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57-546: Paraburdoo ( / ˌ p æ r ə b ə ˈ d uː / ) is a mining town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia . The region is served by Paraburdoo Airport , which is situated 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) from the town. The name of the town comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean "feathered meat", which could refer to abundant Little corella or flock pigeons . It could also mean Rock Cave (para means rock and buradoo means hole or cave) to refer to caves nearby. Paraburdoo

114-411: A hot desert climate ( Köppen climate classification BWh ). In summer, the days are very hot and the nights are warm. The mean annual maximum temperature is 46.0 °C (114.8 °F), and the all-time record high is 48.1 °C (118.6 °F), on 21 January 2024. There is an average of 72.2 days per year where the temperature rises above 40.0 °C (104.0 °F). In winter, the days are warm and

171-405: A semi-arid climate except that its high evapotranspiration , or its aridity, makes it a desert climate. Pilbara The Pilbara ( / ˈ p ɪ l b ər ə / ) is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia . It is known for its Aboriginal people ; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore . It

228-600: A cell-like morphology , were chemically analysed, revealing that they used sulphur for fuel. An extinct genus of stromatolite-forming cyanobacteria , Pilbaria , was named after the region, where the type specimen was found. The Pilbara region, under the Pilbara Development Commission, contains four local government areas : According to the Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre Wangka Maya ,

285-486: A felsic orthogneiss with presumed granitic protolith returned an age of 4.031 ±0.003 Ga. On September 25, 2008, researchers from McGill University , Carnegie Institution for Science and UQAM announced that a rock formation, the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt , exposed on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in northern Quebec had a Sm–Nd model age for extraction from the mantle of 4.28 billion years. However, it

342-415: A layer of sediment or an old dike . This may be difficult to find or map; hence, the oldest dates yet resolved are as much generated by luck in sampling as by understanding the rocks themselves. It is thus premature to claim that any of these rocks, or indeed that of other formations of Hadean gneisses, is the oldest formations or rocks on Earth; doubtless, new analyses will continue to change conceptions of

399-555: A margin of error of millions of years. In 1999, the oldest known rock on Earth was dated to 4.031 ±0.003 billion years, and is part of the Acasta Gneiss of the Slave Craton in northwestern Canada. Researchers at McGill University found a rock with a very old model age for extraction from the mantle (3.8 to 4.28 billion years ago) in the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt on the coast of Hudson Bay , in northern Quebec ;

456-476: A movement with around 20 similar schools established in northern Western Australia by the mid-1990s. Jan Richardson , wife of Victorian Aboriginal activist Stan Davey , wrote a biography of McLeod as a doctoral thesis . In 2006, it was estimated that 15% of the population of the Pilbara identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people , approximately 6000 people. Many Pilbara communities face

513-518: A number of different places. Many have poor infrastructure, and relations between police and Aboriginal people are often tense. The climate of the Pilbara is arid and tropical . It experiences high temperatures and low irregular rainfall that follows the summer cyclones . During the summer months, maximum temperatures exceed 32 °C (90 °F) almost every day, and temperatures in excess of 45 °C (113 °F) are not uncommon. Winter temperatures rarely drop below 10 °C (50 °F) on

570-403: Is about 7 every 10 years. Due to the low population density in the Pilbara region, cyclones rarely cause large scale destruction or loss of life. The area is known for its petroleum , natural gas and iron ore deposits, which contribute significantly to Australia's economy. Other than mining, pastoral activities as well as fishing and tourism are the main industries. The Pilbara's economy

627-658: Is also a global biodiversity hotspot for subterranean fauna . At least two important but differing definitions of "the Pilbara" region exist. Administratively it is one of the nine regions of Western Australia defined by the Regional Development Commissions Act 1993 ; the term also refers to the Pilbara shrublands bioregion (which differs in extent) under the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA). The Pilbara region, as defined by

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684-725: Is argued that the actual age of formation of this rock, as opposed to the extraction of its magma from the mantle, is likely closer to 3.8 billion years, according to Simon Wilde of the Institute for Geoscience Research in Australia. The zircons from the Western Australian Jack Hills returned an age of 4.404 billion years, interpreted to be the age of crystallization. These zircons also show another feature; their oxygen isotopic composition has been interpreted to indicate that more than 4.4 billion years ago there

741-410: Is dominated by mining exports and petroleum export industries. During the 1970s the area was known for union militancy with many strikes and some mines operating as fully unionised 'closed shops.' This was challenged by employers from the mid-1980s onwards and the region now has a very low level of union membership compared to other parts of Australia. Most of Australia 's iron ore is mined in

798-432: Is part of a population of zircons within the metamorphosed conglomerate, which is believed to have been deposited about 3.060 Ga, which is the age of the youngest detrital zircon in the rock. Recent developments in atom-probe tomography have led to a further constraint on the age of the oldest continental zircon, with the most recent age quoted as 4.374 ±0.006 Ga. The discovery of the oldest known Earth rock, found on

855-711: Is the Roebourne coastal sandplain, which supports most of the region's population in towns and much of its industry and commerce. The eastern third is almost entirely desert, and is sparsely populated by a small number of Aboriginal people. The two areas are separated by the inland uplands of the Pilbara Craton , including the predominant Hamersley Range , which has numerous mining towns, the Chichester Range , and others. The uplands have many gorges and other natural attractions. The Pilbara contains some of

912-552: The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics , as of 2010 , that resource is being used up at a rate of 324 million tonnes a year, with rates expected to increase over coming years. Experts Gavin Mudd ( Monash University ) and Jonathon Law ( Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ) expect it to be gone within 30 to 50 years (Mudd) and 56 years (Law). As of 2010 , active iron ore mines in

969-670: The Manyjilyjarra language and "mingkirri" in the Warlpiri language ) which are circular patches of land barren of plants, varying between 2 and 12 metres (7 and 39 ft) in diameter and often encircled by a ring of stimulated growth of grass, are found in the western part of the Great Sandy Desert in the Pilbara. It has not yet been proven what causes these formations, but one theory suggests that they have been built and inhabited by Australian harvester termites since

1026-624: The Murchison meteorite claimed to be 7 billion years old. The oldest material of terrestrial origin that has been dated is a zircon mineral of 4.404 ±0.008 Ga enclosed in a metamorphosed sandstone conglomerate in the Jack Hills of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane of Western Australia . The 4.404 ±0.008 Ga zircon is a slight outlier, with the oldest consistently dated zircon falling closer to 4.35 Ga. This zircon

1083-507: The Pleistocene . The Pilbara is home to a wide variety of endemic species adapted to this tough environment. There is a high diversity of invertebrates, including hundreds of species of subterranean fauna (both stygofauna and troglofauna ), which are microscopic invertebrates that live in caves, vugs or groundwater aquifers of the region, and terrestrial fauna (see short-range endemic invertebrates ). The Pilbara olive python ,

1140-534: The Regional Development Commissions Act 1993 and administered for economic development purposes by the Pilbara Development Commission, has an estimated population of 61,688 as of June 2018 , and covers an area of 507,896 square kilometres (196,100 sq mi). It contains some of Earth's oldest rock formations , and includes landscapes of coastal plains and mountain ranges with cliffs and gorges. The major settlements of

1197-714: The Tropic of Capricorn , nearly 300 kilometres (190 mi) from the coast, and 424 metres (1,391 ft) above sea level. Most of the town's residents are employed by Pilbara Iron's mining operation and the supporting services. Facilities available for families include daycare, a primary school, and a TAFE . The nearest high school is Tom Price Senior High School in Tom Price , 81 kilometres (50 mi) away. There are also skate parks, swimming pools, tennis courts, and netball, cricket and football fields. Paraburdoo has its own shopping facilities and medical centres. Paraburdoo has

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1254-497: The rangeland livestock (grazing/pastoral) industry or pearling ports . However, as natural mother of pearl beds around Cossack were fished out, the pearling fleet began to move northward, and by 1883 it was based at Broome, in the Kimberley region. From c.  1900 , pastoralism went into decline with the growth of other, more productive agricultural areas of the state. Mining in the region started on 1 October 1888, when

1311-562: The western pebble-mound mouse , and the Pilbara ningaui of the Hamersley Range are among the many species of animals within the fragile ecosystems of this desert ecoregion. Birds include the Australian hobby , nankeen kestrel , spotted harrier , mulga parrot and budgerigars . Wildlife has been damaged by the extraction of iron, natural gas and asbestos, but the protection of culturally and environmentally sensitive areas of

1368-638: The Earth, having formed in the early Solar System , before the planet formation process was completed. The meteorite Northwest Africa 11119 (NWA 11119) has been dated to 4.5648 ± 0.0003 billion years. Some solid inclusions within meteorites are older than the surrounding rock. Calcium-aluminium rich inclusions (CAIs) in meteorites are the oldest solids that formed in the Solar System , so are conventionally used to set its formation date as 4567.30 ± 0.16 Myr. Pre-solar grains are even older; they formed in

1425-474: The Moon and, later, scientists determined that a fragment from a rock nicknamed Big Bertha , which had been chosen by astronaut Alan Shepard , contained "a bit of Earth from about 4 billion years ago". The rock fragment contained quartz , feldspar , and zircon, all common on Earth, but highly uncommon on the Moon. Pre-solar grains in meteorites are older than the Solar System , with some grains extracted from

1482-507: The Moon, was reported in January 2019 by NASA scientists . Apollo 14 astronauts returned several rocks from the Moon and, later, scientists determined that a fragment from one of the rocks, nicknamed Big Bertha , contained "a bit of Earth from about 4 billion years ago". The rock fragment contained quartz , feldspar , and zircon , all common on Earth, but highly uncommon on the Moon. The oldest outcropping rock formation is, depending on

1539-538: The Pilbara Goldfield was officially declared – named after a local creek, the goldfield would later give its name to the region as a whole. It was later divided into the Nullagine Goldfield and Marble Bar Goldfield. However, gold mining began to decline in the Pilbara in the mid-1890s, after alluvial ore had been exhausted. In 1937, mining of asbestos commenced at Wittenoom Gorge . While

1596-636: The Pilbara are: A significant part of Pilbara's economy is based on liquified natural gas (LNG) through the North West Shelf Venture and Pluto LNG plant, both operated by Woodside. The region also has a number of cattle-grazing stations, and a substantial tourist sector, with popular natural attractions including the Karijini and Millstream-Chichester national parks and the Dampier Archipelago . The first railway in

1653-553: The Pilbara coast. The Aboriginal population of the Pilbara considerably predates, by 30,000 to 40,000 years, the European colonisation of the region. Archaeological evidence indicates that people were living in the Pilbara even during the harsh climatic conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum . The early history of the first people is held within an oral tradition , archeological evidence and petroglyphs . Near

1710-658: The Pilbara is now enhanced by the delineation of several protected areas, including the Millstream-Chichester and the Karijini National Parks . The western Pilbara is part of the Pilbara freshwater ecoregion , also known as the Pilbara-Gascoyne or Indian Ocean drainage basin. The freshwater region is characterized by intermittent rivers which form deep gorges, and brackish-water caves that host endemic species. The region includes

1767-535: The Pilbara region around 1900 have been described as slavery , with no wages paid, kidnapping as well as severe and cruel punishments for misbehaviour and absconding all common practices. Some incidents, such as the Bendu Atrocity of 1897, attracted international condemnation. The first strike by Indigenous people in Australia took place in 1946 in the Pilbara, known as the Pilbara strike or Pilbara Aboriginal strike, when Aboriginal pastoral workers walked off

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1824-511: The Pilbara region was the narrow-gauge Marble Bar Railway between Port Hedland and Marble Bar . The Marble Bar Railway opened in July 1911 and closed in October 1951. The Roebourne-Cossack Tramway opened in 1897 and many industrial railways have been built to serve the mines. Five heavy-duty railways are associated with the various iron-ore mines. They are all standard gauge and built to

1881-416: The Pilbara's rainfall occurs between December and May, usually with occasional heavy downpours in thunderstorms or tropical cyclones. The period from June to November is usually completely rainless, with warm to very hot and sunny conditions. Like most of the north coast of Australia, the coastal areas of the Pilbara experience occasional tropical cyclones. The frequency of cyclones crossing the Pilbara coast

1938-399: The Pilbara, with mines mostly centred around Tom Price and Newman . The iron ore industry employs 9,000 people from the Pilbara area. The Pilbara also has one of the world's major manganese mines, Woodie Woodie, situated 400 kilometres (250 mi) southeast of Port Hedland. Iron ore deposits were first discovered by prospector Stan Hilditch, who in 1957 found a large iron ore deposit in

1995-885: The Saglek Gneiss Complex, dated at 3.8-3.9 Ga; the Anshan Area, dated at 3.8 Ga; the Itsaq (Isua) Gneiss Complex , dated at 3.7-3.8 Ga; and the Ancient Gneiss Complex, dated at 3.6 Ga. The Acasta Gneiss in the Canadian Shield in the Northwest Territories , Canada is composed of the Archaean igneous and gneissic cores of ancient mountain chains that have been exposed in a glacial peneplain . Analyses of zircons from

2052-547: The area was Francis Thomas Gregory in 1861. Within two years, European settlers had begun arriving. The region was regarded as part of the North West at first – a larger area that included the modern Kimberley and Gascoyne regions. Settlements along the coast at Tien Tsin Harbour (later Cossack), Roebourne and Condon (officially Shellborough; later abandoned) were established over ensuing decades, mainly as centres of

2109-456: The coast; however, inland temperatures as low as 0 °C (32 °F) are occasionally recorded. The Pilbara town of Marble Bar set a world record of most consecutive days of maximum temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius ) or more, during a period of 160 such days from 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924. The average annual rainfall in the region is between 200 and 350 millimetres (7.9 and 13.8 in). Almost all of

2166-562: The combined land area of the US States of California and Indiana . It has a population of more than 45,000, most of whom live in the western third of the region, in towns such as Port Hedland , Karratha , Wickham , Newman and Marble Bar . A substantial number of people also work in the region on a fly-in/fly-out basis. There are approximately 10 major/medium population centres and more than 25 smaller ones. The Pilbara consists of three distinct geographic areas. The western third

2223-469: The creek, and the name later became associated with the region. Radiocarbon dating estimates in evidence show that rock art and standing stones at Murujuga in the Dampier Archipelago , Australia's earliest known stone structures, believably dating from 6046 to 5338 BC, are of contextualization by thousands of years of unique cultural traditions and folklore . These sites have lived up as part of survival in present times. The first European to explore

2280-543: The drainages of the Murchison , Gascoyne , Ashburton , Fortescue , and De Grey rivers. The Great Sandy Desert, which covers the eastern Pilbara, has little freshwater habitat. 21°S 119°E  /  21°S 119°E  / -21; 119 Oldest dated rocks Archean rocks are exposed on Earth's surface in very few places, such as in the geologic shields of Canada , Australia , and Africa . The ages of these felsic rocks are generally between 2.5 and 3.8 billion years. The approximate ages have

2337-448: The heaviest North American standards. Rio Tinto runs driverless trains on its railways. The ports of the Pilbara are: The dominant flora of the Pilbara is acacia trees and shrubs and drought-resistant Triodia spinifex grasses. Several species of acacia (wattle) trees are endemic to the Pilbara and are the focus of conservation programs, along with wildflowers and other local specialities. " Fairy circles " (known as "linyji" in

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2394-644: The journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters , a team of scientists suggest that rocky continents and liquid water existed at least 4.3 billion years ago and were subjected to heavy weathering by an acrid climate. Using an ion microprobe to analyze isotope ratios of the element lithium in zircons from the Jack Hills in Western Australia, and comparing these chemical fingerprints to lithium compositions in zircons from continental crust and primitive rocks similar to Earth's mantle, they found evidence that

2451-481: The latest research, either part of the Isua Greenstone Belt , Narryer Gneiss Terrane , Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt , Napier Complex , or the Acasta Gneiss (on the Slave Craton ). The difficulty in assigning the title to one particular block of gneiss is that the gneisses are all extremely deformed, and the oldest rock may be represented by only one streak of minerals in a mylonite , representing

2508-581: The many complex effects of colonisation, and lack adequate access to housing, health and education. A 1971 survey of 1000 Aboriginal people conducted by Pat McPherson found that most had one or more serious diseases. At the McClelland Royal Commission into British nuclear testing, Aboriginal people from the Pilbara provided evidence regarding the explosion on the Montebello Islands. Aboriginal communities are sited over

2565-582: The name for the Pilbara region derives from the Aboriginal word bilybara , meaning "dry" in the Nyamal and Banyjima languages. Another suggested origin is pilbarra , an Aboriginal word for the salt-water mullet found in local waters, reflected in the name of a tributary of the Yule River , Pilbarra Creek, which evolved to "Pilbara" Creek. The Pilbara Goldfield, discovered in 1885, was named after

2622-410: The nights are cool. Precipitation is highly variable, coming from storms and tropical cyclones . It falls most often between December and March. Some years, summer months can see no rainfall, and other years over 200 millimetres (7.9 in) of rainfall can come in a single month. Rainfall is sparse from July to November. The annual average rainfall is 317.8 millimetres (12.5 in) which would make it

2679-543: The presence of abundant iron ore had been known for about a century, it was not until the 1960s and the discovery of high-grade ore in the Hamersley Ranges that the area became pivotal to the state's economy, and towns built to accommodate mining and allied services boomed. In the 1950s, three British nuclear weapons tests were carried out in the Montebello Islands , 130 km (81 mi) off

2736-535: The region are Port Hedland , Karratha and Newman . The three main ports in this region are Port Hedland, Dampier and Port Walcott . Under the Regional Development Commissions Act , Pilbara is situated south of the Kimberley , and comprises the local government areas of Shire of Ashburton, Shire of East Pilbara, City of Karratha Town of Port Hedland. The Pilbara region covers an area of 507,896 km (193,826 mi ) (including offshore islands), roughly

2793-474: The southern Ophthalmia Range , at what was to become the Mount Whaleback mine . In the 1960s, it was reportedly called "one of the most massive ore bodies in the world" by Thomas Price, then vice president of US-based steel company Kaiser Steel. Geoscience Australia calculated that the country's " economic demonstrated resources " of iron amounted to 24 gigatonnes, or 24 billion tonnes. According to

2850-489: The stations in protest at low pay and bad working conditions, a strike that lasted for over three years. Family clans in the Pilbara who were supported by mining prospector, Don McLeod , developed skills for mining and the concentration of rare metals . For a short period money accumulated, which according to Aboriginal law was to be used for traditional ways. Eventually the funds were used to establish an independent Aboriginal-controlled school. The concept has expanded into

2907-774: The structure and nature of these ancient continental fragments. Nevertheless, the oldest cratons on Earth include the Kaapvaal Craton , the Western Gneiss Terrane of the Yilgarn Craton (~2.9 – >3.2 Ga ), the Pilbara Craton (~3.4 Ga), and portions of the Canadian Shield (~2.4 – >3.6 Ga). Parts of Dharwar Craton in India are greater than 3.0 Ga. The oldest dated rocks of the Baltic Shield are 3.5 Ga old. Other old formations include

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2964-412: The town of Dampier is a peninsula known as Murujuga , which contains a large collection of World Heritage-listed petroglyphs, dating back thousands of years. Rock art in the Pilbara appears to have been mainly etched into the hard rock surfaces, whereas on the softer sandstone in the Kimberley rock paintings predominate. Working conditions in the pearling and pastoral industries for Aboriginal people in

3021-495: The true age of these samples is still under debate, and they may actually be closer to 3.8 billion years old. Older than these rocks are crystals of the mineral zircon , which can survive the disaggregation of their parent rock and be found and dated in younger rock formations. In January 2019, NASA scientists reported the discovery of the oldest known Earth rock, found on the Moon . Apollo 14 astronauts returned several rocks from

3078-420: The world's oldest surface rocks, including the ancient fossilised remains known as stromatolites and rocks such as granites that are more than three billion years old. In 2007, some of the oldest evidence of life on Earth was found in 3.4 billion-year-old sandstones at Strelley Pool , which preserve fossils of sulphur -processing bacteria. The mineralised spheres, which were found on an ancient beach and have

3135-663: The young planet already had the beginnings of continents, relatively cool temperatures and liquid water by the time the Australian zircons formed. One of the oldest Martian meteorites found on Earth, Allan Hills 84001 has been measured to have crystallized from molten rock 4.091 billion years ago. The Genesis Rock (Lunar sample 15415), obtained from the Moon by astronauts during Apollo 15 mission, has been dated at 4.08 billion years. During Apollo 16 , older rocks, including Lunar sample 67215, dated at 4.46 billion years, were brought back. Some types of meteorite are older

3192-411: Was already water on the surface of Earth. The importance and accuracy of these interpretations is currently the subject of scientific debate. It may be that the oxygen isotopes and other compositional features (the rare-earth elements ) record more recent hydrothermal alteration of the zircons rather than the composition of the magma at the time of their original crystallization. In a paper published in

3249-460: Was developed in the early 1970s to support Hamersley Iron's (now Pilbara Iron ) local iron ore mining operations, and was gazetted as a town in 1972. The town provides housing to workers of the three nearby Rio Tinto mines, those being the Channar , Eastern Range and Paraburdoo mine . Paraburdoo is located 1,528 kilometres (949 mi) north of Perth, 24 kilometres (15 mi) north of

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