Today was a rest day and a chance to take a tour of the Tom Price iron ore mine. This was the first export iron mine in Australia, the project engineer who oversaw the change of laws that let Australia export the ore is reported to have heard the news after three years of lobbying and died within hours!

The mine, 270 km transport rail line, miners township and export port at Karratha were all built in 18 months in the 1960’s. Several of my fellow riders in the CTAWA were english migrants whose early jobs in Australia were building this and other mining projects.

After the tour it was a restful lunch in Tom Price and back to the caravan park for a bit of washing. Brumby’s Bakery was opening at lunchtime, a big event for Tom Price as there was now an alternative to buying bread from Coles supermarket. T