Paraburdoo is a mining town in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a g ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

. The region is served by

Paraburdoo Airport Paraburdoo Airport is an airport serving Paraburdoo, a town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The airport is located northeast of Paraburdoo. It also serves the town of Tom Price, with bus services completing the extra to Tom Pri ...

, which is situated from the town.

Etymology

The name of the town comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean "feathered meat", which could refer to abundant

Little corella The little corella (''Cacatua sanguinea''), also known as the short-billed corella, bare-eyed cockatoo, blood-stained cockatoo, and little cockatoo is a white cockatoo native to Australia and southern New Guinea. It was known as ''Birdirra'' amo ...

or flock pigeons. It could also mean Rock Cave (para means rock and buradoo means hole or cave) to refer to caves nearby.

Economy

Paraburdoo was developed in the early 1970s to support Hamersley Iron's (now Pilbara Iron) local

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

operations, and was gazetted as a town in 1972. Road from Paraburdoo

The town provides housing to workers of the three nearby

Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, ...

mines, those being the Channar,

Eastern Range The Eastern Range (ER) is an American rocket range ( Spaceport) that supports missile and rocket launches from the two major launch heads located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida. The range h ...

and

Paraburdoo mine The Paraburdoo mine is an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, near Paraburdoo. The mine is owned and operated by Rio Tinto Iron Ore, and is one of twelve iron ore mines the company operates in the Pilbara.

.Mining
Rio Tinto Iron Ore website, accessed: 6 November 2010

Geography

Paraburdoo is located north of Perth, north of the

Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reac ...

, nearly from the coast, and above sea level.

Facilities

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 Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

. The nearest high school is Tom Price Senior High School in Tom Price, 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.

Climate

Paraburdoo has a

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''BWh''). In summer, the days are very hot and the nights are warm. The mean annual maximum temperature is , and the all-time record high is , on 30 December 1997. There is an average of 72.2 days per year where the temperature rises above . In winter, the days are warm and the nights are cool. Precipitation is highly variable, coming from storms and

tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dep ...

s. It falls most often between December and March. Some years, summer months can see no rainfall, and other years over of rainfall can come in a single month. Rainfall is sparse from July to November. The annual average rainfall is which would make it a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi ...

except that its high

evapotranspiration Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combined processes by which water moves from the earth’s surface into the atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation (movement of water to the air directly from soil, canopies, and water bodies) and transp ...

, or its aridity, makes it a desert climate.

References

External links

Rio Tinto Iron Ore website
{{authority control Mining towns in Western Australia Shire of Ashburton