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

, located near the town of Point Samson.

History

Before the port was established, the land was inhabited by the

Ngarluma The Ngarluma are an Indigenous Australian people of the western Pilbara area of northwest Australia. They are coastal dwellers of the area around Roebourne and Karratha. Not including Millstream. Language The Ngarluma language belongs to the ...

, an

Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

. Early European exploration of northwest Western Australia commenced around the Nickol Bay and Port Walcott areas, as colonial settlers established

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music ( pastorale) that de ...

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

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

(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 Walter Bateman (22 June 1826 – 24 September 1882) was a Fremantle merchant who was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 1867 to 1870. Life left, Fremantle Cemetery The son of silk merchant John Bateman, Walter Bateman ...

) sent his vessel ''Flying Foam'' to harvest

pearl shell Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is f ...

in the area. In April 1863 Captain

Peter Hedland Peter Hedland originally Lars Peter Hedlund, 14 March 1829 (Hudiksvall, Sweden) – 1881 ( Lagrange Bay, Western Australia), was a significant figure in European settlement in North-West Australia. A mariner, explorer, and pearler; he was widely ...

on the ''Mystery'' came upon Mangrove Harbour (later renamed

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

) 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 vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

''Solveig'' carrying

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, djarraly 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 roug ...

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 ...

exporting ports 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 gl ...

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 designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, ec ...

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

JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...

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

References

{{authority control Pilbara Walcott Transport in Western Australia