Hamersley Range
{{Short description|Mountain range in Western Australia}}
{{use Australian English|date=August 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox mountain
| name = Hamersley Range
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| photo = Road from Paraburdoo.jpg
| photo_caption = Outside the town of Paraburdoo, showing part of the Hamersley Range in the background
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| country = Australia
| state = Western Australia
| region = Pilbara
| district =
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| highest = Mount Meharry
| elevation_m = 1249
| coordinates = {{coord|22|58|S|118|35|E|type:mountain_scale:100000|format=dms|display=inline}}
| range_coordinates = {{coord|21|53|S|116|46|E|type:mountain_region:AU-SA_scale:300000|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
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| map = Australia Western Australia
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The Hamersley Range is a mountainous region of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The range was named on 12 June 1861 by explorer Francis Thomas Gregory after Edward Hamersley, a prominent promoter of his exploration expedition to the northwest.{{cite news|title=North-Western Australia: Gregory's Expedition|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60506250|access-date=2 June 2017|work=Empire|date=3 January 1862|location=Sydney, NSW|page=2}}
The range is one of the oldest mountain ranges on Earth and primarily consists of ancient rock formations, including banded iron formations (BIFs), that are about 2.5 billion years old. The Pilbara Craton, which underlies the Hamersley Range, dates back to around 3.4 billion years, but the range itself is younger than that. The deformation that began uplift of the region and created the tightly folded rocks of the range began around 2.2 billion years ago, during the Ophthalmia Orogeny. This would make it approximately the 6th oldest mountain range in the world.
Karijini National Park (formerly known as Hamersley Range National Park) lies within the range.
History
The traditional Aboriginal owners of the area that the range runs through are the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples.{{cite web | title=Country and Region | website=PKKP Aboriginal Corporation| url=https://pkkp.org.au/country-and-region/ | access-date=11 June 2020}}
In 1999 a small range within the Hamersley was named the Hancock Range after the Hancock family, who were pioneers in the area. The Hancock range is east of Karijini National Park in a region of broad valleys and peaks that rise to almost {{convert|1200|m|ft|0}}. The Hancock Range is close to Mulga Downs Station, a property owned by the Hancock family and where Lang Hancock is buried.{{cite web|url=http://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/pages/courtcoalitiongovernmentsearcha3b0.html|archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20080904134700/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/88575/20080904-2347/www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/pages/courtcoalitiongovernmentsearcha3b0.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 September 2008|title=The naming of Hancock Range within Hamersley Range honours Hancock family|date=23 July 1999|access-date=20 October 2013|publisher=Government of Western Australia}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
Geography
The range runs from the Fortescue River in the northeast, {{convert|460|km}} to the south. The range contains Western Australia's highest point, Mount Meharry, which reaches approximately {{convert|1249|m|ft|0}} AHD. There are many extensively eroded gorges, such as Wittenoom Gorge. The twenty highest peaks in Western Australia are in the Hamersley Range.{{cite web|url=http://www.landgate.wa.gov.au/corporate.nsf/web/Interesting+facts+about+Western+Australia|title=Landgate - Interesting facts about Western Australia|year=2009|access-date=2009-04-23|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090412105305/http://www.landgate.wa.gov.au/corporate.nsf/web/Interesting%2Bfacts%2Babout%2BWestern%2BAustralia|archive-date=2009-04-12}} Peaks in the range include Mount Bruce ({{convert|1234|m|ft|0}}), Mount Nameless/Jarndunmunha ({{convert|1115|m|ft|0}}), Mount Reeder Nichols ({{convert|1109|m|ft|0}}), Mount Samson ({{convert|1107|m|ft|0}}), Mount Truchanas ({{convert|1148|m|ft|0}}) and Mount Tom Price ({{convert|775|m|ft|0}}).{{cite web|url=http://maps.bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&cmd=sp&p=3167&st=&s=Moun%20Tom%20Price|title=Bonzle Digital Atlas - Map of Mount Tom Price|year=2009|access-date=2009-04-23}}
Karijini National Park (formerly Hamersley National Park), one of Australia's largest national parks, is centred in the range.
Mining
The range contains large deposits of iron ore, producing a large proportion of Australia's iron ore exports. It is predominately associated with banded iron formation.MacLeod, W. N. (1966) [http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b2251313~S2 The geology and iron deposits of the Hamersley Range area. Bulletin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040152/http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b2251313~S2 |date=4 March 2016 }} (Geological Survey of Western Australia), No. 117{{cite web |url=http://www.riotintoironore.com/ENG/operations/497_geology.asp |title=Geology |publisher=Rio Tinto Iron Ore |access-date=2012-08-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023034150/http://www.riotintoironore.com/ENG/operations/497_geology.asp |archive-date=2012-10-23 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.portergeo.com.au/tours/iron2002/iron2002depm1.asp |title=Iron 2002 - Key Iron Deposits of the World - Module 1, Australia |publisher=Portergeo.com.au |date=2002-09-18 |access-date=2012-08-07 |archive-date=8 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308052511/http://www.portergeo.com.au/tours/iron2002/iron2002depm1.asp |url-status=dead }}
Western Australia's major iron producers have mines, communities and railways that occur along the range.[http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/education/fact_sheets/iron.jsp Iron fact sheet - Australian Resources and Deposits] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218001043/http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/education/fact_sheets/iron.jsp |date=2011-02-18 }} Geoscience Australia website, accessed: 7 November 2010 Rio Tinto operates several iron ore mines within the range, including Mount Tom Price, Marandoo, Brockman, Channar, West Angelas, Mesa A mine, and Paraburdoo. Over {{convert|100|e6t|e9lb|abbr=off}} of iron ore is removed from the range every year.{{cite web|url=http://www.riotintoironore.com/ENG/operations/497_mining.asp|title=Rio Tinto Iron Ore - Mining|year=2010|access-date=2010-11-06|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612111105/http://www.riotintoironore.com/ENG/operations/497_mining.asp|archive-date=2010-06-12}}
Existence of crocidolite (blue asbestos) in the Hamersley Range has been known since 1915. In 1917 crocidolite was discovered at Wittenoom, it was mined from the 1930s and was discontinued in 1966 because of unprofitable production costs leaving behind the largest contaminated site in the southern hemisphere, an area nearly {{frac|1|{{#expr: floor(2600/468.4)}}}} the size of the Chernobyl exclusion zone area. Wittenoom was Australia's only blue asbestos mining town.{{Cite web|title=[Wittenoom, Australia's only blue asbestos mining town, Hamersley Range, Western Australia, 3] [picture]|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136617046|access-date=2021-06-08|website=Trove|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=ADSA|title=Wittenoom Tragedy - Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia Inc|url=https://www.asbestosdiseases.org.au/asbestos-info/the-wittenoom-tragedy/|access-date=2021-06-08|website=www.asbestosdiseases.org.au/|language=en-AU}}
{{gallery
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|width=240
|height=170
|mode=packed
|File:Banded Iron Formation of Hamersley Range DSCN2938.jpg
|Geologist standing in front of folded layers of banded iron formation of Hamersley Range
|File:Paraburdoo 2006 03 03 from the air.jpg
|Paraburdoo and the Hamersley Range from the air
|File:Hamersley Range, Pilbara Region, Western Australia.JPG
|Hamersley Range, Pilbara region
}}
=Juukan Gorge=
{{Main|Juukan Gorge}}
A cave in Juukan Gorge, about {{convert|60|km}} from Mount Tom Price, was one of the oldest in the western Pilbara region, and the only inland site in Australia to show signs of continuous human occupation through the Ice Age. The cave was destroyed by Rio Tinto along with another Aboriginal sacred site on 23 May 2020{{cite news|title=Rio Tinto blasts 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site to expand iron ore mine|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/26/rio-tinto-blasts-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site-to-expand-iron-ore-mine|access-date=27 May 2020|work=The Guardian|date=26 May 2020}} as part of their expansion of the Brockman 4 mine.{{cite web | title=Rio Tinto executives stripped of bonuses over destruction of Juukan Gorge rock shelters|first=Nicolas |last=Perpitch | website=ABC News|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation| date=23 August 2020 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-24/rio-tinto-executives-lose-bonuses-over-juukan-gorge-destruction/12588516 | access-date=24 August 2020}}
See also
References
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Further reading
{{refbegin |30em}}
- Marshall, Lloyd (1966) New Iron Age in the Hamersleys in the Weekend News, Sept. 3, 1966.
- {{Cite book | last1 = Powell | first1 = C. M. | last2 = Horwitz | first2 = R. C. | title = Late Archaean and Early Proterozoic tectonics and basin formation of the Hamersley Ranges | year = 1994 | publisher = Geological Society of Australia (WA Division), Excursion guidebook 4 | url = http://wa.gsa.org.au/publications/guidebook4.pdf | isbn = 0-909869-90-1 | access-date = 8 May 2016 | archive-date = 1 March 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160301125437/http://wa.gsa.org.au/publications/guidebook4.pdf | url-status = dead }}
{{refend}}