This region’s centrepiece is the vivid, ochre-hued Hamersley Range, which stretches for 300 kilometres on its south-easterly path towards Newman. In the 1860s, pastoralists settled in the western Pilbara and established Roebourne and Cossack. Iron-ore discovery in the 1960s saw the establishment of modern towns such as Tom Price and Newman, which today provide comfortable bases for touring the area’s magnificent rust-red landscapes. The Pilbara coast from Exmouth Gulf to Eighty Mile Beach is a place of vast tidal flats broken by mangroves. Coral reefs and offshore islands offer swimming, boating and beachcombing.
Be sure to visit the Pilbara islands, Karijini National Park and Millstream-Chichester National Park.