Lindsay Morrison, Danny Blanket reflects on work hard, play hard days working on the Pilbara’s rail network

Many have come far and wide to work on the Pilbara’s rail network in the blistering heat of the North West. And when Lindsay Morrison read about a job going in the remote part of WA, he could not pass up the opportunity. “I originally started my working career in the Victorian railways in the late 1960s and after seeing an advertisement in the Melbourne Herald for a locomotive crew in Hamersley Iron, I applied,” he said. “Myself and my then brand new wife headed to the Pilbara.” Mr Morrison said he noticed the lack of West Australians working on the rails when he first started. “There were people from everywhere ... It seemed to be everywhere from Australia except WA,” he said. “There used to be a bit of a standing joke the reason they didn’t employ Western Australians was because it was too easy for them nick off and go home.” A host of standard 1435mm gauge heavy-haul railways were constructed in the 1960s after development of extensive iron ore fields in the area were given the green light. The first of these was the Hamersley Iron railway, which connected mines at Mt Tom Price and a port facility in Dampier in 1966. Arriving in Paraburdoo in 1973, Mr Morrison worked as a locomotive crewman and driver before shifting to Dampier to work in 7 Mile as a trainee train controller. Working through the ranks, he eventually became a superintendent for Hamersley Iron. Mr Morrison described it as “different times”. “The job was reasonably intense, there was always long shifts and there were some real characters on the job,” Morrison said. “Paraburdoo in those days had no television, you could only get radio on high frequency in the evenings so it was make your own entertainment. “I have vivid memories of once a fortnight the food truck had come in and the supermarket would be stocked for four or five days but the rest of the fortnight until the next food truck came in, it was sort of a bit slim pickings.” Having previously been a national serviceman in the army, Mr Morrison was used to being away from family but said his colleagues and friends he made in the Pilbara became family. “I met my wife who was an army nurse whilst I was in that military system and as a consequence, the pair of us were relatively independent about families so we didn’t tend to miss them that much but that didn’t mean we didn’t love them, we just weren’t reliant on them” he said. “We did see a folk who really struggled without the extended family so you did come to rely on your friends as a pseudo-family and I still hold those friendships today from that time. “I miss the camaraderie, the people and also the old adage, you can take the boy out of the Pilbara but you can’t take the Pilbara out of the boy.” Similar to Mr Morrison is Karratha local Young Daniel Blanket. He began working as a low loader driver and operator in 1978 and is one of the original 300 Torres Strait Islanders who came to WA in the 1960s to convert part of the State’s rail networks. One of those was the Mt Newman Railway which connected mines near Newman with Port Hedland from 1969. After 43 years of service, the low loader operator marked his last day working for the City of Karratha in July last year. Mr Blanket said he made plenty of friends and said he would miss them the most. “I taught them how to operate the machines and some of them are still learning,” he said. “I always told them you learn by your eyesight ... you don’t just jump on the machine and go like h.... I’ll miss seeing their faces everyday.” While he was enjoying all the free time available, Mr Blanket said his body clock was not accustomed to retirement yet and he was still waking up at 5am as if going to work.