earth.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31There is that intermeshing of terrestrial and marine,
0:35:31 > 0:35:34which sort of fascinates me here, in the Pilbara.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40On location, he doesn't use a camera or a pencil.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42He note-takes in watercolour.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47- Just running...- It runs down by itself.- It is running like the tide.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Yeah, so if you use a little bit of gravity...
0:35:50 > 0:35:53you get a nice, smooth progression down over that kind of surface.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55So that pigment is just moving through the water.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58It's seeping down through the water. OK?
0:35:58 > 0:36:02So you're getting that nice sort of smooth, mirror-like effect.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05People think of the Pilbara as this busy industrial thump-thump
0:36:05 > 0:36:06kind of place.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08But it's easy to be alone,
0:36:08 > 0:36:10it's easy to be contemplative,
0:36:10 > 0:36:13it's easy to feel like you are part of nature here rather than
0:36:13 > 0:36:15just in some industrialised hub.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21It has the full gamut for me, as an interested person and a painter.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25- As it would for you as a scientist, I'd guess.- Absolutely.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37While some embrace art, others in the Pilbara
0:36:37 > 0:36:39enjoy flirting with danger.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44Meet a crack team of commercial divers who love to fix stuff
0:36:44 > 0:36:45underwater.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49And today, they're heading 38 kilometres out to sea to replace
0:36:49 > 0:36:53the first marine signal post or marker buoy that ships use to
0:36:53 > 0:36:56guide them through Port Hedland's shipping channel.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58As you can see, she's pretty rusted out.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00And not really doing her job any more.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02Basically, we've got to cut it off at the bottom -
0:37:02 > 0:37:04the links that are connecting it to the plant weight -
0:37:04 > 0:37:06going to cut those links, this should pop up
0:37:06 > 0:37:08and we'll tie it alongside here.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11Replace it with the other one that's on the other side.
0:37:11 > 0:37:13This is the broco torch.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17This is what's used to cut the shackle to release the buoy.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20And it has 100% oxygen running through it.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22And that's what starts the burning heat.
0:37:25 > 0:37:26It'll burn at 5,500 degrees
0:37:26 > 0:37:28and that pretty much cuts through anything.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31That's what the old bank robbers used to use to rob banks with.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35They used them to cut into safes, so I think that's where the technology came from.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37Yeah, yeah, proper tools. Yeah!
0:37:40 > 0:37:41Conditions are horrible today.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44As you can tell, we are rocking around, the wind's blowing.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47Not quite ideal. Pretty treacherous!
0:37:54 > 0:37:59Down there, approximately three metres' visibility. It'll be murky water.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02You're prone to getting electrical shocks.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05All the equipment is insulated as best as possible.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08'Not your average workplace.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11'Electric shocks, a furnace in your face
0:38:11 > 0:38:14'and who-knows-what lurking in the green beyond.'
0:38:14 > 0:38:18It is possible you could get attacked by a shark!
0:38:18 > 0:38:20Oh, yes! And the hydrogen explosions.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25There were pockets of hydrogen getting caught underneath the buoy.
0:38:25 > 0:38:27And as you're burning into it,
0:38:27 > 0:38:31they explode and you feel the shock waves right through all the water.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33Yeah, it blows you back a bit.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42Out with the old and in with the new.
0:38:47 > 0:38:48All in a day's work.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59The tough exterior of the Pilbara belies the bounty of the sea
0:38:59 > 0:39:02and the bush that have sustained aboriginal life here for more
0:39:02 > 0:39:04than 40,000 years.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11Our journey continues with Professor Tim Flannery on the Burrup Peninsula,
0:39:11 > 0:39:14who's looking back in time through a very rare window.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20The Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago are famous
0:39:20 > 0:39:23today as the minerals export hub for Australia.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27But for aboriginal people, they've got a far deeper significance.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30This area is home to the world's largest collection of rock art.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33I'm here for the first time and I'm very excited,
0:39:33 > 0:39:37because I'll be given special access to some extraordinary places.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44While this is valuable ground for Australia's miners,
0:39:44 > 0:39:46it's sacred for local aboriginal people.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53With abundant food and fresh spring water,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56this protected valley would've been a social epicentre,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59complete with art gallery and community noticeboard.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05It's the highest concentration of rock art in the world.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09'Archaeologist Dr Ken Mulvaney has spent most of his life
0:40:09 > 0:40:12'studying these ancient engravings.'
0:40:12 > 0:40:15As you look up these slopes, they look an unstable
0:40:15 > 0:40:19jumble of rocks, but in fact they're weathered like this in situ.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24These slopes have been stable like this for 2.5 million years.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27And these rocks themselves are, what, half the age of the Earth?
0:40:27 > 0:40:32Absolutely. And these are amongst some of the earliest art in the world, as well.
0:40:32 > 0:40:33It's extraordinary!
0:40:38 > 0:40:42So these rocks are the slowest-weathering rocks on planet Earth?
0:40:42 > 0:40:47This is the hardest rock that has been measured anywhere in the world.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51To peck into that is very, very difficult and takes a skill.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56So this is the one I wanted to show you, which is
0:40:56 > 0:40:58probably a whale shark.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01We're overlooking the waters and we know the whale sharks
0:41:01 > 0:41:03and whales come through here.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05This image, when do you think this was made?
0:41:05 > 0:41:07Well these marine images -
0:41:07 > 0:41:11and you can tell by the relative freshness in appearance -
0:41:11 > 0:41:15have to have been done within the last 6,000-7,000 years.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19And we know that because the oceans weren't here before then.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24'During the last ice age, about 17,000 years ago,
0:41:24 > 0:41:29'this coastline was more than 100 kilometres further out.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33'As the ice caps melted, sea levels rose and transformed
0:41:33 > 0:41:37'the coastal plain into the archipelago that we see today.'
0:41:37 > 0:41:38So in the early art,
0:41:38 > 0:41:42we get terrestrial animals dominated by the kangaroos and emus.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48But in the more recent art, you get fish, turtles, dominating the art.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53That environmental change is mapped in the aboriginal
0:41:53 > 0:41:57reproductions of what they were living through over the last
0:41:57 > 0:42:0110,000, 20,000, 30,000 years in this region
0:42:01 > 0:42:02and it's all present here
0:42:02 > 0:42:05on the rocks, within this landscape.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10If more recent sea life imagery dominates here, then I'd like
0:42:10 > 0:42:14to see what animals were recorded before the end of the ice age
0:42:14 > 0:42:18- out on the islands of the Murujuga National Park.- Hello, Tim. - Hello, hi, Shaun.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20- Welcome aboard, mate. Watch your head.- Thank you.
0:42:23 > 0:42:27There's the most extraordinary juxtaposition here of some of the
0:42:27 > 0:42:31most ancient art on earth, along with some of its most modern technology.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40The Murujuga rangers want to ensure that people appreciate this
0:42:40 > 0:42:45incredible and unique heritage by promoting a sense of cultural safety.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52For this reason, I'm unable to reveal the exact location
0:42:52 > 0:42:53of where we're headed.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57But it's to this uninhabited island.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04'Land and sea manager Brad Rowe is taking me
0:43:04 > 0:43:06'to one place he thinks I might find interesting.'
0:43:08 > 0:43:10There's three of them up there.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13There's one over the top of another one.
0:43:13 > 0:43:14Oh, my God. It's amazing!
0:43:16 > 0:43:17That one's got an erect penis.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20See the other one over here, Tim?
0:43:20 > 0:43:21On that panel?
0:43:21 > 0:43:24Oh, God, yeah. Oh, geez, that's unbelievable!
0:43:26 > 0:43:31'Tasmanian tigers, extinct on the mainland for 4,000 years
0:43:31 > 0:43:35'etched in stone in the far north-west of Australia.'
0:43:35 > 0:43:37This is incredible, mate.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40Three adult male thylacines.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45Well, that's... That's a life-size image.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48- Yeah.- It's extraordinary.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50- And anatomically perfect.- Hmm.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56Yeah, I mean, to have these all in one place, you know,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59this is an animal that's worshipped in some way.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02But I wonder about the human eye that saw that and the brain
0:44:02 > 0:44:06that conceived that work of art and executed it so perfectly.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09That's a fellow human being reaching out to me about something
0:44:09 > 0:44:13we both understand over 15,000 years of history.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15Unimaginable depths of time.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18I am just so deeply touched.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22These have to be more than 10,000 years old.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25They were made before the pyramids were thought of.
0:44:25 > 0:44:26Before Stonehenge was thought of!
0:44:28 > 0:44:31Now what is beautiful about that is that creation stories
0:44:31 > 0:44:35and mythological stories, those stories haven't changed.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37We have to define cultural archaeology
0:44:37 > 0:44:41and show people that the carvings mean something today.
0:44:41 > 0:44:42They meant something in the past
0:44:42 > 0:44:45and they'll mean something for the future.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47You know, people from the Judaeo-Christian tradition
0:44:47 > 0:44:50look back 2,000 years and see that as ancient history.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53But here you're dealing with 40,000 years of continuous
0:44:53 > 0:44:55history of law written in stone.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58I find that mind-blowing.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13Our adventure along the Pilbara coast concludes at Cape Keraudren,
0:45:13 > 0:45:17a rugged peninsula at the southern tip of Eighty Mile Beach,
0:45:17 > 0:45:21where the Pilbara ends and the Kimberley begins.
0:45:22 > 0:45:27Remote, but not so far away as to avoid its peculiar moment in history.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38In 1922, an international team of scientists
0:45:38 > 0:45:40unloaded their gear on this beach.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45They had come to again test Albert Einstein's theory
0:45:45 > 0:45:49of general relativity, which was first posited in 1915.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53I'm no physicist, and the space-time continuum is a very difficult
0:45:53 > 0:45:56concept to explain. So I'm not even going to try.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59But I do know this -
0:45:59 > 0:46:03the theory predicted an unusual astronomical phenomenon.
0:46:03 > 0:46:08That the light from stars would be bent around massive objects like our sun.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17The scientists focused their attention on solar eclipses.
0:46:17 > 0:46:18With the sun in shadow,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21they could observe the position of stars closest to the Sun.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27The position of these stars during the eclipse could later be compared
0:46:27 > 0:46:31to their same position without the sun's light-bending influence.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39And so teams from California's Lick Observatory, from England
0:46:39 > 0:46:40and from New Zealand,
0:46:40 > 0:46:45made plans to travel to the best astronomical seats in the house -
0:46:45 > 0:46:50the central line of totality was at the Wallal Downs Station.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52That's here, at the edge of the never-never.
0:46:55 > 0:47:00Naturally, the English and the Americans dithered about it being too venturesome,
0:47:00 > 0:47:06but science prevailed and they duly arrived by plane, boat and donkey,
0:47:06 > 0:47:10armed with telescopes, supplies and fly nets.
0:47:10 > 0:47:15And at midday on 21 September, the sun and moon did their thing.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20Photographs taken, measurements made, maths done
0:47:20 > 0:47:25and, ultimately, Einstein's theory was confirmed for a second time.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29Space and time aren't absolutes.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33Gravity and motion can affect time and space.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35It revolutionised science.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40E=MC squared also heralded the coming atomic age.
0:47:40 > 0:47:46And as we've already seen, this coast was also part of that history.
0:47:46 > 0:47:513.5 billion years on, the Pilbara still surprises.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58This is a special place.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01It's remote, even desolate.
0:48:01 > 0:48:07But it's undoubtedly rewarding for those intrepid enough to make the trip.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11The skies are big here, and impossibly clear.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15And in such a setting, each one of us counts as no more
0:48:15 > 0:48:19and no less than a grain of sand amidst all this eternity.
0:48:20 > 0:48:26It's in a place like this that you can feel free to be whoever you are, or whoever you want to be.
0:48:37 > 0:48:42We've reached the end of another fascinating odyssey around this vast continent.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44Discovering new places...
0:48:46 > 0:48:48..some far-flung.
0:48:48 > 0:48:49Even wild.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51But each with a unique beauty.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55Steeped in unexpected history.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59And recalled by folk who share a profound knowledge...
0:49:01 > 0:49:04..and abiding passion about their ever-changing coast.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09This coast -
0:49:09 > 0:49:10Australia.