Port Walcott, formerly known as Tien Tsin Harbour, is a large open water harbour located on the northwest coast of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, located near the town of Point Samson.

History

Before the port was established, the land was inhabited by the Ngarluma, an Aboriginal people. Early European exploration of northwest Western Australia commenced around the Nickol Bay and Port Walcott areas, as colonial settlers established

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

and pearling industries in the late-19th century. Early shipping links to the outside world centred on the port of

Cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

(formerly Tien Tsin), now a ghost town. In 1818, the explorer and surveyor Captain Phillip Parker King, in the ''Mermaid'', charted Nickol Bay. Visits to the region by American whalers are recorded to have occurred from around the 1840–50s. In April 1861, a government-funded expedition sailed to Nickol Bay in the ''Dolphin'', while in 1862, Bateman (of John and Walter Bateman) sent his vessel ''Flying Foam'' to harvest pearl shell in the area. In April 1863 Captain Peter Hedland on the ''Mystery'' came upon Mangrove Harbour (later renamed

Port Hedland A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inla ...

) and Tien Tsin Harbour (later named Port Walcott). In August the same year the ''Tien Tsin'' arrived, which together with ''Mystery'' carried settlers and stock to the port, and established the first European settlement in the northwest, on the banks of the Harding River, inland from Tien Tsin Harbour. The Norwegian-owned iron

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

''Solveig'' carrying

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with rough, fibro ...

piles for the Point Samson jetty was anchored in Port Walcott when it was wrecked during a cyclone in 1907 The Department of Maritime Archaeology lists 14 such shipwrecks in the vicinity, lost between 1868 and 1970.

Geography

Port Walcott lies between Dampier and

at the mouth of the Harding River. Landmarks within it include Cape Lambert, Wickham, Jarman Island, Butchers Inlet and the historical town of

(initially called Tien Tsin), the first port in the northwest of Western Australia. The town of Roebourne is situated further inland on the banks of the Harding River. Port Walcott's main population centre is Point Samson, which has a population of 298 (2011 census). Port Walcott receives an annual rainfall of about . Local magnetic anomalies are reported northward of Cape Lambert, in the approaches to Port Walcott.

Port facilities

Port Walcott contains the port facilities of Cape Lambert, which along with the neighbouring ports at

and Dampier, are the three major

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 f ...

exporting ports in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

region, and in the top five ports in Australia by tonnage (81 million tonnes in 2010/11).

Ship

The

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially naval architecture, designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo—such as Grain trade, grain, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement—in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrie ...

''Hanjin Port Walcott'', built in 2012 by Hanjin Shipping and sold to

JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is the largest bank in the United States, and the world's largest bank by mar ...

in 2017, now known as ''HL Port Walcott'', was named after Port Walcott.

References

{{authority control Pilbara Walcott Transport in Western Australia