Wittenoom 'Roos

Wittenoom is an abandoned town about 40 km from the roadhouse that was gradually abandoned during the late sixties and seventies.  There was a huge blue asbestos mine their and eventually the government figured out that it was hazardous to the locals' health.  It was planned to move the town over to where the roadhouse is now, but the residents of Wittenoom either refused to leave or left for far off places.  The town had thousands of people  and was one of the major commercial centers of the Pilbara until the mine closed.  The current population is 3 people.  

Yesterday I went with a bunch of the staff to Wittenoom for a barbecue put on by an Austrian fellow named Mario, who has been living in the abandoned town for 18 years.  His friends from Austria, Herb and Joe were also there so we effectively quadrupled the population just by showing up.  As the chops and sausage were cooking, I went around the corner of the shed, and there, standing in the grassy field where a neighborhood used to be, were 3 medium sized kangaroos.  Tentative at first, they slowly came closer as I stood still, trying not to scare them off.  They came within about 10 ft of me before deciding I smelled funny and took off.  Very very awesome.  

Later on, my friend Adam took me for a drive down into Wittenoom gorge and I saw the coolest banded-iron formations.  Okay, they were probably only cool to me, but still, anything that is 2.8 billion year old deserves a little respect, hey?

I am still working on getting some pictures loaded- I need to convince my boss that I am trustworthy enough to not load the computer with viruses if I get the password to access the hard drive.  I'll keep you posted.

-A.