Port Hedland Base
Port Hedland Base
Port Hedland is located on W.A.’s north-west coast. It is approximately 1,700 kms north of Perth on the sealed Great Northern Highway or 1,300 kms north of Perth by air. Here we have two aircraft, five pilots, five full-time nurses and four or five doctors. There is a Regional Hospital with District Medical Officers here also. The RFDS Medical Officers provide regular aerial clinics to outlying communities in addition to being available for aeromedevacs, inpatient care, radio and telephone medical consultations. Additionally, inpatient care is provided for RFDS patients and two anaesthetic lists a fortnight are performed by RFDS doctors.
Port Hedland is an administrative centre for the Pilbara region of WA which is particularly noted for its rich iron ore deposits. Port facilities provide a departure point from WA for large quantities of iron ore from BHP Iron Ore at Newman. The ore travels from these inland mines over hundreds of kilometres by private railway line, on trains which may be up to 200 carriages in length. 200 kms south is the town of Karratha which likewise operates as a port for the exit of iron ore from the Hamersley and Cliffs Robe River companies; Karratha is also the major centre serving the North-West Shelf gas project on the Burrup Peninsula. The population of Port Hedland is approximately 16,000 people and many of them work in the service industries required in the north-west. There are branches of most banks, TAFE, a Regional Hospital, Community Health Department, Police, Social Security and other administrative Government services.
Port Hedland is directly on the coast in an area which consists of shallow sandy flats. There is another "suburb", South Hedland, located approximately 18 kms inland and midway between this and Port Hedland is the airport. The airport has one or two commercial flights from Perth every day and is an international airport once a fortnight for flights departing Australia for Bali. It costs virtually the same to fly from Port Hedland to Bali for a holiday as it does from Port Hedland to Perth, so that is a popular holiday location for locals.
The housing in Port Hedland exists in a thin strip along the coast and most residences are no more than three or four blocks from the sea. In South Hedland there is a large K-Mart and New World supermarket together with associated speciality stores. These all exist in a modern air-conditioned shopping complex.
A swimming pool is located both at Port Hedland and South Hedland and there are tennis courts and air-conditioned squash courts available. Water sports are popular, however because the coastline is shallow in this area, there is no surf. Tidal changes are up to seven metres so the visibility for diving close to shore is poor because of suspended silt. Sea wasp jellyfish do not extend as far south as Port Hedland although Irukanji stings have been reported. Four-wheel drive vehicles are also popular and because the coast is so sparsely populated, there are unlimited secluded areas for camping and exploring. Fishing is also a very popular and rewarding pastime.
The climate in Port Hedland is hot! Minimum temperatures in winter would be around 25o C and summer temperatures can go into the high 40’s. Being coastally located there is a tropical, humid climate, but the natural flora is not tropical in nature as it is in more northern locations. Red dust is abundant in Port Hedland and South Hedland as it is throughout the outback! Due to the high temperatures the lifestyle is far more relaxed and most people dress in shorts and open neck shirts. Most offices, shops and other buildings are air-conditioned as are the houses.
Therefore, despite the heat, one may go from an air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned aircraft to an air-conditioned clinic in the outback, returning to an air-conditioned home. From November through April each year is the cyclone season. All houses are constructed to strict specifications to withstand these. The rain provides a welcome change from the monotonously fine weather most of the year. It rarely rains at any other time of the year.
Port Hedland Regional Hospital is a 70 bed hospital staffed by six District Medical Officers, one Physician, one Obstetrician, one Surgeon, and with other specialist services being provided by an anaesthetic, paediatric registrar on rotation from Perth teaching hospitals. There are about four General Practitioners in town and one doctor employed by the Community Health Department, and one AMS doctor.
The clinics which we currently attend are:
Nullagine
Community of 180 people approximately 300 kms inland. Here there is a Community Health Centre and a large number of Aboriginal patients where a mix of western lifestyle diseases and a variety of infectious diseases and developing country illnesses are seen. There is a sole Nursing Sister who battles against all odds to provide 24 hour, 7 day care under very difficult conditions with the support of our Service.
Marble Bar
Famous for having over 180 days in a year with temperatures over the old 100o Fahrenheit. About 250 people live here and a clinic is conducted once a week. This is a picturesque town with a racially mixed and interesting population.
Yandeyarra
A small Aboriginal community which we visit by road in 4WD vehicle (about 11/2 hours from Port Hedland) on a fortnightly basis.
Jigalong, Punmu, Parnguur (Cotten Creek) and Western Desert Communities
The Section currently supports the Aboriginal Medical Service doctors based at Jigalong and provides flights to visit remote communities in the Western Desert area of the Pilbara.
It is important to realize that the land is basically flat and uninhabited between Port Hedland and these locations, and the visiting doctor is required to provide a full range of services with minimum backup and no on-site pathology or radiology. Decisions have to be made as to whether a patient should be flown in to Port Hedland for investigation or treatment as this usually means displacing the patient from their family. The RFDS owns a portable diagnostic ultrasound, which we carry on all our clinic flights and which has facilitated improved antenatal care and occasionally confirmation of other abdominal pathology. The doctor takes all blood tests back to Port Hedland in an Esky. Some of these are processed locally whilst others are flown to Perth.
In most locations there is a small supply of common pharmaceutical agents, however any prescriptions written by the doctor are brought back into Port Hedland, filled by the pharmacist and then flown out or transported out by the next available means. This means that the doctor has to be flexible in their choice of treatment, using those medications, which are readily available to them and may even have to commence treatment before a definitive diagnosis has been made. Furthermore, since the doctor may be only visiting once a week, it may be difficult to judge whether the patient needs to be brought back into the hospital on the clinic flight. If not, and the patient deteriorates, then an additional air evacuation will be required. Due to the isolation a number of patients present with problems requiring a good listening ear and plenty of time for counselling.
Doctors, nurses and pilots are provided with high standard air-conditioned housing which is modestly furnished and the expenses associated with electricity, water, etc. are met. Our accommodation is good, but nevertheless most people from metropolitan areas would find Port Hedland a little different from what they were used to. It is not an aesthetically attractive town, since the dust and hot weather make it difficult to promote lush green lawns as one sees in suburbia. However, once adapted, the lifestyle is very relaxing and enjoyable.
Port Hedland’s population comprises mostly people who are associated either with the mining industry or the associated service industries such as retailing and Government Departments. Food prices are a little more expensive than in Perth, but all food that would be available in a city, is available at the supermarket.
There is a cinema/theatre, which runs "big name" movies on Friday and Saturday nights, and VHS video libraries abound. There are limited restaurants, Chinese, French, Thai, plus several takeaways. Standards vary but, at any one time, one will be operating to a high standard. Outdoor barbecues with a stubby in hand are a way of life. There are three television channels, the ABC, WIN and GWN, a commercial broadcaster, which transmits via satellite to the whole of country WA from Albany in the south to Kununurra in the north. There are two AM radio stations and one ABC FM station.
Last Updated: 08/07/2008