So we started going all around town to source the
best location for our BMX track. There were two problems we came across in
getting a good site. One of them was the fact that due to Panna (the name we
used to give to Pannawonica) was so small, there weren’t many spots to choose
from. The next major problem was that the almost all the areas we found were
rocky. The desert terrain around Panna was mostly rock – there was almost no
sand or soil. This meant that it didn’t matter how hard we tried we couldn’t
move large amounts of base for our track without a lot of effort. Ideally what
we needed was lots of sand and gravel which we could then move by wheelbarrow
to where we wanted it. To make a BMX track you need to build a start ramp with
different sorts of jumps and every corner has to be a ‘berm’ so you can get
around the corner at speed (as in the picture opposite). As we had no way of
accessing enough dirt we had to find a place that had a natural start ramp.
We finally came across the spot near the entrance
to the town behind an area called the ‘old single men’s quarters’. When the
town was first built the initial group of workers came and lived in donger’s
which are transportable housing that can be placed on the back of a
semi-trailer. The donger’s had been long gone and what was left was a flat area
of sand and rock which had been cleared out in the side of hill. There was a
section from the top of the hill to the cleared flat area at the bottom that
was about 3 meters high. Perfect. I can remember our joy when we found this
spotJ
First we built up the start ramp as the way we
found it was too steep to ride down. After a day of two working on it we had a
really high start ramp that was great. We tried it on the bikes and we were
satisfied that the ramp produced enough speed to power through the track. Then
we started on the some jumps – knowing in the back of my mind that we were
going to struggle to build the first left hand berm big enough to handle the
speed that we were generating from the ramp. We built some awesome jumps but by
the time we needed to build our first left hand berm we had used all the dirt
around the area on our jumps. I remember thinking that it was really unfair
that we weren’t able to finish the track and my disappointment was huge! I
wanted to speak to someone from the mine and get them to use one of the big
front end loaders to shift a whole pile of earth for us but as a kid I didn’t
know how to make that happen – Andrew and Dion both thought that their dads
wouldn’t help with that and my step dad was a welder so didn’t actually work on
the mine. Our dream of a BMX track of our own was over; we knew this challenge
was out of our league.
By this time I can’t remember how but I scored
another bike and this one was a BMX. Now that I was able to we started
exploring the country around the town. Andrew and Dion wanted to take me to a
place called Pannawonica Hill. They explained that it was an aboriginal sacred
site and you could climb right to the top of the hill. It was by the robe river
and was one of the few places that had water in a river most of the year round.
It was about 5 kms away through the desert and the boys said that we could take
some sausages and bread out and cook our lunch over the fire. This was so
exciting for me!! I had never even been camping in a tent before let alone trek
out over desert to a waterhole at a sacred aboriginal site and cook lunch over
a fire!!
To get to Panna hill we had to ride down a gravel
road for about 2kms. Then the we cut over a dried out mud pan. All the mud for hundreds
of meters had cracked as it had dried. I can recall the feeling and sound of
the dried mud crunching under the BMX tyres as we crossed the mud flat. Then we
needed to cross the mine railway which we did through a massive stormwater pipe
under the tracks. Once on the other side we stopped for a drink at a well which
Andrew said had been there for 50 years - I couldn’t help imagining all the
different people and animals that have drunk water at that well over the years.
After riding for another 2 kms and dodging a few
nasty looking bulls who didn’t like that we were moving through their land, we
finally came to the waterhole (all around the town there were cattle just
roaming freely – the cattle stations in the Pilbara are too big for fences so they
roam around in the wild). We were so hot at this stage we washed off in the
water and then set about building a fire. Once the fire was lit we cooked our
sausages by impaling a stick through them and grilling them over the open fire.
After lunch we started climbing Panna hill. As
you can see from the picture the last part of the hill is almost like a cliff
and the whole time I was thinking about how we were going to climb that part as
the boys had said they had been to the top before. Once we got to the really
steep section Andrew led me into a tunnel which led upwards. At the base of the
tunnel were steps made of stone and this tunnel led us up the side of the
cliff. Andrew explained that the aborigines in this area has built this tunnel
so when were attacked by the neighbouring tribes they could run up the hill and
then defend themselves at this tunnel. I can recall thinking how amazing it was
that aborigines were doing this so many thousands ago and that I was now lucky
enough to be standing in those same spots. This day was my most memorable
whilst I lived in Pannawonica and I will be forever thankful to Andrew and Dion
for taking me to Panna hill.