Newman (457km)
Is strictly a mining town originally built by BHP-Billiton for the people working in their huge iron-ore mine. It is now owned by the State Shire.
One description I read in a travel guide described it as being "like a suburb of Perth" because it has a shopping mall called "The Boulevard".
Let me say here and now. Newman is NOT like a suburb of Perth and the people of Perth would probably not take kindly to the description.
The picture shows our camp site before we brightened the place up but is also a bit like parts of Newman.

We stayed a couple of nights because we wanted to tour the massive open cast mine and also have a rest from driving.
Both aims were achieved though we were surprised at how cold it was at night. It went down to 7 degrees.
All the busy road traffic or most of it anyway is connected to the mining activities in some way. Every vehicle of whatever kind is fitted with a GPS antenna with a flag on it.

The women that control EVERY MOVEMENT of the vehicular traffic within the mining area are able to tell the drivers how much fuel they have in the tank - when their vehicle needs servicing and even when it is time for them to eat. The dining rooms are of a very high standard and food is available 24 hours per day every day.
We toured the site and one cannot fail to be impressed with the whole operation.

The Company trains carry the ore to Port Headland 426km away. A typical train has four 4,000 HP locomotives (two at the front and two evenly spaced in the middle) pulling 24,000 tonnes of iron ore in 200 ore "cars". These trains are about 2.5 kilometres long and the journey takes 8 hours. One driver controls the lot.

In June 2001, BHP- Billiton Iron Ore set a record for the worlds longest and heaviest train. With eight locomotives and 682 ore carriages, the train stretched more than 7.3 km in length and weighed 99,732 tonnes.
Solar power is used to power the signalling system.

The huge ore tip trucks come in two sizes - 1 size can carry 270tonnes of ore and the big one can carry 350tonnes.
Communications here proved difficult - probably because of the isolation and our attempt to "logon" at the library proved to be impossible.