Pilbara

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Pilbara
Regions of western australia nine plus perth.png
Location of the Pilbara region
structure
State : Australia Australia
State : Flag of Western Australia.svg Western Australia
LGA : Ashburton , East Pilbara , Port Hedland , Karratha
Dates and numbers
Area : 507,896 km²
Residents : 67,503 (2015-03-31)
Population density : 0.1 inhabitants / km²

Coordinates: 21 ° 0 ′  S , 119 ° 30 ′  E

Pilbara according to the Interim Biogeographic Regionalization of Australia (IBRA)

Pilbara is one of the nine regions of Western Australia . It is located south of the Kimberley region and consists of the districts of Ashburton Shire , East Pilbara Shire , Port Hedland Town and Karratha City .

overview

The Pilbara region, including the islands off the coast, has an area of ​​507,896 km 2 and more than 67,000 inhabitants, most of whom live in the western third of the region. Most of the residents live in the larger cities of the Port Hedland, Karratha , Marble Bar , Newman or Tom Price region . Some commuters also work there; however, they mainly commute by plane, not by car.

geography

The region can be divided geographically into three units. In the western third, sandy coastal landscapes predominate; The majority of the population lives in this part and it is also where the larger commercial and economic centers can be found. In the eastern third there is practically only desert and apart from a few Aboriginal settlements it is extremely sparsely populated. In between there is a region of extremely abundant natural raw material reserves, in which a considerable proportion of Australian heavy industry is located. In this part there are also some natural attractions such as B. spectacular river gorges (gorge, comparable to a canyon ) or Mount Bruce (1235 m) and Mount Meharry (1251 m), the highest mountains in Western Australia.

geology

In the Pilbara region, fossils are found from the group of the oldest life forms that have been found so far - stromatolites almost 3.5 billion years old. The very oldest material was found in the 3,490 million year old Dresser Formation , part of the Warrawoona Group , which lies stratigraphically below the Strelley Pool Chert . The Dresser Formation can be found in the North Pole Dome of the East Pilbara Terrane .

The approximately 3,420 million year old Strelley Pool Chert forms a gray and white unit within the Warrawoona Group in the Pilbara Craton, which is part of the Pilbara Supergroup .

climate

Bridge over the Maitland River destroyed by Cyclone Monty in 2004

The climate of the Pilbara is semi-arid to arid and is determined by high temperatures with little rain and low humidity. In summer almost every day reaches temperatures of over 32 ° C, but extremely hot days with 45 ° C and more are also common. The city of Marble Bar , which is considered to be one of the hottest places in the world, recorded a temperature of at least 37 ° C for 160 consecutive days between October 31, 1923 and April 7, 1924. The highest temperature measured in Marble Bar was recorded twice at 49.2 ° C: on January 11, 1905 and on January 3, 1922.

Flash floods and floods endanger the region during periods of heavy rain, which occasionally occurs between November and May. In addition, the coast of Pilbara, like most of the north coast of Australia, often comes under the influence of tropical cyclones , which, however, due to the relatively low population density, rarely cause widespread destruction or loss of life.

economy

The region's industry is dominated by the mining and oil industries . The Pilbara has the world's largest deposits of iron ore , which are mainly mined in the area around the mining towns of Tom Price and Newman and shipped via Port Hedland . These deposits were discovered by Lang Hancock , who became one of the most important industrialists in Australia. Mining companies Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton have some of the largest iron ore mines in the world in the region . In addition to the large international companies, the local companies Fortescue Metals Group and Roy Hill also operate open-cast mines in Pilbara. The latter company is owned by Gina Rinehart , the daughter of Lang Hancock.

In addition to industry, the Pilbara economy has a strong tourism sector, especially in the area of ​​the Karijini and Millstream-Chichester National Parks and the Dampier Archipelago with Murujuga , a peninsula that is home to the world's largest number of prehistoric petroglyphs, and the Ningaloo Reef .

Origin of name

The name of the region comes from the Aboriginal word for the fish mullet .

history

Between March 20 and 22, 1912, the coast of Pilbara was hit by a cyclone that devastated a long stretch of coast, sank numerous ships and killed at least 150 people. The most famous ship sunk by the hurricane was the Adelaide Steamship Company's Koombana passenger steamer, which sank north of Port Hedland with all 138 people on board and has never been found to this day.

swell

  1. ↑ a b Australian Bureau of Statistics . Retrieved December 28, 2015 (English)
  2. ↑ Already 3.5 billion years ago, microorganisms populated the oceans of the planet: When the earth came to life. In: Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved December 28, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Dresser formation. In: Geological Survey. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on December 28, 2015 .
  4. ↑ World's Worst Heatwave - The Marble Bar heatwave, 1923-24 ( English ) Retrieved December 28, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Pilbara  - collection of images, videos and audio files