BE INSPIRED!
We encourage the sharing of ideas and inspiration. Send us your work to share with the Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery!
DIGITAL MANIPULATION, JON TARRY
These images suggest changes to the colours of Hedland buildings, inspired by the colours of the rainbow bee eater...
GONE WITH THE CYCLONE, DI JACKSON
Here is a little reflection from local artist Di Jackson on her time in Hedland during a cyclone.
Although I have now moved from Port Hedland, I have many, many fond memories of the town and a very strong connection with the community which will never fade.
One of my most vivid memories is the time Cyclones George and Jacob hit town. At the time I was renting rooms out in my home. I find it difficult to say no at the best of times, but there were so many people needing a room to stay in that at the time that I had 10 people living with me! One of these was my son Travis who was visiting, two were a couple from India, five students from Korea and two were local girls who were in the process of trying to find rental accommodation.
It wasn’t easy explaining to the foreigners exactly what a cyclone was. The Korean students spoke very little English and each time I spoke to them they took out their Korean to English electronic converters. It wasn’t always so reliable and we had many laughs at some of the translations. By the time I got through to them what it meant to be on Blue alert then Yellow and finally Red they were completely terrified. The Indian couple said they knew all about cyclones as they had seen them moving across the land when they were in the fields in India. I had to explain that they are actually a whole lot bigger over here!
When the first cyclone, George, hit it was late at night and we had had lots of rain and even more wind. The local fire engine had driven around the streets letting us know by flashing its lights, sounding the siren and speaking over the loudspeaker that we were now on Red Alert. Travis was highly amused by the whole situation, but the Koreans were wide eyed and scared. It was raining and blowing a gale but we all tried to sleep through it.
I was awoken by one of the students to say that the rain was pouring in their windows. The room they were in faced the main storm front and the rain was driving in a horizontal torrent against the windows so it was pouring down the wall inside like a waterfall. We all manned towels and buckets and mops in a futile attempt to try sop it up. Soon the water started pouring out of the light fittings and running down the walls as well because the rain was driving up under the eaves and across the ceiling as well. Of course it didn’t take long before the whole ceiling fell in...luckily not on top of us but there was a whole lot of screaming from the Koreans as it fell! We had used all the linen in the house to mop up the water so we had to get all the guys to move beds and furniture out of the way and into the lounge room so we could get some sleep.
All was well and after Cyclone Jacob had another go at us in the morning, the weather cleared and we were able to drive around having a look at the devastation. It took about six months to get everything repaired, not as long as it took some other people, but it was amazing how well we all coped with the cramped and uncomfortable living conditions while the repairs were underway.
I was glad to have experienced a cyclone before I left town but I wish it hadn’t been quite such a big one!