TOM PRICE

摘要

Tom Price used to be known as "a drinking town with a mining problem" but this purpose-built WA settlement has come of age. AT THE END of a wide expanse of red earth, crimson colours burst forth onto the distant horizon and appear to ignite the sky. Rock-strewn hills covered in dry clumps of spinifex and stark white gums form an unforgiving environment, but also a landscape of intense, raw beauty. "You either get it or you don't," says Fiona Gordon, once a five-star city girl, now a four-year resident of this remote Pilbara spot. "The dust — it gets in your veins." There's dust all right. It's in my suitcases and every crevice of the car. I pull down the sun visor and a puff of fine red dirt wafts out. But those who know this small, remote townshipof Tom Price, 1045km north of Perth, understand this isn't just any dust — it's gold dust. The land here is brimming with mineral wealth; it has one of the world's largest bodies of iron ore, much of it high grade.