We drove through the Pilbara and spent a morning in the mining town of Tom Price and went on a tour of the massive open cut iron ore mine. Tom Price was originally a "closed" town open only to mine employees, when it was first established in the 60s. Apparently it was a pretty wild place, reportedly a drinking town with a mining problem.

The open cut mine and the scale of the operation is quite extraordinary but it was particularly special to get up close to the massive Tonka toys. They are huge and one of the interesting things we saw was a squashed and mangled 4WD which was adjacent to the road into the cut, as a reminder of what could happen if one of the big trucks, which afford their drivers very limited vision of what's around them, cleans up another more regular sized vehicle (the 4WD had actually been flattened by a big Tonka in a simulation exercise).

Around Tom Price and throughout the Pilbara, the large number of workers (conspicuous in their high viz kit) and the company 4WDs, trucks and road trains, gives you a strong sense of the vibrancy and significance of the mining industry. We could also feel this in places like Port Headland and Gladstone.