Word: pilbara
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Pilbara district of northwestern Australia's outback is a sort of hell. There is barely enough vegetation on the stony hills and sere plains to support the area's population of wild donkeys, kangaroos and emus; only rock pythons, death adders and hoards of stinging insects seem to have adapted comfortably to the climatic extremes: winds that reach velocities of 140 m.p.h., dust storms that swirl out of the nearby Great Sandy Desert, noonday temperatures as high as 180° F. For man, it is as hostile a place as any in the world...
...come to the Pilbara, drawn by the region's immense iron ore reserves and the increasing global demand for the metal. For most miners, the aim is to make money quickly and get out. But in one community the situation is different. Shay Gap, a tiny (pop. 862), two-year-old town 120 miles inland from Port Hedland on the Indian Ocean, is proving that even the harshest environment can be tamed...
...Stresses. Shay Gap was founded for sound business reasons. Officials of Goldsworthy Mining Ltd., aware that high wages alone could not keep needed workers in the Pilbara for long, decided to build a community that would make life in the outback more tolerable. Their Perth-based architect, Lawrence Howroyd, 45, quickly realized that merely air-conditioning the houses and sealing the windows to keep out dust and insects would not be enough. In the Pilbara, he explains, "the environment throws up all kinds of stresses to which people are not accustomed-the heat, the isolation, fear of children...
Planners and architects now see the town as a model full of lessons for similar developments, even those far from the Pilbara region. Howroyd's next projects may be in the very places where he found his original inspiration. Government agencies in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iran, seeking better ways to plan their new desert cities, want the Australian architect to re-establish in their lands the concept of a protective town with narrow streets, people in constant contact and no cars...
...Pilbara supplied a quarter of Japan's needs of 82 million tons of iron ore. By 1975, Japan will be using 175 million tons, and Western Australia will be providing 70 million. Some Australians have grumbled that the Pilbara will simply become "a quarry for Japan." The best answer is provided by Charles Court, who set the great iron ball rolling in the Pilbara seven years ago: "A quarry has no soul, no permanence. Next we have to develop industries in the north. I think the great task for Australia is to develop new northern cities, and not simply...