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Shay Gap History

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Shay Gap was a mining town east of Port Hedland.  It was space age back in the day and revolutionary.  That’s just what mining companies did to keep their workforce local.

One of its revolutionary features was an underground umbilical cord trench that contained all the town’s basic services; irrigation, sewerage, power and telephone and television cables. Nothing unsightly sticking out of the ground.
 
The houses (with as many as four bedrooms) were built in groups of 11 in such a way that people could walk in shade from any part of the town to any other unlike the Radford design of South Hedland back in the 1970s. No resident to walk more than 200 metres to any facility, including the shopping centre, the school and the club. The average distance anyone has to walk anywhere is 40 metres.
 
Residents are also kept cool with a centralized air-conditioning system based on a communal chilled-water plant. Each house pressurized by a fan coil unit, so pressure inside is higher than it is outside, dust and most insects cannot enter. Another refinement was an the irrigation system, which provides up to 60 inches of “rain” a year. The watering is done at night from high-level misting devices, to develop a green, park-like appearance — an oasis of comfort in a desert.  There was a vacuum sewer also.
 
The building of Shay Gap from the ground up presented a unique opportunity for eliminating the motor car from living areas. The town was completely free of vehicles, yet each house had a lock-up garage. Small electric vehicles were used to provide such services as rubbish disposal.  We are not sure how much of this was maintained throughout the life of the town. Sometimes it was more expedient to go back to conventionalism over time.
 
However, architect Lawrence Howroyd won an Award of Merit in 1974 from the Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design. As is always the common story of mining towns, by 1994 it had been totally demolished and removed.
 
Now; There is absolutely nothing to remind people that once there was an award winning, experimental town in the desert. Even before Shay Gap, GML were a little maverick in their approach with the geodesic community domes at both Goldsworthy mine and Finucane port in the 1960’s.
 
Written by a Port Hedland resident, name withheld, 4 February 2021

History of South Hedland

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The Port Hedland Historical Society has written a brief on the history of South Hedland, post code 6722.

You can read more about it here:  History of South Hedland

The oldest history of South Hedland can be seen in its signature pundul trees.  These trees are remnants of Gondwanaland forest, from before the ice ages, more than 2 million years ago.

In aboriginal mythology the pundul were the source of maparn, or special powers.

In 1968 Port Hedland Shire Council resolved to establish the residential area of South Hedland.  The name was approved in 1969 and the town was gazetted in 1973.

Building infrastructure commenced in South Hedland in 1970.  The State Housing Commission was responsible for the construction and selected town planners Dr A Comar and Associates.  The plan for the area was based on Radburn, with houses facing inwards to footpaths to give safe, walkable access to the schools and shops.  That meant visitors arriving by car would enter in the back door of the home.  To most locals including elected councillors at the time, the design was a complete disaster.

The first house built in Lawson, the first cell of South Hedland, is located at 46 Pedlar Street (Ref. Peter Starling).

First house built in South Hedland

First house built in South Hedland

By 1972, there were 250 houses in Lawson along with the South Hedland caravan park next to the football oval.

This bold design experiment came under fire by the Shire’s building surveyor, Mr Ron Britten.  He said it was a “tragedy of design” that wouldn’t have been approved by the Town Planning Board.  The back to front houses offered little streetscape to the locality, the design was inefficient for travel and provided little relief from the heat.

A review of the plan in 1974 found that while Corboys Place in Nucleus 1 was only 400 metres away from Bottlebrush Crescent in Nucleus 4, a vehicle journey between the two would be about one and a half kilometres.  A significant redesign was called for to build easier connecting roads and streetscape appeal.

Significantly, the Pilbara got its first high rise flats in South Hedland, the tallest residential building between Perth and Darwin.  The flats were purpose built for Mt Newman Mining’s single men’s quarters.

South Hedland continues to be an experimental residential area of the Shire of Port Hedland.  Its transformation from back to front housing with little street appeal, to newly built amenities which are under pressure to deliver, makes South Hedland an intriguing place to study with all its complexities.

A visit to South Hedland is a must for all current and future town planners in local government.

For further information on Radburn town planning design, see:

Some Housing Experiments on Radburn Principles, J Lewis Womersley, 2011.

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