Esperance Rail and Port Facilities WA Western Australia

In 1895, the first public jetty was constructed in Esperance Bay at the bottom of
James Street. It was built by the Public Works Department and served the towns
shipping needs for over 40years from the era of sailing ships to modern ships.
Tanker Jetty, Esperance was completed in April 1935 and opened by the Hon
Minister for Mines, Walter Selby Munsie. From 1935 to
1965, Tanker Jetty, Esperance was the major berth at Esperance and exports of
wheat, salt, copper concentrate and other minerals left from the jetty.
A primary function of the jetty was also the transportation of oil to the Goldfields.
Pipelines ran along the length of the jetty and new pipelines were installed in
1956 for the Shell Oil Company.
In 1965, the first
land backed berth was constructed at Esperance. A second berth was
constructed in 1972 and a third in 2002.
In 1976, a new jetty was constructed adjacent to the port area at Taylor Street
which served the growing commercial fishing fleet in Esperance. This was
extended in 1979/80 but it was soon apparent that more facilities were needed.21
Consequently in 1983 a new boat harbour was constructed at Bandy Creek.
rAILWAY
Western Australia's Goldrush of the 1890s saw Esperance rise to prominence as a commercial port with strong sea links to the eastern states. At the time Esperance served as transit point for thousands of gold diggers, and of its 1000 permanent residents, many were said to have originated from Adelaide. In time, production of Western Australia's Goldfields declined, and with it so too did Esperance's importance as a port. Compunding Esperance's decline was the controversial construction of a rail link between Perth and Kalgoorlie in 1897.

From 1912 onwards, successive Western Autralian govrnments promoted the developement of a cereal growing industry. Plagued by poor soils however, Esperance's wheatbelt proved to be a marginal economic proposition for many years. Throughout the depression years of the 1930s Esperance's farming community endured staggering bankruptcy rates approaching 75%. In 1949 salvation came to hand when the Esperance Plains Research Station discovered the wheatbelt was deficient in phosphorous, and copper and zinc trace elements. Judicious top dressing of the soil with superphosphate and trace elements remedied the situation, and Esperance's farming community returned to profitability.


mINERALS
The Esperance branch line is fed from the interstate main -line and the Leonora
branch. The predominant traffic on the Esperance branch is iron ore sourced from
Koolyanobbing (1.2 MVy). Other rail traffic on the branch is a 3 day/week freighter
carrying imported fuel and mineral exports and spasmodic grain trains. This traffic is
not significant in relation to the iron ore. The Port is linked by a standard Gauge Rail Line to Kalgoorlie and then further North
to Leonora. (see attached map)
The Rail Line is used to move bulk commodities to and from the Port.
Commodities currently handled through the Port that are transported by rail are as
follows;
Commodity Tonnes P.A. Source or Destination
Diesel 225,000 Kalgoorlie and Leonora
Nickel Concentrate 80,000 WMC Mt Keith Nickel
Nickel Concentrate 70,000 Black Swan Nickel
Iron Ore 1,500,000 Koolyanobbing
The Iron Ore is Transported at a rate of nine trains per week while the nickel
concentrate and fuel are a thrice weekly operation. Approximately 220,000 tpa of diesel fuel is transported by rail from Esperance to
the Goldfields principally for use in the mining industry. Should this fuel be
carted by road transport it would involve about 3670 truck movements per annum
based upon 60 tonne road trains.
Nickel Concentrates
Approximately 150,000 tpa of nickel concentrate is currently railed to the Port at
Esperance.
Portman Mining started hauling iron ore by rail from Koolyanobbing to Esperance in 1994 with an initial program of 1.5Mt in the first year of operation.

The task has grown incrementally since then and the last three years has seen growth from 2.5Mt in 2000 to a projected haulage in excess of 4.5Mt this year.

ARG achieved a record for a calendar month in August 2003 with delivery of 458,000t to the Esperance Port.

DON PUGH CARAVAN TRIP 2008

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Education

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• railwaY
• PORT
• wharf
• jetty