615 km south west of Broome on the Great  Northern Highway. Love it or loathe it, Port Hedland is what the Pilbara region is all about. This iron-ore port handles more tonnage than any other in Australia. It’s on an island, which is linked to the mainland by a 3-km-long road and rail causeways. The latter carry in the trains of iron ore from the mines in the Pilbara hinterland. These trains can be as long as the causeway.

Where it’s not industrialized, much of the coastline is mangrove swamps and grotty inlets with uninviting names such as Stingray Creek. Elsewhere there are ravenous sharks. Other local features include cyclones, summer noonday temperatures that could slay an ox, and ox-like drunks. But if you enjoy industrial moonscapes, and you’re thrilled by the sight of ore carriers the size of felled skyscrapers, registered anywhere from Panama to Piraeus, and manned by crews from Shanghai, Santos or Southampton – this is the place for you. The Australian mining conglomerate BHP has been pressurized by ecologists into clearing up its industrial beauty spot – and the place is no longer coated in fine red ore dust.